On fright night and beyond, the spookiest sound
By Charles Cassady
Insights
Published Oct. 25, 2006

Everyone grew up with that Disney “Sounds from the Haunted Mansion” record, a vinyl LP (back in the days before compact discs) of sound effects and shrieks tied in to the world-famous theme-park attraction. You would hear those trademark groans, howling winds and chain-clanks at local haunted houses, as ambiance on the radio and blaring out the stereo systems of the more elaborate homes on trick-or-treat night.

“As far as Halloween CDs go, Disney’s ‘Haunted Mansion’ — that’s the granddaddy of them all,” Ed Douglas, of Concord, said.

Now, a new generation celebrates Halloween with horror vibes that emanate right out of northeast Ohio, courtesy of the Chardon-based Midnight Syndicate. That’s the studio band composed of Douglas (keyboards and bass guitar) and Gavin Goszka (drums and keyboards). Both are the composers and performers of instrumental, doom-laden music that has sold in frightening numbers since 1998’s debut “Born of the Night.”

From the united States to Germany, the Chardon-based Midnight Syndicate puts the sound in spooky.

Midnight Syndicate is not just a local phenomenon. The Douglas/Goszka sounds provide spooky ambiance for about 400 prominent haunted attractions and countless private homes. Public users include Busch Gardens in Tampa, the Six Flags chain, Universal Studios Florida, Sea World, Cedar Point — even Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion. Midnight Syndicate tracks have lurked in the background of “The Today Show,” “Monday Night Football,” “The NBA on TNT” and featured at area haunts such as the Bloodview Haunted House and the Nightmare in Painesville.

To make use of Midnight Syndicate, royalty-free Oct. 31; just follow the guidelines on the company’s Web site www.midnightsyndicate.com. The CDs are sold online, at Gales Garden Center in Westlake, Borders Books & Music at Crocker Park, the Exchange, Great Northern Mall, and many other distributors.

Douglas likes to call Midnight Syndicate “cine-fusion,” soundtrack tunes to horror movies that haven’t been made yet, and each recording evokes imagery around a central theme — an accursed village for “Realm of Shadows,” an insane asylum called Havergast for “Gates of Delirium,” and lifestyles of the dead and ghoulish for “Vampire.” Movies are a big influence on the artists. Under the umbrella banner Entity Productions, Douglas and college cohorts from John Carroll University made a number of short subjects, and Douglas completed (and scored) a feature-length low-budget zombie drama, “The Dead Matter.” In a rare live manifestation, Midnight Syndicated put on a multimedia stage show, incorporating film clips, hip-hop, animation and live sketches, in downtown Cleveland in 1998.

But it’s the recordings that have made Entity Productions a local-business success story. Douglas discerned a need for fresh spookhouse sounds with original gothic music, above and beyond the “Haunted Mansion” knockoffs.

“Most of the stuff that was coming out — it just was not good,” Douglas said. “It was done with profit in mind, not quality. Take these sound effects, put them out as cheaply as possible. Maybe change the cover and stuff.”

Instead, he and Midnight Syndicate recorded the all-original “Born of the Night” and self-distributed it, taking extensive notes on the buyers and vendor suppliers of cooperative Ohio retailers. Their breakthrough was TransWorld, a vast annual trade show especially devoted to the spooky-attraction and special-effects industry, held every March in Chicago. It is Mecca for the behind-the-scenes artists in the field.

“We were going there with one CD,” Douglas said. “Just one CD!”

As luck would have it, Entity Productions’ little station at the furthest corner of the convention floor happened to be near the make-up demo area. TransWorld attendees walking past must-see horror makeup presentations had to pass Midnight Syndicate.

“They came up — they heard it — they bought it, Douglas said. “We blasted the music and just saw the lights go on in their eyes when they walked by.”

Entity sold approximately 2,000 CDs.

“Two thousand copies is pretty good for a band that’s never played out before,” Douglas said.

Today, several other companies are making specialty haunted-house harmonies too, but Midnight Syndicate remains the 900-pound goblin of the field.

“People realized the importance of music,” Douglas said. “It elevated the level of music in the industry as a whole.”

Lest one think recording spookhouse soundtracks is all fun, all the time, Douglas said, “Seventy percent of my year is spent on business. Not creative at all. We have over 900 clients now.”

In 2003 a whole new realm of shadow opened up for Douglas and Goszka when Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast engaged Midnight Syndicate to create an official soundtrack CD for the classic game “Dungeons & Dragons,” setting the mood for mythic role-playing. That also led to Midnight Syndicate samples on popular sword-and-sorcery video games, such as “Baldur’s Gate 2” for PlayStation.

Besides doing TransWorld every year, the Ohioans now also head to Essen, Germany, for an October trade show devoted to fantasy gaming and live “Lord of the Rings” style re-enactments, a huge business in Europe. This month Douglas had to miss it though, to attend his sister’s wedding in Chicago.

He hasn’t forgotten the movies that kicked off the career. His favorite ghost story picks on home video include “The Sixth Sense,” “The Others” and “The Ring.” Midnight Syndicate recently got back into the soundtrack field, contributing to two horror movies in production, “Sin-Jin Smith,” produced by a Warner Brothers California subsidiary and “The Rage” out of Mansfield, Ohio. In 2007, Douglas hopes to have plans finalized for a big-budget remake of “The Dead Matter.”

For the company that started out influenced by Disney’s Haunted Mansion record, it seems things have come full circle.

“A few years ago Disney started buying CDs from us,” Douglas said, “and started selling them outside the Haunted Mansion. It was an incredible honor.”