Today we’re excited to be connecting with Lasse Elkjaer again. If you haven’t already, we suggest you check out our prior conversation with them here.
Lasse, thanks for joining us again. Just to level set a bit for folks who may have missed our last interview together, can you briefly introduce yourself?
I’m a Los Angeles-based film composer and orchestrator from Denmark, with 10 years of experience working within the film scoring industry in LA. Some of my close collaborators who got me started in the industry are people such as Golden Globe-nominated film composer Christopher Young, Hellraiser (1987), Spiderman 3 (2007), Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (2022) and five-time Emmy winning composer Jacob Groth, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2009), Dead Man Down (2013). I’ve been working with musicians such as Tina Guo whose cello can be heard on scores by Hans Zimmer, such as Inception (2010) and The Lion King (2019) and as a personal highlight, I’ve had the opportunity to record and conduct music at the Eastwood Scoring Stage – Warner Bros. Studios. I’m a Fulbright recipient, and also received 12 scholarships from the Danish government while studying film scoring at the University of Southern California (USC).
Great, so let’s jump into an update on what you have been up to since we last spoke. What can you share with us?
Let’s start doing a recap of this past year (2024) -The latest project I finished was an action movie STAND YOUR GROUND (Dir. Fansu Njie) starring Eric Roberts (The Dark Knight, 2007), Peter Stormare (Fargo, 1996) and the Norwegian bodybuilder champion Daniel Stisen (Those About To Die – TV Series 2024.) The director and I are both fans of Francesco De Masi’s soundtrack for the Chuck Norris movie ‘Lone Wolf McQuade,’ so when I at some point casually mentioned that particular soundtrack to him – a soundtrack that usually does not get a lot of mention – he knew he had found his match.
I’ve also been involved in doing orchestral arrangements for a handful of symphonic metal bands. One of the bands VISION OF ATLANTIS has pretty much been storming the international charts with their latest album – I worked on their single ‘COLLIDE’ – and my collaboration with the band DRAGONY, I did all of the orchestral arrangements for their 5th album HIC SVNT DRACONES -it got a pretty fun review mention; “The title track is a crazy mix between a Disney soundtrack, Freedom Call and Meatloaf – definitely check this one out!” it’s pretty hard not to love that!
Lastly I was brought in by the South Korean company NOW EAT MUSIC COMPANY, to co-produce an online film scoring class featuring film composer Christopher Young – I have mentioned my relation to him earlier in this interview. The masterclass contains almost two and a half hours of material and are available for streaming at NOWEATMUSIC.COM
Then if we backtrack a bit, going further back than 2024, then I believe the last time we spoke was just before the pandemic? At some point during that time, I left Los Angeles for a while and moved back home to Denmark. My initial plan was to exclusively work on a solo album while catching up with my Danish roots, and then return, but I eventually got hired to do the music for a Danish feature so I stuck around for a bit longer. It became a whooping 3 years in total in Scandinavia. Besides the feature and solo album, I also managed to finish up a long to-do list of passion projects – primarily soundtracks that needed a proper release. You can check them out on Spotify / Itunes.
But now I’m back in town! It’s been a busy year (2024) and it’s honestly exciting to experience Los Angeles with a fresh set of eyes. I believe I was able to escape the worst part of the pandemic in LA and exchange it with a bit more low key, and much needed quiet Scandinavian scenery. It was definitely beneficial for me to get back ‘home’ for a slew of years, recharge the batteries, grow and now be able to experience life from a new perspective. Scandinavia is a place that will always be very dear to my heart, a great escape, but I also really love what Los Angeles has to offer for me as a professional, and especially the film scoring community in general and its rich history.
Moving forward and into 2025, then I have another metal album I did orchestral arrangements on coming up. I believe I was brought onto the project very early on in its process, so I’m not quite sure when it’ll be released, but the feature I recently scored should have its theatrical US release around the second quarter of the year. Looking into the somewhat distant future, I’m slowly moving into the territory of writing my first symphony. I’m having a great deal of sketches laying around, and understands what emotional journey I want to tell through the music, but from there to completion is a whole other story. Stuff takes time, but it’ll eventually get done.
Alright, so let’s do something a bit more fast-paced and lighthearted. We call this our lightning round and we’ll ask you a few quick questions.
- Favorite Movie: Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Favorite Book: Story by Robert McKee
- Favorite TV Show: Stranger Things
- Favorite Band or Artist: Jerry Goldsmith, Guns N’ Roses and Bach
- Sweet or Savory: Savory
- Mountains or Beach: Mountains
- Favorite Sport (to watch): Boxing
- Favorite Sport (to play): Strength training based activities
- Did you play sports growing up (if so which ones): I was a Gymnast (Silver at the Danish championship)
- As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up: A professor with a monocle
- French Fries or Onion Rings: French Fries (Sweet potato)
- Favorite Cartoon growing up: Ninja Turtles
- Favorite Childhood movie: Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Favorite Breakfast Food: Pancakes
Life is often about tough choices – can you talk to us about your thought process, strategy or philosophy when it comes to making difficult choices or tradeoffs.
There’s always layers to making difficult choices and I believe it helps build a strong intuition, or in other words, subconsciously prepare for unforeseen circumstances, -being able to rely on past experiences, and knowing your personal priorities very well. Some people are a genius at embracing these elements, and some are not! I’m pretty predictable in that sense, as I’ve always had this feeling of something pulling me towards a very specific life, – towards a career in music. It’s been there since day one and hasn’t really changed over the years. So, the most difficult choices have always been connected to that specific path, which made them a bit easier and obvious to handle.
Image Credits
Emil Nicolai Helms
