Add The New York Post on Google Contrary to popular belief, Danny Elfman isn’t just the composer for some of the most iconic scores in film history like “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Edward Scissorhands,” “Batman,” “Men in Black” and “Spider-Man.”
He’s also an accomplished heavy metal solo artist, former frontman for the ’80s new wave band Oingo Boingo, drummer for A$AP Rocky and a budding screenwriter.
Next up, the tireless multi-hyphenate — who is midway through recording a new album that’s due out early next year — hits the road on his 2026 fall tour that’s just as ambitious as he is.
“My live shows are going to be a mishmash of things,” Elfman told The Post in an exclusive interview. “A collage that make absolutely no sense being put together on the same stage. But there it is. That’s me.”
From now through Oct. 4, the Grammy winner will bring his one-of-a-kind film music/new wave/heavy metal concerts to theaters, music halls, outdoor stages, festivals and auditoriums all over North America.
That includes a stop at New York City’s SummerStage at Central Park on Tuesday, Sept. 15.
“I’m excited to play the new songs live,” Elfman smiled.
Still, he understands that fans of his may want to hear tracks they know and love from his storied history working with Tim Burton, Sam Raimi, Gus Van Sant and composing the ubiquitous “The Simpsons” theme song.
“Of course, my audience knows the old stuff and wants to hear it. So I try to combine my past, my present and my future all mixed together.”
“My idea was to have nothing fit at all,” the 73-year-old Los Angeleno explained. “For me, my world, it’s all about contrast. I love the idea of like throwing fun, crazy, dark, f—ed up s— up there and having it be a real crazy collage of elements and styles that do not have a single uniform aesthetic to them.”
Just like his sonically-diverse scores that run the gamut from fantastical and whimsical to dark and haunting, go in expecting the unexpected.
“You’ve never seen a show like this before. I hope it’s a really wild experience,” Elfman grinned.
For more information, including the origin of Elfman’s near-perfect song “What’s This?” and his appearance with A$AP Rocky on “Saturday Night Live,” keep reading.
We’ve got everything you need to know about Danny Elfman’s fall 2026 tour, festival appearances and more below.
A complete calendar including all North American tour dates, venues and links to buy tickets can be found below.
To make sure you’re in the loop, all three of Elfman’s upcoming festival venues, dates, fellow headliners and links are listed right here:
The Post spoke with the effervescent songwriter for 20 minutes a few days ahead of his tour. Below, you’ll find a transcript of our chat.
What has it been like performing at heavy metal festivals these past few years?
The moment I was supposed to go onstage at Sick New World, I thought, “oh, what a terrible decision, I’m going on in between Marilyn Manson, System of a Down and Korn and I was like ‘what am I doing here?'”
But it went great and they invited us back. We did it again this year. Audiences are more eclectic than we give them credit for.
Tell me how you came up with “What’s This?” from “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”
That whole project was so simple. I wrote super fast with Tim [Burton] and it was really just the two of us starting from the ground up. There was no guidebook for how to begin an animated musical and there was no script at that point. So we just thought, “let’s start with the songs” and tell as much of the story as possible through song and then go figure out where we were.
He would literally describe one scene at a time to me. Tim had beautiful drawings he would show me so it wasn’t just a description but we had these great illustrations. And he would tell me “Jack goes into the forest and he gets sucked into this tree, there’s these different holidays and everything’s new and he sees this and he sees this.”
As he’s talking, I’m hearing the song in my head and I go, “okay, you got to go.” Then, three days later, I’d call him, said, “okay, I got a song for you.”
Eventually, in the writing process, I said to Tim “just tell me the story as if you were telling the story around the fire to your nieces and nephews” and that’s how we did it till we had ten songs.
How has the process evolved from when you started composing with “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” to what you did with this year’s excellent “Send Help?”
It’s hard for me to track my own evolution. It’s weirdly exactly the same as it was 40 years ago. I always start with a sense of ‘what am I going to do? I have no idea. I’m just going to reach around in the vapor and try to grab something.’
Then, there’s always this momentary “what if I don’t do well? What if I can’t find it? What if I don’t deliver?” There’s that typical composer insecurity of going into something and not knowing if you’ll find the thing that makes it special.
It’s really easy to do boring scores but I don’t want to do that so I try to make the score sound like there’s something identifiable in it that’s unique to that film, that wouldn’t be easy to put in another film.
I love every time I work with Sam [Raimi], it’s a treat. Not only is it fun to write for his crazy films, but he’s such a sweetheart to work with. And every time I work with Gus [Van Sant], it’s an experimental process. We’re going to try and go into different areas. And that’s really special, too.
Working with Tim [Burton] is always a whole other thing. They’re just three incredibly different personalities. I value all of them very, very much.
What can you tell us about the upcoming album?
I’m stretching in different directions. There’s more synthesizers and space in some songs. Whenever I sit down to write, I’m two writers that don’t like each other. One wants to be fun and crazy and the other is personal and thoughtful.
Basically, I’m always finding a balance between these two.
Do you prefer creating the heavier solo stuff or do you like the whimsical, fantastical scores?
For example, a few years ago, I had my cello concerto premiere in Vienna with the French cellist Gautier Capuçon and a symphony orchestra.
A week after that, I walked onstage at Coachella. As I was walking out, I was thinking ‘”his is pretty cool. Not many people get this experience of bowing onstage after a concerto with a symphony to walking nothing but a pair of shorts onstage at Coachella.”
Is there one project of yours that fell through the cracks that never got to see the light of day that you really wish was released?
There are a couple of scripts I’ve written that I haven’t given up on that are really weird. I’m still going to try get them finished when I have some time.
I’ve also always wanted to do an album of kids music for Naughty Children album and never finished that.
What was it like joining ASAP Rocky onstage at SNL?
It was so much fun. I didn’t know what to expect.
We were talking about destroying our instruments live on air, but obviously we couldn’t rehearse that.
Anyway, while we were getting ready, one stunt guy onstage goes “be careful. At a certain point, I’m going to come flying at your drums.”
Sure enough, there was a point where he went smashing in and I was just able to leap out of the way before I got my knees broken in a half. I did end up getting a bloody calf out of the thing but it was totally fine.
I always seem to come out of one of these shows with an injury, but I would do it all over again in a second because I love Rocky and his music.
Do you have any big projects in the works that aren’t listed on IMDB that you can tease right now?
No, I’ve been putting so much energy into finishing the album along with an hour-long album film. It has seven videos built into a crazy story that I came up with.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
As one might have guessed, the enigmatic musician has eclectic tastes. These are five of the artists he can’t get enough of these days.
I’ve been to a number of Nine Inch Nails shows, and for me, that’s always just a great treat.
I’m looking forward to seeing Tool when we’re playing at the same stage at Louder Than Life because I’ve never actually seen them live even though they’re my favorite band.
I got to see System of a Down at Sick New World and that was really, really fun.
Seeing A$AP Rocky‘s live show was great.
And Guns N’ Roses. I’ve been working with Slash, who is actually involved in this album film in several ways.
This article was written by Matt Levy, New York Post live events reporter. Levy stays up-to-date on all the latest tour announcements from your favorite musical artists and comedians, as well as Broadway openings, sporting events and more live shows – and finds great ticket prices online. Since he started his tenure at the Post in 2022, Levy has reviewed a Bruce Springsteen concert and interviewed Melissa Villaseñor of SNL fame, to name a few. Please note that deals can expire, and all prices are subject to change.
