Making of the Music for Death of Evil

DEATH OF EVIL Movie Premier
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Regency Fairfax Cinemas
Los Angeles, CA 90039

When I first discussed the score for the film Death of Evil with the director, Damian Chapa, he was really passionate about a sound for the film. He mentioned the mood and feel of singer Lisa Gerrard (Dead Can Dance).  I have been a fan of her voice and some of the soundtracks she has worked on, but I also saw an opportunity to bring some of my own inspiration from Wojciech Kilar (Bram Stroker's Darcula, The Ninth Gate) into the DNA for the score.


'Night Of The Gun'
Theme From Death of Evil
written and produced by Don Bodin


Unable to hear the track? Download the MP3 here.



Knowing that Damian really wanted a haunting/ethereal female vocal on the score, I wrote melodies and phases in latin and brought in my favorite operatic Soprano, Elif Savas (www.ElifSavas.com).

A few years ago I had the pleasure of sitting in on a film scoring class conducted by composer Charles Bernstein of Nightmare on Elm Street fame. Charles has an incredible way of breaking down music and the feelings they produce in simple and easy to communicate terms. As I focused on creating haunting and suspenseful themes for Death of Evil using pounding yet sporadic repetition in the rhythm and melody, I often reflected on some of the concepts Charles proposed.


With Elif's erie vocals set as the lead instrument, I took to creating a different group of instruments to perform the score and was drawn to the "junk yard" percussion sounds that Michael Blair made famous on Tom Waits's Rain Dogs album.
I loved how the harsh percussion was so jarring - the striking of trash cans and pots and pans under the traditional string orchestration playing traditionally as well as in contemporary styles with an ominous organ drone creeping below them all.