We take Halloween playlists very seriously around these parts, so as we enter into Halloweekend, we figured we should share these with you! Think of The Killer Sounds of Halloween album series as a collection of Halloween mixtapes, each consisting of 13 original, Halloweeny songs by 13 fake bands in various musical genres, plus fake movie trailers, Halloween commercials, PSA’s and more Halloween goodness. Every good horror outing needs a sequel, and so far the Killer Sounds of Halloween series has achieved proper trilogy status with the original The Killer Sounds of Halloween, followed by Revenge of the Killer Sounds of Halloween and The Killer Sounds of Halloween 3-D.
All three albums feature genre favorites covering everything from lead vocals to voiceovers. (Where else can you hear Tiffany Shepis rap?!) With a wide array of everything from ’50s novelty and ’60s garage rock to ’80s metal and even some early ’90s hip-hop, the songs are all written, performed and produced by Sean Keller. Select songs from these albums have been heard in Halloween Kills, Halloween Ends, It’s A Wonderful Knife, and The Manor, and some of Keller’s amazing collaborators include the likes of Amanda Wyss, Chelsea Stardust, Gigi Saul Guerrero, Natasha Kermani, BJ Colangelo, Josh Miller, Michael Varrati, Graham Skipper, Ryan Lambert, Curtis RX, Sean Decker, Tiffany Shepis and lots more we’ll let you discover as you listen.
Bingo Hell and V/H/S/85 director Gigi Saul Guerrero performed all the voices for “The Forest of the Witch House” on KSOH3D and has a fitting nomer for Keller. “We might as well call him Killer Keller! Sean brings Halloween to life on another level, through sound, music and even audio storytelling. The format is perfect for everybody to enjoy. Loved voicing one of his audio stories!”
You’ll definitely be in the goddamn club when you fire up “Kaiju Love Song” with lead vocals by Ryan Lambert, the Monster Squad’s leather-jacket-wearing, resident cool guy. Lambert belts out a love letter to Godzilla on KSOH 3D and says, “Sean Keller has created a yearly staple of Halloween badass’er’y. I was so proud to be a part of one of the albums. I personally had a killer (“Keller”) experience in the studio recording my version of his love letter to Godzilla. I’d dream it all up again if I ever get the chance.”
Listen to The Killer Sounds of Halloween 3-D below, and download all three albums from Sean Keller & Friends’ Bandcamp.
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.
“For my love of 80’s and 90’s hip hop, my love of horror movies, and my love of Halloween…being part of Killer Sounds of Halloween was literally a bucket list type nightmare come true. Recording with Sean was one of the most collaborative fun I’ve ever had. His love of scary movies and music is apparent in every single song. Fun, spooky, all year long fun…Sean makes Halloween albums that will make you scream with excitement.”
-Tiffany Shepis-Tretta (KSOH3D – rapping as Nancy in “Final Girl Rap” )
“I was honored that Sean asked me to participate in his killer Sounds series. The albums are fantastic. I loved the spoken word pieces Sean created for me and we had a great time recording them. He’s so talented… writing, music, acting, you name it. I look forward to any future projects with him.”
– Amanda Wyss (voice “I’m Gonna Have a Nightmare”- KSOH, “Enochian Warning” – RKSOH, and “KSOH Radio” – KSOH3D)
“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)
