Filmmaker David Lynch considers himself a “self-taught non-musician”. He started getting into music while working with composer Angelo Badalamenti on “Blue Velvet” and has been experimenting with sound ever since. He dropped by Morning Becomes Eclectic for a chat about the release of his debut album.
He talked to Jason about his creative process as a musician.
“I always say the same thing…it’s ideas. And ideas…you could say that ideas are creativity, but nothing happens unless there’s an idea and/or a flow of ideas. And it can happen in any medium. You get in there, and ideas begin to flow. And it happens a lot with action and reaction. So in the world of music, like Dean (Hurley, his musicmaking partner) and I will start out with a jam.”
“Once you start going, a thing happens. And this…you know, every musician must say ‘Yeah yeah yeah!’ It’s a thing. If the guitar sounds a certain way, and the beat is a certain way, a thing will come out. Just as natural as falling off a log. It will just come out. And there’s a lot of mistakes, there’s a lot of accidents, but there are these discoveries that come along. It’s just magic.”
David Lynch – Pinky’s Dream (feat. Karen O) by knucklerumblerdotcom
Jason Bentley played a key role in the launch of Lynch’s music career, which you can read more about here, but my favorite part of their conversation was more about the “importance of the abstract”.
“Bliss begins where happiness leaves off. Bliss can be physical, emotional, mental, spiritual. Bliss. It’s such an abstract thing. But it’s real. All these abstractions, they really pale compared to that big abstraction. But they make us, we fail to be able to say what they are with words but we all kind of understand abstractions because we’re alive and we live. “
It’s a really fascinating interview with a supremely creative individual. Listen or read a transcript online here.
RR