Best known for the groundbreaking 1990s TV series “Twin Peaks” and his films such as “Eraserhead” and “Blue Velvet,” director David Lynch also makes music. On his new album “The Big Dream,” out today, Lynch plays guitar (self-taught!) and sings, with a creepy blues sound that is as uniquely Lynchian as his films.
Moody soundtrack music has been a hallmark of his work. It can influence his films, and vice versa.
“It’s important to listen to many, many different types of music,” says Lynch, who chooses his words carefully and speaks slowly at a high volume. “You never know what’s gonna come out. A character can come out of music, a mood, a way that things look with the light, a whole scene can flow out.”
Although his listening pleasures lean toward the blues and music from the 1950s, he also listens to more modern sounds and says he likes Kanye’s latest.
The director, 67, eagerly worked with collaborators for this album — the follow-up to his 2011 debut “Crazy Clown Time.” The sultry ballad, “I’m Waiting Here,” for example, features vocals from Swedish singer-songwriter Lykke Li.
He also covers Bob Dylan’s “The Ballad of Hollis Brown,” which his musical engineer — and bandmate (drums, synths) Dean Hurley, suggested.
“Most of the time, he’s the one who twists the knobs and raises the faders,” Lynch says. “But the way we start is we jam together, so it’s a collaborative thing.”
Which is very different than helming a big or little screen project. “It’s two people going down the road,” says Lynch. “Rather than with directing a film, where all the things have to pass through the filter of the director.”
Despite a favorable reception for his first album — which dropped jaws at Pitchfork and was chosen by Vice magazine as an album of the month — Lynch still looks at the whole musical enterprise as something of an experiment.
“You can have inspiration, and you can say that you love this and this and this, but when we’re making it, it’s just that sound, and that beat, and that feel that’s driving the boat. And that’s the beauty of it, it’s sort of got a feel that’s brand-new, and coming from what we’re generating. It’s all based on experimentation,” he says.
But although the filmmaker clearly delights in the making of music and has for decades (he penned five songs for “Twin Peaks”), don’t expect to see him touring anytime soon.
“I don’t really like to go out of my house,” Lynch says. “I feel strange out and about amongst the people.”