Joseph Bishara

Joseph Bishara (born July 26, 1970) is an American composer, producer, and actor, best known for his work scoring films such as Insidious, 11-11-11, Dark Skies, and The Conjuring. Bishara's career began with the 1998 Biblical drama Joseph's Gift, though he composes music for mainly horror films and has collaborated several times with director James Wan. Projects by directors John Carpenter and Joseph Zito, and musicians Ray Manzarek and Diamanda Galás have incorporated Bishara's work. He has also functioned as a producer on Repo! The Genetic Opera and other projects.

After the early influence of classical music, Bishara began experimenting with electronic and experimental music, becoming interested in Tangerine Dream. He became engrossed in horror film scores after watching the silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and the horror classic Nosferatu. In the late 1980s he became a member of the industrial band Yesterday's Tears, which later was known as Drown. By around 1994, he was signed to a record and touring contract with Drown.

Although Bishara's film score work began with the Biblical drama Joseph's Gift in 1998, most of his subsequent work has comprised horror films like Unearthed and The Gravedancers in 2006 and Night of the Demons in 2016.

He began to be the subject of more media attention with the James Wan film Insidious in 2011. The New York Times film critic Mike Hale remarked that Bishara's score helped the film recover from some of its negative attributes such as "pedestrian camerawork". Writing for Howlin' Wolf Records, Jason Comerford referred to the score as a "dense, bristling effort jam-packed with invention and energy". The score was performed by a string quartet accompanied by Bishara producing sounds on a rusted piano using hammers, files, and other "experimental instruments" of his design. Much of the score was recorded before Wan began shooting the film, the musicians improvising some parts as they went along but following Bishara's broad structure and concept. Bishara began sending completed recordings to Wan as he was editing the film so Wan could work the score into the film according to the structure he desired. Though film score composers are typically more involved in music placement, Bishara noted the process used on Insidious felt "free". Bishara also acted in the film, portraying a demon that served as the film's main antagonist.

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