KR: Yeah, your bit of music was much more prominent than I was expecting. Do you think you’ll end up doing more of that, now that you’ve kind of had taste of it?

JE: Oh, yeah, definitely. I mean, I end up doing a lot of varied stuff. The pendulum swings very wide, with stuff like Guardians, and then I’ve worked on some cartoons with Jhonen Vasquez, work for VH1 doing theme songs for their crazy shows like My Big Friggin’ Wedding. It’s all over the map. But it is fun that I’ve been able to do stuff for some video games, like Lollipop Chainsaw and Metronomicon, and also do big things. When I look back at it, I’m like, “Oh, I’m a fan of all this stuff.”

KR: Well, it sounds like you’re one of us—a soundtrack nerd. Who are some of your favorite composers? Who’s influenced you?

JE: Well, it’s interesting. Even Mindless people would ask me, “Oh, who influenced you?” And you’re supposed to say some rock person, but it’s not true. For me, I grew up with soundtracks. The first record that I bought with my own money was the Star Wars soundtrack, I’m sure like a lot of other kids. And I loved John Williams’ scores, because they’re so memorable. You can hum any of them right now, you know? And then I just started to buy tons of soundtracks, and at the time there were a lot of synth soundtracks. I bought tons of Vangelis, I loved all of his stuff, and obviously Tangerine Dream and John Carpenter. I would love these movies, so I would go buy the soundtrack.

Once in a while, I’d love a movie that had a bunch of songs on it and that would get me into stuff. Like, I bought the Return of the Living Dead soundtrack, and it would have all these real punk bands, like The Damned or The Cramps. It was really soundtracks that essentially introduced me to all this other music that led to me having a band. But when I was preteen and 13 and 14, my favorite stuff was all the synth soundtracks that people are just now getting back into, like Vangelis with Blade Runner and Chariots of Fire; Maurice Jarre with The Year of Living Dangerously; [Ryuichi] Sakamoto with Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence; Tangerine Dream and Legend. Those are the guys I really emulated.

KR: That’s awesome. I’m curious about whether you’re looking forward to the new Blade Runner.

JE: I am, actually. I gotta say, I have a couple of friends that are in it and I’m very excited for them. I’m a huge Blade Runner fan—I think most people are. That tone that they set for the way that the world looks has really been ripped off a bazillion times, but it feels like a really cool remix—especially the music. I like that, even with the new Star Wars stories like Rogue One, where it’s not John Williams doing it but it still has his themes. Even for the trailer for the brand new Star Wars movie, the music is like they half-time the Star Wars theme. I’ve never heard it like that and it really drew me into that trailer. The same thing for the Blade Runner trailer, you hear that it has a little bit of glitchiness to it, and then you hear the theme—the really soft, long synth hits when they’re flying around. They know that people love that theme and they don’t want to mess with it much; they just want to make it their own thing. So, I’m very excited. I can’t wait to see it.

KR: Me, too. What’s up next for you?

JE: The problem I have with Hollywood is there’s always projects, stuff you can’t really talk about. So I have a bunch of stuff coming up that, believe me—I definitely have a bunch of stuff that I can’t talk about. But right now, everything has synergized at the right time. Guardians came out, the song was in Guardians, I was in Guardians, the record came out.... We also had a reissue of Mindless’ You’ll Rebel to Anything on vinyl [with Metropolis Records] for Record Store Day. I’ve got a bunch of stuff. I’ve gotta wait a couple months before I can talk about any of it, but I’m really excited and I know that there’ll be some more soundtrack work.

KR: Well, good! You’re keeping busy.

JE: Oh, yeah. I love it; it’s fun. I’m happy to be able to do music. It’s a very lucky thing to pay my rent doing what I’ve always loved as a kid. It’s great.

—FSMO