Gibson TV Premieres Composer Charles Bernstein On Scoring ‘A Nightmare On Elm Street’

Gibson TV Premieres Next Episode of Series “Behind The Board”
Featuring Composer Charles Bernstein
On Scoring The Classic Horror Film
A Nightmare On Elm Street

With Halloween upon us, we are reminded that no horror film would be as scary without a bone chilling score to accompany it. In the latest episode of “Behind The Board,” Gibson TV sits down with “Nightmare On Elm Street” composer Charles Bernstein to discuss writing, recording and production of one of the most iconic and terrifying compositions in film history.

And it’s really interesting. Bernstein talks about the necessity of real guitars. Bernstein says, “We owe a big debt of gratitude to the guitar in film scoring.” Bernstein wrote, performed, and recorded all instruments on the score to A Nightmare On Elm Street including bass, synths, guitar and percussion.

Gibson TV, the iconic, American-made guitar maker’s first-ever, award-winning, worldwide online network–features original series from the world’s best storytellers. All GIBSON TV original shows are streamed for free on demand via Gibson.com. Gibson TV’s new series titled “Behind The Board,” offers an in-depth look at the world of studio recording in music, film and TV.

In this episode, Gibson TV goes deep with film composer Charles Bernstein to discuss the writing, performing, recording and production of some of the most unforgettable and terrifying compositions in horror film history. Watch as Bernstein describes the making of his bone-chilling original score for Wes Craven’s A Nightmare On Elm Street one of the greatest horror films of all time.

“Creating music for Wes Craven’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street” was one of the truly satisfying and challenging experiences in my career,” says Charles Bernstein. “When the film was released, I never thought that Elm Street and Freddy Krueger would go on to become the cultural phenomenon that we know today. It’s gratifying to see how horror fans have kept Elm Street’s music alive and how the themes I composed for the film still seem to resonate with so many people.”

“The score to A Nightmare On Elm Street is one of the most bone chilling pieces of music ever put to tape,” adds Todd Harapiak, Producer, Gibson TV. “Listening to Charles detail how he wrote and recorded this score is a wonderful lesson in music composition and audio production. As we listened back to these tracks, it was evident as to why this material is still celebrated as one of the menacing soundtracks of all time!”

Watch Charles Bernstein of A Nightmare on Elm Street

 
Born and raised in Minneapolis, MN, Charles was and began playing music at an early age (bass, piano). Bernstein’s Mother was a pianist for films and his father was a record producer. Charles produced Phil Spector’s very first demo at the age of 15 and learned the techniques of studio recording. A fan of Les Paul and Mary Ford–Les Paul was not only a guitarist, but also an innovator with recording and audio production–Charles’ first score was for the 1969 Oscar-winning documentary Czechoslovakia 1968. In 1984. Recently, Charles Bernstein worked with Quentin Tarantino who has included Bernstein’s music from White Lightning and The Entity in the soundtracks of his films Kill Bill: Volume 1and Inglourious Basterds.

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