'Viva Elvis' Music Director Erich Van Tourneau Tells Us How He Revived the King

By Sarah Crow Posted Dec 21st 2010 11:00AM

'Viva Elvis' Music Director Erich Van Tourneau Tells Us How He Revived the King
Elvis Presley's music has been inspiring listeners for generations and now, an entirely new audience can experience the hip-shaking wonder of Presley's classic hits in Cirque de Soleil's Las Vegas spectacle 'Viva Elvis.' The show, which mixes Presley's hit songs and videos of the King's iconic performances with Cirque de Soleil dance and acrobatics, is performed live ten times each week at Las Vegas' ARIA resort and casino. We sat down with Erich van Tourneau, the show's music director/arranger, who also served as producer and arranger on the 'VIva Elvis' album, to discuss his inspiration and how he breathed new life into the timeless music of the King of Rock 'n Roll.

How did you become an Elvis fan?
I clearly remember the 'Comeback '68' was playing at my uncle's place, so my parents introduced me to Elvis.

Some of the songs on the album, like 'Heartbreak Hotel,' are very true to Elvis' original work. How did you choose which songs to leave more or less intact and which ones to overhaul?
I think it's really absolutely case-by-case. With 'Heartbreak Hotel,' the song is still so modern to me in a way, but I've changed 'Heartbreak Hotel' and it's more subtle, I think, but there's a lot of change in this version. It's a lot more Delta Blues-style, kind of Robert Johnson. So for that one, I worked the other way around. I used a lot of music from the '30s and the '40s.

Elvis has been credited with creating the rockabilly style, but you use little of his trademark style in the show. What was the inspiration behind the different cultural influences you incorporated into the reworked versions of his songs?
In 'King Creole,' for instance, the title really guided me because of the term 'Creole.' I did a lot of research on the Creole culture, which is really coming from Haiti and all of that. I wanted to bring the color of ragga into 'King Creole' because all those people immigrated from Haiti to New Orleans.

I did a lot of historic research to have a good picture of the song and the lyrics, so for 'King Creole,' it's really about the lyrics and the culture around that word. For rockabilly, Elvis Presley was a real music lover and was open to a lot of different genres of music, I think. So, my goal was to bring all his roots in the picture instead of concentrating only on rockabilly, for instance, while paying homage to his eclecticism.

Junkie XL's remix of "A Little Less Conversation" in 2002 was the first of Elvis' songs to be licensed for remix by the Presley estate and became a #1 hit in over 20 countries. What about Elvis' music do you think speaks so much to this generation?

I think that the music of today is really based on a lot of other music. You know, the roots of Elvis' music are still completely valid and underlie all of the music of today. There's a link with the blues and the bluesy-melodic and all of the music that Elvis used. Coming from that culture is really the heart of the pop music today, but in a different aesthetic. The heart is still the same.

For instance, my parents were hardcore fans, but I listened to Elvis between when I was five and ten and I never really bought an Elvis album. For a lot of people my age, it's the same case for them. My generation – I have a lot of friends, musicians, music lovers -- but we never discuss Elvis. It's weird, in a way, because Elvis changed the face of music, but frankly, I think my generation doesn't really know Elvis, and that is a shame.

Elvis' songs are synonymous with youth rebellion in America. How do you think your transformations of his work have maintained this integral quality, and how do you think contemporary musical culture represents the rebellious nature of today's youth?

I think, firstly, I kept intact the heart of the song, his voice. What people are really attached to and really listen to in Elvis' songs is his voice, so I tried to keep to that intact, but after that, I tried to pump the music because it's been a while. For instance, "That's All Right." The original version had been created in '54. There's [been] so much good music created since then, so I had to really pump all that stuff to pay homage to the energy and sensibility of the songs.

I try, if I need to, to do emotional mastering of the song. It was a bit like using the Technicolor technique. It's kind of like taking a movie from the '50s that was in black and white and bringing that movie into an HD format. I've painted new colors around Elvis' voice and tried to bring him into 2010.

Do you think there are any contemporary artists who express the feelings of rebellion Elvis did? Is there anyone doing something similar?
This rebellion is really, for me, coming from the lyrics of the songs rather than the music.There's so much good music and it's subtle, you know, but music is always evolving every day with each new band that's coming. To have the impact that Elvis had, to be as big as that? There's no artist that comes to my mind.

Did you have any vision about how your music would be interpreted and acted out by the performers on stage?

I was more in the music world and thinking about Elvis. I wanted to stay true to Elvis even if I was bringing him into 2010 with a new band. I was not the director on the show, so it wasn't my job to find ideas on that level, but I think the biggest difference between the show and the album is really an aesthetic one. In the show, you have a live band – a really good band – and Elvis was really into live music. He loved to have a band behind him and have this live energy coming from the band. But aesthetic-wise, it was more difficult to bring a sample of Scotty Moore guitar, you know? 'Cause I had to leave that part for guitar players in the band, but in the album, it's really cool, because I could really clash some aesthetics coming from the '50s or the '60s, mixing sounds and different styles to get a cool mixture. I was really able to bring more samples from the Elvis world on the album.

This is the first time Elvis' music has been remixed on this scale. Have you had any response from members of Elvis' family about your arrangements? Did they participate in the creative process at all?

No, in the creative process, they were not really involved, but I heard really good comments. Jerry Schilling, an Elvis guy, who was in the Elvis mafia, is doing something where you can go on a boat for a week with all kinds of people who are really Elvis fans and they listen to the music on ['Viva Elvis']. They were really enjoying it, like 'King Creole' and 'Bossa Nova.' Maybe these songs are closer to the originals, but I think they were really open to that. There's a lot of people who are the age of my parents and are still really progressive. The majority of people who liked Elvis in '56 were surely free spirits and open-minded people, so I'm sure that they will be touched and surprised by Elvis again.

Given that Elvis faked his own death, do you expect him to attend any of the performances?

Possibly, 'cause he dropped by for two days in the studio. He did some guitar tracks on there, on "That's All Right." He's really in good shape, by the way. We did some jogging together. He's only 75, you know? He still has like 15 good years in front of him.