Music
John Carpenter Gives CHVRCHES Single “Good Girls” the Cinematic Treatment [Listen]
I’ve been looking for an excuse to cover the forthcoming CHVRCHES album, Screen Violence, out August 27th through Glassnote Records, and now have more than reason.
The Scottish synth-pop band has teamed up with John Carpenter for two extra special remixes.
The iconic film director of The Thing, Halloween, Escape From New York, They Live, In the Mouth of Madness and many more genre-defining horror classics, and legendary actor, screenwriter and composer, John Carpenter, has reworked CHVRCHES’ recent single “Good Girls”. Listen here.
In turn, CHVRCHES has reworked John Carpenter’s “Turning The Bones”, taken from his recently released album, Lost Themes III: Alive After Death. You can listen to that track here.
Both remixes are available digitally now and will be released on 7” vinyl on December 10 – available to pre-order via Sacred Bones now.
“As horror fans, we know that John Carpenter is the godfather and the gold standard so we’re so excited to get to work with him in any capacity,” said CHVRCHES’ frontwoman Lauren Mayberry. “His films and music have been so impactful on us over the years, and without the stories he created, I am not sure that the concept of Screen Violence (and female narratives within the album) would exist in the way they do.
“On every album, we get “remixes” but given the themes of this record, we had the idea that maybe we could get a song reimagined by a composer who has worked in that cinematic universe,” she continues. “John was top of our wishlist but we never really thought he’d reply, let alone that he’d send back something better than the original.”
Responsible for much of the horror genre’s most striking soundtrack work in the fifteen movies he’s both directed and scored, John Carpenter says, “Chvrches reached out to us through our tour manager, asking if we would be interested in remixing one of their songs for their upcoming album. They sent us three or four tracks for us to listen to and decide which one we wanted to remix, and we went from there. We chose the track we did because we connected with it the most and felt it would adapt best to our style. After we finished our remix, we asked them if they could also remix one of our songs in return, and they thought it was a great idea.”
It’s a new day, and you’ve got new John Carpenter to listen to. John Carpenter, Daniel Davies and Cody Carpenter have released the new track He Walks By Night this morning, the second single off their upcoming album Lost Themes IV: Noir, out May 3 on Sacred Bones Records.
Lost Themes IV: Noir is the latest installment in a series that sees Carpenter releasing new music for John Carpenter movies that don’t actually exist. The first Lost Themes was released in 2015, followed by Lost Themes II in 2016 and Lost Themes III: Alive After Death in 2021.
Sacred Bones previews, “It’s been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that would become Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood’s great second acts. Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. With Lost Themes IV: Noir, they’ve struck gold again, this time mining the rich history of the film noir genre for inspiration.
“Since the first Lost Themes, John has referred to these compositions as “soundtracks for the movies in your mind.” On the fourth installment in the series, those movies are noirs. Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes these songs “noirish” is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone.
“The trio’s free-flowing chemistry means Lost Themes IV: Noir runs like a well-oiled machine—the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John’s own Christine. It’s a chemistry that’s helped power one of the most productive stretches of John’s creative life, and Noir proves that it’s nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.”
You can pre-save Lost Themes IV: Noir right now! And listen to the new track below…
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