Well, it turns out Terry Gilliam is a bit of an indie rocker.
In an interview with CBS, Johnny Depp revealed that he often finds inspiration for his characters by connecting them to certain songs. For the Mad Hatter, Depp’s old friend Terry Gilliam turned him on indie rockers Sunset Rubdown, passing him an album of theirs which given the time “Alice In Wonderland” was shot, probably would’ve been “Random Spirit Lover” (but that’s just a guess). On the disc Depp found “….a great few songs on there that just defined the Hatter for me perfectly.” Interesting for sure, and given Spencer Krug’s tendency for the fantastical lyric wise, we’re can definitely see how Depp would’ve taken a shine to it.
You can watch the full interview with Depp and Tim Burton below and sample Sunset Rubdown’s “A Day In The Graveyard II” to give you an idea of what was possibly swimming through Depp’s iPod. It’s too bad Depp didn’t go one step further and get them to do a song for the otherwise horrible “Almost Alice” companion soundtrack.
Sunset Rubdown “A Day In The Graveyard II”