Born John Cody Carpenter in 1984 in Los Angeles, he is a third-generation musician; his grandfather, violinist Howard Carpenter, was a founding member of the Nashville Strings, and his father, John Carpenter, a renowned filmmaker, was notable as one of the few who also composed and performed the scores to his own films. His mother was actress Adrienne Barbeau. Growing up surrounded by music, Cody began to play the piano at an early age and started composing in his teens, influenced initially by film composer Vince DiCola and his father, and later by prog rock, jazz fusion, and video game music. His first published musical efforts were on the scores for his father's Vampires (1998) and Ghosts of Mars (2001), where he played keyboards. He went on to compose the music for his father's two episodes of the anthology television series Masters of Horror.
Carpenter first came to wide notice with the release of the Lost Themes and Anthology albums, on which he and Daniel Davies (son of Ray Davies of the Kinks and John Carpenter's godson) helped his father re-record his classic themes and unused musical ideas; the trio later took the music on tour, the first time that John Carpenter had ever played live. The trio went on to compose and perform the music for the 21st century sequels to John's own Halloween and the 2022 remake of Stephen King's Firestarter.
Cody is also a composer and recording artist in his own right, self-releasing a series of instrumental prog rock- and jazz fusion-influenced albums, recorded with a full band -- beginning with 2018's Interdependence. He has also recorded several albums of vocal synthwave/synth pop under the name Ludrium, beginning with 2018's Reflections, and a record of solo piano improvisations, The Major Arcana. ~ John D. Buchanan, Rovi