Just a few days ago, we posted the absolutely fantastic “Tech Noir” music video from retrosynth group Gunship. The track, which comes from their newly released self-titled album, features an opening monologue from the horror master himself, John Carpenter!

In a joint interview, Gunship and myself caught up with Carpenter to ask a few questions about music, video games, and other random bits. I’ll tell you right now that there’s nothing about a new movie or anything along those lines. Instead, this is an interesting peek into the mind of one of horror’s most prolific and fascinating directors.

Make sure to pick up your copy of Gunship via Bandcamp as well as John Carpenter’s Lost Themes via iTunes.

As mentioned above, Carpenter lent his voice to the opening of “Tech Noir”, offering a delightfully somber and apocalyptic monologue. Carpenter, simply stated that his inspiration, “…is all in the words.” As for why he agreed to do it, he described the group as “…nice and cool,” adding that it, “…would be fun to collaborate with Gunship.”

When asked about the resurgence of retro and horror influenced synth music, Carpenter was both bewildered and pleased. “The retro synth resurgence is puzzling to me. Why now?” he asks. “On the other hand, I don’t care why now. A lot of great music is getting made.”

Perhaps one of the most interesting teases is that Carpenter told us, “I would love to compose music for a someone else’s film.”

The director does choose to remain secretive about some little tricks he has up his sleeve, however. When asked about how the opening bass arpeggio was created on “Night” from Lost Themes, Carpenter coyly responded, “That is secret information.”

Continuing that playful streak, Carpenter told us his favorite video game is Borderlands 2, although, “…for reasons of nostalgia: Sonic The Hedgehog“.

Gunship posed an interesting question for Carpenter, asking if a benevolent private investor offered you a blank cheque to create something with – it could be a movie, a video game, a building, absolutely anything – what would it be? Showing off his love of the past, Carpenter responded, “I’d build a shrine to 1950’s science fiction films.”

In his personal life, the biggest risk Carpenter has taken that he is the most proud of was, “…Learning how to fly a helicopter,” and that the film he is most proud of making was The Thing.

But perhaps the most important thing that Carpenter told us was when he was asked what advice he’d give to himself when he was 25 years old?

“Relax.”