Syndicate ready for Halloween

By CARL E. FEATHER - Lifestyle Editor - cfeather@starbeacon.com
Star Beacon

October 07, 2008 08:15 pm

— Edward Douglas and Gavin Goszka write and produce soundtracks for your nightmares.
Douglas, of Munson Township, and Goszka, of Willoughby, are the founders and creative energy of Midnight Syndicate, a 12-year-old company with 10 CDs to its credit and a feature horror film in the works.
Their music is to Halloween what Andy Williams’ and Bing Crosby’s crooning are to Christmas, except Midnight Syndicate’s “symphonies from the crypt” are more akin to oratorios and cantatas. And it is screams above the tired “Monster Mash” and ubiquitous sound effects tapes and CDs that haunt bargain bins every Halloween.
This team releases its work on the Entity Productions label, the second largest distributor of Halloween CDs worldwide.
“We’ve sold well over a half-million,” says Douglas.
The creators take a themed approach to their productions, turning out albums titled “Gates of Delirium,” “Vampyre,” “The 13th Hour,” “Out of the Darkness” and, their latest release, “The Dead Matter: Cemetery Gates.” Their gothic, orchestral music is often blended with reinforcing sound effects that enhance but never overpower the sonic experience.
Their mood-setting CDs set the backdrop for private Halloween parties and commercial haunted houses alike. Some of Entity’s clients include Universal Studios-Orlando, Carnival Cruise Lines, Paramount Kings Island, Six Flags Chicago, Cedar Point and Busch Gardens. Television and radio credits include “The Ellen Degeneres Show,” “Monday Night Football,” several Discovery Channel Halloween specials and many more.
Their music also resonates with gamers. Douglas and Goszka teamed up with Hasbro Games and Wizards of the Coast to create the first official soundtrack to the role-playing game, “Dungeons and Dragons.” The CD broke all previous records for game soundtracks and established Midnight Syndicate as the leading supplier/producer of music to the hobby game industry. Their “13th Hour” CD, released in 2005, won Best Gaming Accessory in the industry’s 2006 Origins Awards.

Dark fascinations
Both men share a fascination with classic horror cinema and Victorian culture. Douglas, a graduate of John Carroll University, brings a background in film and communications to the mix; Goszka, a graduate of the Baldwin Wallace Music Conservatory, played in a rock band and was working in a music store when the two met. Douglas was looking for gear to record the soundtrack for his horror film, “The Dead Matter,” and ended up becoming friends with the salesman. After Douglas attended one of Goszka’s performances and heard his original work performed, their relationship changed to business partners.
Their first CD, “Born of the Night,” merged music and cinematic sound effects in a ground-breaking, professional product that builds tension like a well-crafted horror flick. Record distributors weren’t interested in touching this niche product, however. Halloween music can’t travel the traditional music distribution channels, such as air play and live concerts, so Goszka and Douglas had to get creative.
Douglas made cold calls to Halloween costume shop owners and played sound clips over the phone in an attempt to get the CD in shops. They put clips on the Internet and quickly built a fan base. But they didn’t quit their day jobs: Douglas, a tow motor operator; Goszka a music-store salesman.
With a new release every summer, Midnight Syndicate built a following among the haunted house circuit. The men worked out commercial licensing agreements for houses to legally use the music. While that market typically generates several hundred license agreements every Halloween, it wasn’t until the Discovery Channel produced a documentary about the eight best haunted houses that the men discovered just how pervasive their music was. Seven of the eight houses featured were using Midnight Syndicate tracks.
Douglas says another honor came last year, when Universal commissioned them to write two custom tracks for the theme park’s new attraction featuring iconic horror characters.
“It was very cool,” Douglas says. “It was a great honor to be asked to do something like that for someone like them.”

Dead Matter
With their music a success, Douglas has been able to revisit his first love, filmmaking. While a college student, Douglas wrote “The Dead Matter” with Tony Demci and produced a low-budget version of the feature film. After eight years of living with the film and getting feedback from viewers, Douglas and Demci were ready to revise the script and produce it as a big-budget feature.
Over the course of several months, Douglas pulled together a group of mostly northeast Ohio investors who put up the $1.5 million he needed to shoot and edit the film. He chose Robert Kurtzman, a Hollywood special effects legend, and his company, Precinct 13 Entertainment, to produce the film, directed by Douglas.
Midnight Syndicate previously worked with Kurtzman on “The Rage,” a horror feature that went straight to DVD. Douglas wrote the music for the film and Midnight Syndicate produced the soundtrack CD.
“The Dead Matter” was shot during a very intense four weeks in the summer of 2007. Mansfield was chosen as the shooting location because of Kurtzman’s familiarity with the region and Midnight Syndicate’s desire to make it an Ohio production. The film also used Ohio cast and crew members whenever possible.
“It was pretty cool to have that all come together using mostly northeast Ohio investors and an Ohio crew,” Douglas says. “It was a good thing.”
The film was test screened in a rough cut version earlier this year and is now locked into editing. Douglas says the audience response has been excellent and they are looking forward to a limited theatrical release in early 2009.
“The Dead Matter” is classic horror with a strong story line, says Douglas.
“It’s not a blood-and-guts slasher,” he says. “If you like the old horror movies, even going back to the Universals of the 1930s and ’40s, this is going to appeal to you.”
Recognizing the crucial element of marketing, Midnight Syndicate Films created a teaser Web site, TheDeadMatter.com, and named their 2008 Halloween music release “The Dead Matter: Cemetery Gates.” The trailer for their film is on the Hot Topic Web site. Hot Topic is one of the vendors that carries Midnight Syndicate CDs.
Other vendors include many of the ephemeral Halloween party stories that spring up in malls this time of year and Party Center stores. Online music sellers have the CDs, and they are offered through midnightsyndicate.com, as well, although Douglas really hopes buyers will support local vendors first.
Goszka went off on his own tangent and last year produced and recorded a CD of Victorian parlor music updated in a folk-rock style. Goszka, who’s collected sheet music of that era for years, says the Victorians wrote good songs way back then, the arrangements just needed a little updating. Goszka did all the arrangements and vocal/instrumental performances on the CD, “It’s Not the Coat Makes The Gentlemen.” Gavin calls his updated music “Parlormuse.”
“This is just one more instance of running off on a tangent with this Victorian thing,” Goszka says.
“We both really like this period,” Douglas adds.
online: parlormuse.com; midnightsyndicate.com; thedeadmatter.com; T3nth1rtyone.com (trailer for “The Dead Matter”)

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