When Halloween Was Forever

Each blog post, I tell the story that I have in my mind while working on my instrumental music. I rarely use lyrics or anything more than a few sampled lines of dialogue. Instead, I use music and sounds to convey the imagery and story I have in my mind. 

I am excited to bring to you "When Halloween Was Forever", the Halloween 2025 single streaming on all platforms now! 

Read on to discover the tale of how it came to be When Halloween Was Forever. 

Artwork by Eclipse Afterglow. Cool, right?

The year is 1990 and you are in your early teens. It's yet another Autumn in yet another rural Midwestern town. And yet, you love it! Just walking around the neighborhood to see all the decorative ghosts, witches, graveyards, and spider webs adorning homes in anticipation of Halloween brings you joy. The changing color of the leaves and the cooling air really hits your soul just right, and you are comforted by it.

It's Fall break at school and you just can't wait to go with your friends to some haunted houses, ride the haunted hay rides, and get lost in the corn mazes. Only, this year your friends just aren't really into it like they used to be. Your buddies are starting to feel "too old" and "too cool" for all this stuff. It's probably the last time you'll ever be with this group of friends again for your beloved Halloween activities. 

No matter, you are determined to have the best time for Halloween season even if your friends aren't feeling it anymore. Halloween Day arrives and you have a blast Trick Or Treating. Leaves crunch under your footsteps as you joyfully stroll from house to house filling up your large jackolantern candy bucket. All the grown-ups handing out candy love your retro skeleton costume. 

Your friends normally put a lot of effort into their Halloween costumes, but this year they barely gave it a thought. Mostly just hoodies with some kind of cheap mask left atop their head instead of over their faces. One of your friends didn't even bother at all. He said he's going as "himself". LAME. 

One of your longstanding traditions with your friends is to gather around a fire in your backyard telling ghost stories, kind of like your own Midnight Society. But this year? Not happening.

Your friends just say "Oh come on, you actually still want to do THAT?"

Everyone goes their separate ways. 

Feeling despondent, you sit alone at the campfire sifting through your candy bucket looking for your favorite candy. You pull out your Walkman cassette player and throw on your headphones while listening to your Classic Halloween Sounds tape. Recordings of chains rattling, gravestones shaking, and ghosts fill your ears with delight. 

Still sitting in your skeleton costume, you're just not ready for this Halloween to be over. It's become chilly, and this Classic Halloween Sounds tape has inspired you. You toss on a black hoodie and walk off into the night. 

At first you stick to your familiar routes in the neighborhood, but then find yourself going up a slight incline set in the trees at the edge of your neck of the woods. 

You come to a clearing overlooking a town. Somehow, this side of town just isn't familiar to you. The strangeness of the town strikes you immediately. The houses and buildings are very old-fashioned looking. There are no lights on. No Trick Or Treaters, no pumpkins, no decorations. Absolutely nobody was out and about at all. 

It's a ghost town. 

With the moonlight beaming down, a reflection catches your eye, on the ground. You reach down and pick up a cassette tape laying in the dewey grass. 

The artwork on the case insert is simply a black background with a jackolantern on the cover. No name, no title, no other text whatsoever. You open the case to see if there are any credits or anything else listed on the side or on the tape itself, but there's nothing. 

Intrigued, you pop out the Classic Halloween Sounds tape from your Walkman and swap it out for this mystery pumpkin cassette.

After a few seconds of warm tape hissing, swirling synthesizer notes and odd sounds take over. There are interesting musical tones but you can also hear weird noises in the distance. There are ghosts moaning, witches cackling, and crickets sounding off in the Autumn wind.

You think you hear a voice too but can't quite make out any words. As strange as this is, you can't deny that the sounds on this mystery tape are pleasing. You're entranced.

You're so entranced by whatever this music is that you don't immediately notice the hue of lights coming from behind you. You turn around and see the once totally dark houses are all lit up and fully decked out for Halloween. Creepy theremin music rings throughout the town.

There is a blurry haze around the edges of this neighborhood from your vantage point. Probably just fog setting in combining with the spooky Halloween lights?

A huge cloaked figure floats in the sky above the houses. Sitting atop a human'ish body is a giant pumpkin head with a stern expression carved out in great detail. Its dark cloak gently swaying in the wind. 

You think "oh cool, that's one of those new inflatable Halloween decorations!"

The giant pumpkin head appears to turn its neck, making direct eye contact with you.

In your headphones you hear "All things not of this world, come to me!", the cloaked pumpkin figure's mouth moved along exactly in sync with what was on your tape. 

Suddenly, you're no longer overlooking the town. You've been transported right in the middle of it. You look up and the floating pumpkin-headed figure is directly above you! 

Freaked out, you stop the tape and practically throw the headphones right off of your head. At that very moment, the hue of lights and the blurry haze about the town completely disappears. The haunting theremin melody goes silent, only leaving one last tail of reverberation throughout the town.

Darkness falls back over the town as though someone flipped a switch to "OFF". The floating pumpkin headed figure vanished. 

You're scared out of your mind...and possibly even pooped your pants, but you don't run away. You're out for a Halloween adventure and you're going to get it. 

Standing in the middle of town you see once again there are no lights, no people, no sound. You peer into windows as you pass by but there's just nothing to be seen. Shadows obscure every detail. 

You place your headphones back on your head and hover your finger over the "Play" button. You psych yourself up for a few seconds and brace yourself.

You press the button.

Instantaneously, the houses around you light up again. Low, creepy organ notes play in your headphones. The theremin you thought was playing outside mixes perfectly with the music on the tape. Now you start to think there is no separation, everything you hear is coming from the tape. 

Just like in your own neighborhood - ghosts, witches, tombs, and spider webs make their presence about town. 

You look up, and directly above you high up in the sky is the jack-o-lantern figure surrounded by a haze. It appears to be conducting a symphony of colorful glowing orbs floating around in the sky. It makes you think of some kind of macabre version of Fantasia. ​

The orbs seemingly come from nowhere, just appearing inside the haze like they were passed through from another dimension. 

"Nope, no way!" you say out loud as you once again hit "Stop" on your tape player.

Just like that, it all goes away again. 

You know what the "rules" are now. You press "Play" and, sure enough, Halloween is back in town. Metaphorical ghost town back to a literal ghost town.

The floating orbs begin to take shape and a shocking revelation is made. The orbs form into the very ghosts, witches, and other monsters you see. These are NOT Halloween decorations.

You are snapped back to attention by a teenaged werewolf about your size running by with a jack-o-lantern candy bucket, just like the one you used on this very night. You see other werewolf teens, clearly a group of buddies, happily running along on all fours up to the front door of a dark house illuminated by red lights.

Still scared and confused about your surroundings, you duck behind some bushes. You can spot the pack of werewolves through the leaves as they howl at the front door.

"Trick or Treat!" they bark out in unison as a vampire drops candy bars into their buckets. 

The werewolves run on to the next house, and you follow while carefully maintaining your cover.

You take a moment to really look around and find a lively Trick or Treating scene. Ghosts, Frankenstein's monsters, and scarecrows are amongst the creatures of this night excitedly scrambling around on the search for candy and Halloween joy. 

A rustling in the bushes beside you give way to a werewolf kid popping out in front of you, he sniffs you out and your cover is blown.

Frightened, you reach for your Walkman so you can press "Stop". The wolf swipes the Walkman right out of your hand faster than you can press the button. You shut your eyes and brace yourself to be ripped to shreds as you throw your arms up in front of your face.

Two seconds pass, yet somehow, you're still alive. 

The sounds in your headphones fade out, you drop your arms and open your eyes. The teenaged werewolf has turned down the volume on your tape and is looking right at you. He cranks the volume back up.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what's going on!" you cry out, desperate not to be devoured by an entire town filled with literal monsters. 

The theremin intensifies as the werewolves surround you in a tight circle. A headless kid trots over on his horse, hooves clomping around back and forth around the circle. Flashes in the sky intensify as you see the giant pumpkin figure pointing in your direction - monsters floating about coming towards you in a perfect formation. 

The circle of werewolves closes in tighter. The horse rears up on its hind-legs, letting out a frightening neigh. The floating orbs descend overhead. Creatures that were once little dots in the distance are now bearing down directly above you.

This is it. You know it's all over now. You think to yourself you should have just listened to your friends and called it a night, maybe event move on from this Halloween stuff. Your desperate want for Halloween to last forever just might be costing your life.

The leader of the werewolf teens is in your face, showing all kinds of teeth. He lifts up his hand, moonlight glints off of its razor sharp claw. With a swiping motion, you again close your eyes and prepare for death. A furry hand smacks hard into your hand. The Walkman has returned to your possession,

In your headphones you hear hundreds of voices together yelling out "Halloween Never Ends!" as you gaze out into the ghostly crowd to see their mouths perfectly in sync with the tape. 

A giant crow swoops down and picks you up. You ride above the town, seeing that it's everything you've ever wanted. Monsters are outside celebrating in this perfect little Halloween town. They can span across realms and, yet they all chose to be here. 

The crow gently sets you back down as the werewolf teens motion to you to join them. One of them tosses you a jackolantern candy bucket. A witch flies by on her broom and drops a king-sized chocolate bar right into your bucket. She cackles as she flies off high above, showing her silhouette in the moonlight. 

You run off with the werewolves knocking on doors and receiving candy and other strange gifts from ghosts, goblins, monsters and devils alike. 
 
Not only do you collect candy from the monsters about town, you also collect lore. You learn about this otherworldly realm and the creatures within as the night goes on.

It is told that the pumpkin headed creature floating above town is very powerful. It calls to all of the spirits wandering in the void. 

He called to you, and only you, through that tape that only you could ever find.

They say the veil between our world and theirs is the thinnest on Halloween night, but nobody ever talks about how it's a two way street. The Halloween spirit is so strong within you, you were able to find your way to the other side. 

The night carries on and you join the whole town as they all gather around the largest bonfire you've ever seen. Stories are shared as you take it all in. You barely notice the cassette anymore -  the tape and the real sounds from the town are now one in the same. 

You hear a bell ringing from a large clock tower inside your headphones. All of the monsters in town turn to look at you. As the final few seconds of tape hisses out, they all wave and give you a knowing look. 

The tape ends as the haze, lights, and music all implode into each other and die out. You're back in the creepily dark town with no signs of life. You look down at the watch you keep in your pocket to see it's now midnight. Halloween has ended.

You walk back to that same part of town in the days that follow. It looks much different to you now. You keep trying to play the tape to see if it transports you back to that magical, wonderful Halloween town filled with monsters and ghosts. It never works. Those days turn into months. That place where Halloween was forever feels too far away now.

Though, sure enough, Spooky Season always rolls back around.

You don't talk about haunted houses, hay rides, or corn mazes this year with your friends. As far as you can tell, your friends don't even acknowledge Halloween anymore. 

But you? Well, you're not going to Trick or Treat this year, but you decide you're going to have the best house for everyone to visit this year. You spend hours after school and on weekends setting up decorations and lighting the house just right. You even spend some of your money you just got for your birthday on Halloween decorations to really make it extra special. 

Obviously, you still dress up for Halloween even if you're not the one Trick Or Treating anymore. You make a really awesome DIY mummy costume because you can NEVER go wrong with the classics. 

The candy runs out, so you turn out the lights to signify no more Trick or Treating at your house. You walk to the edge of your driveway and see the street was already empty. A familiar chill sets in as a smile forms across your face.

You toss on your hoodie and walk back to the clearing with Walkman in hand. You stand on the overlook and are ready to turn this dark, ominous town back into a Halloween wonderland. You press "Play". And sure enough, you're back in the time and place When Halloween Was Forever. 

With each passing year, on the night where the veil between our world and theirs is the thinnest, you return. 
​​

Samhain from The Real Ghostbusters episode When Halloween Was Forever.

Just to spend a brief moment on the more nerdy details of the actual track itself - some may know that I obviously stole the title directly from an episode of The Real Ghostbusters called "When Halloween Was Forever". The floating pumpkin headed figure's name in the cartoon is Samhain. I used a version of him in my head for this story. There are also a few lines of dialogue from that episode in the track itself, but uhhh....don't tell anyone that. 

I just really wanted to make this thing really classically "Halloween" sounding in my own way. I used sounds from old public domain Halloween Sounds records and tapes from the 60's-80's, even used a tiny bit from the tape that accompanies a board game called Shrieks and Creeks. I remember being really little and playing with this game. Not actually playing the game, mind you, but literally just messing with all the pieces and sounds that come from it with a tape and a little tombstone speaker. 
​

And of course, musically, I really just got to messing around with the coolest synthesizer sounds I could muster up as well as some organs and cool bass line stuff. There's never one way or the other I come up with music, Sometimes it really does just come from messing around with different tones and sounds and being like "oh, I definitely need to make something with this sound!" and going for it. 

The Coraline original soundtrack composed by Bruno Coulais, the music especially in the Mad Monster Mansion level of Banjo Kazooie composed by Grant Kirkhope, the Shocked Rhythms and (Damn Near) Speechless collections by Mike E Clark, and perhaps a little Beetlejuice by Danny Elfman amongst others. 

Thanks for stopping in, and of course, HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Just be careful not to get Trapped Inside This Blog. ​