Steve Bartek (born January 30, 1952, in Garfield Heights, Ohio) is an American

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

, film composer, conductor, and

orchestrator Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orch ...

. He is best known as the lead guitarist in the band

Oingo Boingo Oingo Boingo () was an American new wave music, new wave band formed by songwriter Danny Elfman in 1979. The band emerged from a Surrealism, surrealist musical theatre troupe, The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, that Elfman had led and wri ...

and for his orchestration work with composer

Danny Elfman Daniel Robert Elfman (born May 29, 1953) is an American film composer, singer, songwriter, and musician. He came to prominence as the lead vocalist and primary songwriter for the new wave band Oingo Boingo in the early 1980s. Since scoring his ...

Career

Early career

Bartek's career started while at William Howard Taft High School in

Woodland Hills, California Woodland Hills is a neighborhood bordering the Santa Monica Mountains in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California, United States. History The area was inhabited for around 8,000 years by Native Americans in the United States, ...

, writing songs and playing flute with the psychedelic rock band Strawberry Alarm Clock. In 1974 he graduated from

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

with a degree in Composition. After college he worked at the Baked Potato with Leon Gaer under the leadership of Don Randi until joining the theatrical ensemble The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo in 1975, where he met his collaborator

. Between 1979 and 1995, Bartek was the lead

in new wave band

with Elfman. Bartek also orchestrated the horn arrangements for the band and co-produced many of their albums.

Film and television

Bartek has composed music for

television series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...

including '' The Tick'', '' Tales from the Crypt'', '' Nightmare Ned'' and '' Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories'', and movies including '' An Extremely Goofy Movie'', '' Romy and Michele's High School Reunion'', '' Romy and Michele: In the Beginning'', '' Snow Day'', ''

Novocaine Procaine is a local anesthetic drug of the amino esters, amino ester group. It is most commonly used in dentistry, dental procedures to numb the area around a tooth and is also used to reduce the pain of intramuscular injection of penicillin. O ...

'', the 1998 remake of '' Psycho'' and '' The Art of Travel''. In 1992 he was nominated for a Saturn Award for his soundtrack to '' Guilty as Charged''. In 2005, together with

and Stewart Copeland, he was awarded an BMI Film & TV Award for his work on ''

Desperate Housewives ''Desperate Housewives'' is an American mystery comedy-drama television series created by Marc Cherry, and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. It aired for eight seasons on ABC from October 3, 2004, until May 13, 2012, for a tota ...

''. As an orchestrator, Bartek has worked on over 50 productions with Danny Elfman as of 2007, including most

Tim Burton Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and producer. Known for popularizing Goth subculture, Goth culture in the American film industry, Burton is famous for his Gothic film, gothic horror and dark fantasy films. ...

productions, '' Mission: Impossible'', '' Good Will Hunting'', ''

Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appearance, first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in ...

'' and ''

Milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of lactating mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfeeding, breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. ...

'', and has done orchestration work with composers Jon Brion and Stephen Trask. Bartek provided the soundtrack for Donovan Cook's indie film '' Rideshare: The Movie'', alongside former

member Johnny "Vatos" Hernandez. In 2015 Steve performed the theme to '' Harvey Beaks''.

Other work

Steve Bartek did horn arrangements for

Avenged Sevenfold Avenged Sevenfold (abbreviated as A7X) is an American Heavy metal music, heavy metal band from Huntington Beach, California, formed in 1999. The band's current lineup consists of vocalist M. Shadows, rhythm guitarist Zacky Vengeance, lead gui ...

's song " A Little Piece of Heaven" as well as for

John Hiatt John Robert Hiatt (born August 20, 1952) is an American singer-songwriter. He has played a variety of musical styles on his albums, including New wave music, new wave, blues, and country music, country. Hiatt has been nominated for nine Gramm ...

's "Little Head". He produced Raya Yarbrough's eponymous album and arranged strings for the song "Early Autumn". He also did a string arrangement for Ricky Martin's " Vuelve". Bartek played the acoustic guitar on the Bangles cover of " A Hazy Shade of Winter" on the

Rick Rubin Frederick Jay Rubin (, ; born March 10, 1963) is an American record producer. He is a co-founder of Def Jam Recordings, founder of American Recordings, and former co-president of Columbia Records. Rubin helped popularize hip hop by produci ...

arranged soundtrack for the 1987 film "Less Than Zero". Bartek plays guitar for the TV series ''

Battlestar Galactica ''Battlestar Galactica'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Glen A. Larson. It began with the original television series in 1978, and was followed by a short-run sequel series, '' Galactica 1980'', a line of book adaptat ...

'', '' Trauma'' and '' Walking Dead''. Bartek also contributed music to both the ride queue and exit of

Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It was the first theme park opened by the Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney, ...

's short-lived Rocket Rods attraction in 1998, including a synthesizer arrangement of Steppenwolf's " Born to Be Wild" and "World of Creativity (Magic Highways of Tomorrow)", the latter being a radical re-arrangement of "Detroit", a song originally written and composed by the Sherman Brothers for the 1967 Disney film, ''

The Happiest Millionaire ''The Happiest Millionaire'' is a 1967 American musical film starring Fred MacMurray, based upon the true story of Philadelphia millionaire Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle Sr., Anthony Drexel Biddle. The film, featuring music by the Sherman Brothe ...

''. Bartek is an admirer of composer Raymond Scott, and in 2012, he worked with Ego Plum in arranging a live tribute show held at the Walt Disney Concert Halls REDCAT entitled "Machine Man: The Musical Mayhem of Raymond Scott". Bartek played guitar on Gerald Casale's 2021 single, "I'm Gonna Pay U Back".

Select filmography

*1989 '' Communion'' *1991 '' Guilty as Charged'' *1991 '' Past Midnight'' *1994 ''

Cabin Boy A cabin boy or ship's boy is a boy or young man who waits on the officers and passengers of a ship, especially running errands for the captain. The modern merchant navy successor to the cabin boy is the steward's assistant. Duties Cabin boys ...

'' *1995 '' National Lampoon's Senior Trip'' *1995 '' Coldblooded'' *1997 '' Romy and Michele's High School Reunion'' *1998 '' Meet the Deedles'' *1998 '' Psycho'' *2000 '' Snow Day'' *2000 '' An Extremely Goofy Movie'' *2000 '' The Crew'' *2001 '' Get Over It'' *2001 ''

'' *2003 '' Carolina'' *2007 ''

The Simpsons Movie ''The Simpsons Movie'' is a 2007 American Animation, animated comedy film based on the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox animated sitcom ''The Simpsons'' created by Matt Groening. The film was directed by series veteran David Silverman (animator) ...

'' *2008 ''Art Of Travel'' *2011 ''Rideshare''

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bartek, Steve 1952 births Living people People from Garfield Heights, Ohio American music arrangers American rock guitarists American male guitarists American television composers American film score composers American male film score composers American new wave musicians 20th-century American guitarists Guitarists from Ohio 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American guitarists Strawberry Alarm Clock members 21st-century American male musicians Oingo Boingo members