Visionary director, musician, artist, and champion of Transcendental Meditation David Lynch has died at the age of 78. He made his debut as a feature filmmaker in 1977, with a surreal, experimental piece called Eraserhead which starred Jack Nance in the titular role. Nance was one of many actors and crew members that would become a constant collaborator. Others include Laura Dern, Kyle MacLachlan, Miguel Ferrer, production designer Jack Fisk, and composer Angelo Badalamenti. As Lynch’s long-time friend and executive producer of KCRW’s Music department Ariana Morgenstern puts it, “if David liked you, there was room for you.”
More: My friend David Lynch
From those deep arthouse origins in the 1970s, Lynch emerged as a singular voice within American artistry. His film and TV projects are studied and revered for the way they incorporate dream logic, bone deep horrors too intense to be expressed in words, and a sincerely held regard for classic hallmarks of Americana. The latter two fascinations held in juxtaposition to each other begat the term “Lynchian.” It’s used as an adjective to describe work from other artists which aspires to Lynch’s mastery of unease, but few have been able capture life’s idiosyncrasies quite the same way. His projects ranged from a poorly received, big-budget adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune in 1984, to Twin Peaks — the runaway hit TV series he co-produced with Mark Frost for ABC in the early 1990s and revived for Showtime in 2017. And occasionally, he applied his boundless creativity to awards season.
More: Remembering David Lynch: Artist, filmmaker, transcendental meditation advocate (Press Play)
KCRW’s Press Play spoke with film critic Alonso Duralde about Lynch’s considerable impact on that community, but here within the halls of the K he represents so much more than his brilliant and confounding films. There’s a conference room in our headquarters that’s colloquially referred to as “The David Lynch room,” because his straight to camera, cigarette bedecked portrait looms large over all proceedings. And our relationship with him extends back to the pre-internet days when the only way to determine the name of a song that you liked (if you missed the back announcement) was to call the station and ask someone.
More often than not, that someone was Ariana Morgenstern. Click the player button on this page to hear Morgenstern and former KCRW Music Director Anne Litt reflect on taking Lynch’s calls, hosting him for live music performances (sometimes with a collaborator like Danger Mouse), and tapping him to broadcast his beloved daily weather reports during Morning Becomes Eclectic in the early days of 2020’s COVID lockdown.
Find the archive of Lynch’s KCRW appearances listed at the bottom of this page.