It’s been a long while since horror doyen John Carpenter made a movie. But since The Ward in 2010, Carpenter has started up a second career as a musician. He’s released four albums of ‘Lost Themes’ via Sacred Bones, and now he’s about to put out a joint graphic novel/ album project.
It’s called Cathedral and as he’s told Spin, both novel and album are based on a nightmare the 78-year-old had that he couldn’t shake from his psyche. “It was so cinematic and vivid,” he said about the dream that involves a succession of murders near an old church. “I thought, ‘I have to score this.’”
Unlike the electronic scores his movies often sported, on Cathedral Carpenter spreads the guitars on thick. “It’s kind of our first heavy metal album,” he told the magazine.
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In a separate interview with Rolling Stone, Carpenter spoke about how he’s enjoying the freedom his new musical career is giving him. “These albums brought a second career to my life,” he said of the records he’s put out do far. “Now that we’re putting out albums and touring, it’s joyous. It’s much less tension and pressure than directing a movie.”
Asked why a graphic novel instead of a new movie, he suggested: “If you said right now, ‘I have $200 million here, would you like to make a movie of this?’ I might say yes.” But, of course, nobody did. “(So) it’s going to cost way over a hundred million, and I’m old and don’t want to work that hard. And it’s much more fun to do music than it is to direct movies.”
He seems to have little appetite to return behind the camera. Of his future plans, he told the magazine. “We’re working on a new album and a new adventure. This time, it’s not a dream, and I can’t tell you any more than that.” Will it be a graphic novel? “I’m not going to tell you,” he says mysteriously. “It might be.”
