The Musical Mind of David Lynch

Five months after director David Lynch gave interviews saying his emphysema had progressed to the point where it was no longer possible to leave home, he finally succumbed to his illness this week. 

The experimental, iconoclastic film director, artist, and musician, was known for the haunting surrealism of his work that often explored the darker side of human nature, as seen in such films as Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive and the TV series Twin Peaks.

In this interview, conducted on January 17, 2007, Lynch talks about the use of music in his movies, his love of Au Revoir Simone and why the decline of the studios wouldn’t keep him from making films.

 

What music did you listen to while growing up? 

When I really started listening to music, it was rock ‘n’ roll.

 

Who did you like in particular?

Elvis — all of them, really. But Elvis is the king. There was a lot of different types of music on the radio that came after Elvis came. I don’t even know if radio stations ever recorded what their playlist was, but it’d be really incredible to hear it now. Because in the beginning it wasn’t all rock ‘n’ roll. It was all a mixture, like ’40s and early ’50s stuff swimming with it.

 

VIDEO: Elvis Presley “If I Can Dream”

What other artists did you like besides Elvis?

Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, the Fleetwoods….

 

I met Gretchen Christopher from the Fleetwoods; they were one of the first Northwest acts to have a big hit, with “Come Softly to Me.”

Yeah. Huge! Huge. It really defined the times, that music.

 

VIDEO: The Fleetwoods perform “Come Softly to Me” on The Midnight Special 

So, the late ’50s, early ’60s, is your period. 

That’s my age, yeah. I like the ’50s, but I like a lot of music later on too. But rock ‘n’ roll had a real power when it started. And then it kind of drifted. And I don’t know if rock ‘n’ roll has really ever gotten finished. Really, it’s such a goldmine. You know, rockabilly and rock ‘n’ roll…it was really great. 

 

What was the first record you bought?

I think I bought an Everly Brothers record. It might’ve been “Wake Up Little Susie.” It was a 45.

 

Then rock ‘n’ roll began being used in films, really well in A Hard Day’s Night I thought.

Uh-huh. It was really innovative. [Director] Richard Lester, he’s the perfect guy to do the Beatles movie, when you look back. It was really new and cool. 

 

Did you pay attention to how music was used in film? 

No, I wasn’t a film buff. I didn’t really even go to many films. I just wanted to paint. And then when I started — I tell this story a lot of times — I was in a studio, working on a painting of a garden at night. And I saw the plants start moving and I heard a wind. And so that led to film. And using sound in film; a sound has got to marry to the picture. I didn’t know anything about film or filmmaking. But I guess from the get-go I was interested in sound. And experimenting. I didn’t even have any real equipment, but I would experiment getting sounds and arranging them in a way that felt correct. And I thought that’s what people did. 

 

You could say that some of the mechanical sounding score of The Elephant Man invented industrial music.

It was inspired by industry. I love the smokestack industry and the power and beauty of it. The real Elephant Man [John Merrick], he lived in the time when the industrial revolution was just taking off, so it was big, big fire, big smoke, big sound. 

 

VIDEO: The Elephant Man trailer 

I never forgave the Academy for not giving John Hurt an Oscar for playing John Merrick.

Well, that’s the way it goes. 

 

How was working with Angelo Badalamenti [the composer who worked on many of Lynch’s projects] different from working with other composers?

I never really worked with composers. Except on The Elephant Man, with John Morris. We worked together in a similar way. But you talk about mood, when I went to London, Freddie Francis, the director of photography [on The Elephant Man], took me to his friend’s house and she played a period music box. And there were these metal punched-out discs. And it’s interesting to think about because the sound that those music boxes make, they don’t change through time. So that sound was the sound they heard then. And then you play those discs and you’re hearing what they heard. And it’s pretty incredible. The very first disc she played was so beautiful. She played a song called “Whisper and I Shall Hear.” And it just had a mood. Then I said, “Man, maybe all the discs have that same mood.” None of them did. But that first one I played for John Morris, and he also loved it. And it kind of fed into a whole thing from there for the tone [that was used in the film]. And things like that. So you work together to get a thing that feels correct. 

And it’s the same with Angelo. We just started working together on all kinds of things. I always say Angelo brought me into the world of music. Because then I started writing lyrics. All of Julee Cruise’s music [in Twin Peaks] came out of Angelo and I working together. Actually, the Twin Peaks theme was a Julee Cruise song that I wanted to use as the theme, but as an instrumental. So that was the Twin Peaks theme. Then all the rest of the music, we would sit together, and I would talk to Angelo about mood and he would play my words on a Rhodes piano, that’s what Angelo loved to play on. And so he’d keep playing and I’d keep talking till always something magical would eventually come out of him. Yeah, Angelo brought me into the world of music. I just experiment. I’m not a musician really, but I play. I just don’t know how it works. 

 

What music are you listening to these days?

Well, it’s strange you asked me that. Because I was in New York City at the Barnes & Noble flagship store, and did a Q&A on this book, Catching the Big Fish [Lynch’s book on meditation and creativity]. And on the stage with me, I was up there with a group called Au Revoir Simone. And I fell in love with them. It’s a girl group, three girls from Brooklyn, New York. And their sound is so fresh and new and hip and I really think they’ve got it. And they say they might’ve given up, but all their friends want them to keep writing and doing it. And it pushed them forward. I just got their two albums and love them. 

 

Do you have a favorite album?

It’d have to be The Beatles I guess. The Beatles albums, there’s no song that isn’t great. And the arrangement of them is kind of flawless. Is it Rubber Soul and Revolver that came out side by side? I would pick those two, probably. 

 

Is there a musician you wanted to be?

John Lee Hooker. Just the coolest. I like his whole musical attitude and I just think John Lee Hooker had it. And there’s others I like. Well, for sure John Lennon. Elvis Presley. Buddy Holly. Chuck Berry. James Brown. Otis Redding. Janis Joplin. 

 

All the classics.

Jimi Hendrix. Van Morrison. Bob Dylan. I like Mazzy Star as well. Nina Simone. And ZZ Top. I love ZZ Top. Did I mention Roy Orbison too? And I love Chris Isaak. 

 

 

What’s a good record to listen to on a Saturday night?

I’ve got to think about it. Because not all Saturday nights are the same. Bob Dylan’s “Hurricane.” And George Thorogood, “Bad to the Bone.” Who did “Way Down South in London Town?” Who was that? That’s a good song. That’s not what it’s called, but that’s part of the lyrics. “Baby Please Don’t Go,” Van Morrison. And “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” Creedence Clearwater Revival. I think there’s a song, is it “Prisoner of Love” by James Brown? It’s an old song, but he does a version of it. That would be in there. Maybe some Au Revoir Simone things, then Mazzy Star, some Mazzy Star things. And maybe some Fleetwoods things, in the very early morning, like “Mr. Blue,” and “Come Softly to Me.”

 

VIDEO: Au Revoir Simone “Somebody Who”

And what’s a good record for Sunday morning?

Sunday morning, I’d just be listening to the wind and what was going on outside. 

 

When you use other people’s music in your films, do you get the idea for the song first?

No, no, no, no, no. It always grows out of the film idea. You can have a thousand favorite songs, none of which would work. But you find that piece, you listen to something and it just marries to the scene in your mind. And then when you put it in, you’re correct. Other things, you experiment. You put something in thinking it might work, and it doesn’t. But it gives you an indication of why it doesn’t, and then you alter something and find something close and it marries. And you work it till it marries. And so that’s how it goes.

 

Do you like music videos?

I know that those things are good, and some are really good, but I like to get my own pictures from listening to it. And so I don’t like it locked in like that. 

 

Do you have a harder time with interviews then, wanting people to make their own interpretations of your work instead of explaining it?

I don’t mind telling stories about things, or talking like this, but about the work itself, I always say the same thing. It’s absurd to finish a film and then be asked to turn it back into words. It’s the theater of the absurd. 

 

VIDEO: Inland Empire trailer 

Your latest film, Inland Empire, has prompted a lot of speculation about what it’s “really” about. Does it bother you if people miss the point of what you were trying to do?

No. Because you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do. And the world changes and you can’t — like I say, films take a long time to make. If you in the beginning did something for an audience, by the time you finish, that audience won’t be the same. And you’ve just got to be true to the idea. And then that way you’re sort of true to yourself. But mostly you’re just true to the idea. And you translate it as good as you can. And you really go deep into a world and make it feel correct. And it’s not a selfish thing, it’s just a way. And then when you release it, if it feels correct to you, you hope that it feels correct to others. And that’s how it goes. 

 

You’re self-distributing the film. Do you think that’s going to be the new model for making movies?

The film companies are not going to get nervous about me. But they’re going to get nervous about the internet and piracy and the fact that DVD sales are going down. And what happened to the music industry will happen to the film industry. The only difference is the size of the files. And the internet’s getting faster and faster and faster. And there are pirates. And like I say, until the pirates’ hearts open and they realize what they’re doing, it’s going to be big trouble for the film industry, and it’s going to be big trouble for filmmakers, because even though the costs of making a film will go down, it’s still so much more expensive than making an album. So it’ll be sad, and I think a lot of studios won’t be around in ten years.

 

Do you think that means you won’t be making films? 

No. I like to make films, just like I like to paint. And it’s not about money. It would be nice; people want to sell a painting. You don’t really think about getting Bentleys or anything, but it’d be nice to get a truck. And it’d be nice to get more equipment and a real nice place to work, and not worry about money. But everybody feels that way. So if that side of [the movie industry] goes, I don’t know, I think a lot of other people would stop. But for me, when you get ideas, you’ve gotta do it.