Add The Killer Sounds of Halloween lineup to your Halloween (and year-round vibes) playlist, and check out some more from the collaborators that make up the “Friends” in “Sean Keller & Friends” below.
“I am so honored to be included in this creative and spooky canon of tunes. I had a blast doing my best Vampira meets Elvira, with a twist of my own hometown horror host, Ghoulardi. The Killer Sounds of Halloween albums give the listener a healthy dose of Halloween nostalgia, while introducing dozens of new and catchy novelty songs to the world.”
– Chelsea Stardust (voice “Zombina’s Boneyard” RKSOH)
“I grew up loving any Halloween or horror-themed songs I could get my hands on. The Monster Mash, Purple People Eater, The Addams Family, Thriller…when I discovered Oingo Boingo especially I thought “there ARE people like me!” So when Sean told me about his project and asked if I wanted to be involved, I of course jumped at the chance. One, I love Sean as a person and a friend, but two, he’s a fantastic artist and musician, and he taps directly into my brain with his perfect understanding of how to make these songs spooky, fun, and catchy. The albums are bangers, but I must admit I’m particularly fond of the contributions I was a part of (insert winky face emoji here). They’re a part of my personal Halloween music rotations and I’m THRILLED (see what I did there?) that they are for so many others as well.”
– Graham Skipper (lead vocal “My Halloween Queen” – KSOH, lead vocal “Halloween in Hell” – RKSOH)
“I was honored to have been part of the Killer Sounds series, not only due to my sincere admiration for Sean’s talent…but also because, over the course of the three albums, he aurally evoked the feeling of attending a truly great Halloween party of yesteryear. In fact, that was also the vibe during recording – this sense of gathering with good friends in celebration of the season and having a laugh, rocking out, and making the most out of all things ooky and spooky.”
– Michael Varrati (voice “Wishbone Willy’s” – RKSOH)
“As a kid I owned a lot of novelty song collections. I particularly loved ‘spooky’ music collections. I probably owned seven or eight, even though they all mostly contained the exact same songs – Monster Mash, I Put a Spell On You, Funeral March of a Marionette (always labeled ‘Theme from Alfred Hitchcock Presents’), etc. But each album would inevitably have one or two weirdo gems that in the pre-internet age seemed to exist only in these compilations. Major artists inevitably pop out a Christmas song eventually in their careers, but the artists doing Halloween songs were generally a mystery to me. So, right down to its title, the first Killer Sounds of Halloween perfectly captured that vibe. I loved that Keller didn’t just do an album of Halloween songs in one style. The joke/homage went deeper. He wanted it to sound like they were all plucked from a variety of forgotten bands and bygone b-sides.
What really tickled me was that he even included the kind of interstitial Halloween ephemera you’d find on a fun bootleg – local radio ads and TV commercials. The first piece Keller asked me to perform in was a fake ad for candy called “Scrummy Bars.” I immediately got what he was going for. Like an old Saturday morning cartoons commercial, where every October various products would roll out a “spooky” ad to tie-in to Halloween. Keller didn’t have a particular voice he wanted, so much as the vibe all those ads had. The second bit of acting I did was for a promo Keller made to advertise all three albums, which is maybe his crowning achievement of homage – done in the style of a 80s/90s TV informercial hyping song compilations. I was just there for the ride with Jesse Merlin, who frankly was born to participate in a project like Killer Sounds. It has been fun seeing Keller utilize our Los Angeles horror community, plucking friends here and there to employ specific vocal or performance qualities. Hoping I get to play in the sandbox again!”
– Josh Miller (“Fun-Sized Scrummy Bars” from KSOH3D)
“I have been a fan of Sean’s work for quite some time, and when he released his first Killer Sounds of Halloween album, I swore to him that one day I’d be singing a track for him. And then, for the third album, Sean wrote the rock & roll musical theatre belt-your-face-off number of my dreams with “To Be a God,” and we finally made it a reality. What I appreciated the most about working with Sean is that despite having never heard me sing live, he knew where my range was and the style of music I enjoyed singing most, and made sure that the song would sit nicely in my register. It channels the energy of Rocky Horror and Phantom of the Paradise style numbers, sounding like what we would have gotten if Jim Steinman ever wrote a true, horror musical (outside of Bat Out Of Hell, of course).
I can honestly say that singing “To Be a God” on Killer Sounds of Halloween 3D is one of the best performance experiences I’ve ever had, and as a musical theatre kid (meaning – all of my performances were live, and unrecorded), I’m forever grateful that I have this recording I’ll carry with me forever. I can’t wait to be an old lady telling folks, “I used to be a horror rock & roller!” And be able to prove it. Sean is a gifted musician with such a strong grasp of different styles, and I’m totally biased in saying it, but I am honored to have been able to lend my voice to what I consider to be one of the best songs he’s ever written.”
– BJ Colangelo (lead vocal “To Be A God” – KSOH3D)
“There’s so much to love about the Killer Sounds of Halloween albums, but I think the thing that’s the most fun is that they really capture the community’s love for Halloween season beyond the movies and the movie-making. It was so fun to record with Sean because I got to flex another side of my creativity, my love for making music, and I got to see so many people in the horror-movie community showing off their musical skills. We’re all multifaceted in our creativity, and “Sean Keller & Friends” is a quick way of describing the eclectic bunch who show up on these diverse and excellent albums. Of course Sean’s songwriting is great and each song brings its own depth of beloved references, but for me the real pleasure is getting to see my peers pick up a microphone or a guitar and express themselves through musical collaboration. No better way to kick off spooky season.”
– Natasha Kermani (violins on “The Terror at Blood Lake” – KSOH)
“After producing Sean’s musical Slashed! and being a longtime fan of the Killer Sounds albums, I was thrilled when I finally got the call to be a part of one. I loved giving voice to a faux spooky Saturday morning cartoon theme song and it tickles me when my nephew asks to hear it each Halloween! Gateway Horror holds a special place in my heart — now if only we can make “Little Monsters” the animated series a reality…”
– Clarke Wolfe (“Theme from Little Monsters” from KSOH3D)