Composer Claudio Simonetti Breaks Down His Scores For ‘Suspiria,’ ‘Deep Red’ and ‘Dawn of the Dead’ Ahead of Nationwide ‘Demons’ Tour
variety.comTodd Gilchrist editor For horror fans, Claudio Simonetti is a household name. First a founding member of rock group Goblin, whose work is synonymous with filmmaker Dario Argento’s genre standard-bearers “Deep Red” and “Suspiria,” a producer and pop artist in his native Italy, and later a lead composer on Argento’s “Tenebre,” Lamberto Bava’s “Demons” and more, Simonetti and his collaborators turned iconoclastic takes on scoring — utilizing the sounds of prog rock and disco — into iconic pieces of film music.
After (by his count) 70 films, he’s earned a few victory laps, and he’s taking one this year: in September, he began a nationwide tour with Bava’s “Demons” in which he and the re-formed Goblin (now named Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin) perform his score for the film live to picture, followed at each screening by a set of classic pieces from his and Goblin’s vast body of work.
Ahead of his scheduled appearance in Glendale, Calif. on Oct. 28, Simonetti spoke to Variety about his serpentine path to becoming one of the most famous and prolific composers in horror history. The score to “Demons” was basically you with a drum machine and synthesizers.
What has been the process of expanding the sound to accommodate a band performing it live? “Demons” wasn’t very difficult to adapt — we keep more or less the same sound, but with real instruments.
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