When the bill for Twin Peaks: The Return looked like it was filling up with a lot of remarkably fluid and dreamy pop music, music supervisor Dean Hurley knew that David Lynch would be looking for something contrasting. “As David described it, he wanted ‘something with hair,’” Hurley recalls. That moment gets at the core of Twin Peaks, as well as Lynch as an artist. While many TV shows and films have tried to ape Lynch’s radiant blend of darkness and beauty, there’s a magic to the intersection of so many raw emotions. Lynch, as well, seems to know exactly what element needs to be tinted more gently, or shaded more darkly at any given moment. The performances for the season were all recorded on a single day — the staggering, swaggering Veils and smoldering Sharon Van Etten on the stage at the Roadhouse, like some sort of dream music festival. (Perhaps organized as a charity function to save the pine weasel, though without Dick Tremayne MC’ing.)
Another key to both Twin Peaks and Lynch is the collaborative, intuitive nature of art. In our previous conversation, Hurley called the auteur “the king of just doing work and then being delicate with it enough to be sensitive, and later letting it reveal what it is.” That too is evidenced perfectly by the fact that the songs were plucked from that day of shooting and scattered across the series, and yet they each seem so perfectly tied into the episode in which they reside. Each song evokes the startling imagery that surrounds it (whether that’s the expressionist maximalism of episode eight pairing with Nine Inch Nails’ crushing grit, or the haunting shattered identity of Eddie Vedder’s “Out of Sand” giving further weight to Audrey Horne’s own struggles with reality).
Even more stunning is the spectrum created when the songs are collected into soundtrack format. In fact, songs and scenes are inextricable in the Lynch oeuvre. Like any good soundtrack, the set surely brings the highlights of the series to mind, but moreover it feels like stepping into the Twin Peaks universe, or at least one of them. But if you’re going to enter a universe, you’ll need the proper guides. In order to gain a clear footing, we spoke with many of the musicians featured on the new series’ two soundtracks out today: Twin Peaks (Music From the Limited Event Series) and Twin Peaks (Limited Event Series Original Soundtrack). Specifically, we reached out to Hurley, Van Etten, Johnny Jewel, Rebekah Del Rio, and many, many more to ask them about their own entry into the universe, their experiences with David Lynch, and becoming part of one of the most important television series of all time.
Stream both albums below and read our exclusive track-by-track breakdown shortly after. On September 22nd, both albums will be released on vinyl via Italians Do It Better, and you can soon pre-order your copies here.
–Special Agent Lior Phillips
“Shadow” and “Saturday (Instrumental)”
by Johnny Jewel of Chromatics
Appears in: “Part Two”, “Part 12”
As told to Special Agent Michael Roffman…
A couple years ago, we released a rough version of the “Shadow” single, a Chromatics song, and Dean Hurley, who is David Lynch’s music supervisor, heard it. Dean also has some tracks in the series, as well – more abstract score things. So, Dean heard it and was given the task of presenting things to David for what the Roadhouse in 2015 would look and sound like. So, he was suggesting bands to David that he thought appealed to the Twin Peaks universe. So, he put “Shadow” in front of David, who felt it was perfect. The whole idea of a shadow world and doppelgängers and mirror images and a multiverse play into the themes of Twin Peaks, which is one of the reasons why I think David responded to “Shadow” so much was the lyrical content. [He] wanted to keep our instrumental version of “Saturday”, a Desire song, for the soundtrack as a bonus.
[Filming] was pretty tight. We played “Saturday” once and we did “Shadow” twice. For the bands, David just wanted everyone to be themselves. We all dressed ourselves and did our own makeup. I think David’s approach with the bands was Well, let’s just just see what they’re gonna do — see what’s working. He was really warm with everybody, but he was pretty hands-off with the bands. I think he was just in the mode of “collecting.” The whole thing seemed incredibly appropriate and normal the whole time. It’s surreal if I try to file it logically and think about watching the show and never imagining myself all these years later. But, if I’m being honest, it really wasn’t how it felt. My attitude was that I want to be the best chess piece I can and to do my job and be as in the moment as possible, so I can be as useful as possible.
[For the premiere], we rented a giant house in Palm Springs, flew everybody in and had a big party, and watched the first four. I turned away because I don’t watch myself on screen. But I got a glimpse. I just wanted to see the lighting and see Ruth [Radelet]. I got the gist. I still haven’t seen the full scene. It was a long time coming. And the impact of the original series on me musically and the work of Julee Cruise and everything, it was a huge, huge honor that David wanted us to be that first taste. The first two hours are really challenging, and, of course, he knows that. And to go out with sugar on top, and that’s Chromatics, is a huge honor for us. And it’s a callback; I think he used us to convey a familiar feeling. It was really romantic.
“Mississippi”
by The Cactus Blossoms
Appears in: “Part Three”
As told to Special Agent Lior Phillips…
David Lynch is a luminary. He’s an American treasure and we’ve admired his work for years. So many people have been intrigued and influenced by his work, including us, so we were excited to be in the same room with him and to get a brief glimpse behind the red velvet curtain to see how a show like Twin Peaks is made. We hadn’t met him at all before filming our scene, so that day he walked up to the stage, introduced himself, and thanked everyone in the band for being involved. We were guests in his world and he was a very gracious host and made us feel welcome and appreciated right from the start. You can tell a lot about someone by the company they keep and relationships they hang on to. I had a hunch there were going to be a lot of wonderful people involved in the production. There was such a great family vibe on the set, and there’s no better feeling when you can tell everyone is enjoying their job. Attending the premiere in L.A. brought it home even more; it was a warm, welcoming, wild group of people.
David picked the song “Mississippi”, but we never saw the script or anything like that. Our album You’re Dreaming had just come out before we got the call and “Mississippi” is one of my favorites off the record, so it was really exciting that he dug it too. If I remember right, Cooper ends up in that enormous, gray, brooding building in the middle of a moonlit ocean in that episode. Maybe it’s unrelated, but it resonated with me. We thought it would be cool to get the musicians that played with us on the record on screen with us. Alex Hall, Joel Paterson, and Beau Sample are such a huge part of that record sounding the way it does. Our brother Tyler Burkum who played the baritone solo on the record couldn’t make it, so I mimed his part on my electric. We’ve played a lot of roadhouses, so it felt familiar … The coffee was good too!
“A Violent Yet Flammable World” and “Lark”
by Au Revoir Simone
Appears in: “Part Four”, “Part Nine”
As told to Special Agent Lior Phillips…
Annie Hart: “A Violent Yet Flammable World” tells of a dramatic world where emotions and relationships are swirling and developing. Things in that world are real and surreal, people are talking in languages you can’t totally understand but strive to make meaning from. “Lark” tells the story of desiring someone close, moving from the person you were into a person you want to be. Both of these relate so closely to what happens in the Black Lodge: sounds move backwards, you figure out who you are and what you need, reading clues and remembering details to let you know the direction your actions should take. Another fundamental similarity in both songs and the series is that they describe worlds that seem so real but can be extremely difficult to navigate.
Erika: Both songs are coming from a deep emotional place, melancholy, excitement, and mystery.
Heather: And it was really visually and emotionally jarring to cut directly from Sky Ferreira scratching her inflamed rash, to us playing “A Violent Yet Flammable World”. What’s the connection there? Is it supposed to tell us something about her character, or the dynamic between her and her friend? Whatever the meaning, I feel deeply honored to have played a small role in manifesting his mysterious dream.
Annie: I was still personally a bit nervous, though. David chose the songs for us to perform, he actually had us film another song from Bird Of Music as well, as he couldn’t decide. I think the ones he picked really suit the show perfectly. We shot both songs in succession and then were edited into their respective episodes. David was an immense pleasure to work with, and was so relaxed. He wanted us to be our natural selves. He seemed so happy after each take we did.
Erika: It was amazing to be on set, the crew was incredibly positive and there was a feeling of great respect and joy in the room. We hadn’t performed either of the songs live in a long time so it was really special bringing them to life and having the dream audience — a room full of enthusiastic paid extras, David and his crew.
Heather: Looking back now, I know I left myself at the door and tried instead to embody the spirit of the scene, as I imagined how David wanted it to be. It was definitely one of the more surreal moments of my life to be so completely transported into a set last seen 25 years ago. Every detail was perfectly recreated. There was an air of reverence to it. We all felt something special was unfolding in front of our eyes, almost timeless, sacred, and impactful. Smiling too much during the performance somehow seemed inappropriate, or dancing around too much. David didn’t give us a lot of direction; we were guided by our intuition. So we swayed, we closed our eyes, we looked off dreamily into the distance.
Annie: And it was so surreal seeing the end result for the first time! I’m the kind of person who gets extremely empathetic watching well-done film and television and I fall into fictional worlds rather easily. Tense shows really get to me and I’m literally on the edge of the couch. So when I was deeply into this surreal world and worried about Evil Coop (as I like to call him) making a horrible mess of everything, it was a nice little reminder that the show is a product of some people’s imaginations, because there was my real life square in the middle of it. I could actually relax a little because, you know, no one’s going to be sawing anyone’s head off or anything.
Erika: Also, people often tell me I resemble Laura Dern so I love that it adds a whole other twist to our performance. Seeing us onscreen as part of episodes four and nine has been one of the things I’m most proud of as an artist. It’s funny, a friend of mine told me her boyfriend saw it and was “starstruck,” but I feel like I’m starstruck too!
Heather: I watched episode four with a few friends who are also big Twin Peaks fans. We projected the show onto the wall in my basement, creating a little movie theater-like situation. We served coffee, donuts, and cherry pie, naturally. I watched “Part Nine” with my husband’s family in NJ, who we were visiting to celebrate our recent marriage. In both scenarios, everyone collectively freaked out during our scene, myself included. It was wonderful to get to share those moments with loved ones.
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Trouble – “Snake Eyes”
by Dean Hurley
Appears in: “Part Five”
As told to Special Agent Lior Phillips…
This all came from David’s son and my bandmate in Trouble, Riley Lynch, and his desire to try to do something that would be deemed worthy for the Roadhouse. There are different shades of music in the Roadhouse and at the time that “Snake Eyes” was about to be worked on, there was maybe 70% of the lineup already figured out, and it was a lot of pretty music. There wasn’t a lot of hard-edged music yet. As David described it, he wanted “something with hair,” something kind of mean. Alex [Zhang Hungtai, Dirty Beaches], Riley, and I immediately knew what side of the spectrum we wanted to go for. We knew there were certain Roadhouse scenes; for instance, the scene with James and Freddie, Renee’s super jealous husband, and this scene with Richard. The song we did was all Riley; his own taste lies on the spectrum of super-aggressive metal music, so the track is quite tame compared to the other stuff that he listens to.
The three of us work so well together because the friendship is there first. Bringing friends into the fold is what produces the best results. Even when I’m working on my own music, I always think, “What would Riley do?” Within the first month that I started this job, there was a dinner that David had for Riley’s 13th birthday, so I’ve been here for his entire teenage formative years. He would come home from school and if little was going on in the studio, he would just come in and want me to jam. Some people just have these symbiotic friendships, and that’s Riley and I. It’s been amazing to see him grow.
Actually, when I picked up this call, I had been gone a week and a half and he left a post-it note where the receiver is. It said, “You’re next.” It’s a picture of a gun and a masked cartoon. He’s almost like a brother to me. Over the years, we’ve recorded stuff together that we have never released. Sometimes making a film or recording a piece of music isn’t like building a skyscraper, it’s the exact opposite. With a skyscraper, you don’t start construction until you have blueprints, and the way David works on film and music, you just jump and see what happens. You’re feeling your way through the construction as opposed to putting tension behind it.
Riley didn’t even want to be around when I played the song for his dad for the first time. He was nervous about what his dad would think because his dad would not hide his feelings. If something sucks, he will literally say, “This sucks!” Even to his own son. But in the end, the song suited that introduction to Richard Horne. That choice showed the beauty of David’s approach to things. He doesn’t putrefy the journey with a lot of emphasized intent.
But I didn’t take to this like a duck to water; performing felt awkward for me. I was excited to experience another dimension of what I do, and have a visual memento of the project. If you look carefully … I’m there!
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“Windswept (Reprise)”
by Johnny Jewel
Appears in: “Part Five”, “Part Six”
As told to Special Agent Michael Roffman…
Twin Peaks came to symbolize the end of one era and the beginning of another for me. I know a lot of people hold it in high regards and have a reverence for the show in a similar way, for different reasons. So, for me, it was pretty intense working on it. I’m entering a new era of my life right now, and Twin Peaks is kinda there again — being a piece of that puzzle. So, I wanted “Windswept”, the name of the street I was born on, to be the name of the album and track.
When I titled the album that, I didn’t know if it’d be used or not, but it’s kind of an amalgamation of a couple recurring dreams I had as a child and just the geography of where that house is located. Two blocks away on one side are train tracks, and two blocks away on the other side is a graveyard. And I have distinct memories from when I was a kid of autumn in Texas, which is really romantic — the leaves all brown and dry, and the sound of the leaves, in gusts of wind, scraping along the pebble-stone concrete that was sort of popular in the ’70s. So, the initial idea was that I wanted to have the drums emulate the scraping, brushing sound.
I used to have this recurring dream of these dry leaves trying to form this shape, surrounded in black, but I always woke up before they could. And that was part of the concept of the rhythm section — the scraping leaves on the pavement and also the sound of branches in the wind hitting the window. And I wanted to have a musical element that mirrored the sound of a train coming. And when this train would hit, it would just echo for so long. But I wanted a really reverberate, brassy sound, which is that really long saxophone. So, I laid down the drums, laid down the Rhodes. Everything was improvised, all linear. I actually don’t remember recording the melody. Sometimes I can fall asleep when recording. It’s hypnotizing. I think I may have just zoned out that time.
When I sent it, there was no sense of how it would be used. I did send them a little video that I made on my phone. I just wanted to see how it would look like against Cooper’s face. It’s that scene where he’s dancing at the Roadhouse, slow dancing with a woman. So, I played it against that. Sometimes, I’ll just throw something at a picture just to see if it fits. So, in my mind, I was thinking Cooper, but that conversation was never had.
“Tarifa”(Roadhouse Mix)
by Sharon Van Etten
Appears in: “Part Six”
As told to Special Agent Lior Phillips…
I try to work with people that I’m passionate about. I try not to do things that I don’t connect with. When I was working on the score for Strange Weather with Katherine Dieckmann, it was counterintuitive because I hadn’t ever tried to write pieces of music: like 15 seconds where it really supports what the lead is going through, or the subtleties of the tensions in their relationship that I wouldn’t have picked up on unless Katherine walked me through the scene. So, things like that were very new, where it wasn’t, “Let’s find how to write a melody and a chord progression and a chorus.” It was doing the exact opposite, creating a mood for something very short that doesn’t need to be a statement. The mood of a song or a piece of music can change the undertone of the scene that’s not conveyed in the acting. It’s a whole other world to try to write for film.
In “Tarifa”, I actually have a little private Twin Peaks reference to a friend. There’s a line that says, “Send in the owl.” It meant, “Give me a sign that everything’s okay,” you know? It was just an acknowledgment of a time in my twenties. I didn’t watch Twin Peaks until my adult life; I had just missed it as a kid, because I was born in ‘81. But I saw it in a very formative time in my life. I’d never seen anything like it, even as an adult! I could not believe that that was on television when I was a kid.
I had friends when I was a teenager that got me into Julee Cruise. She is definitely someone that changed the way that I looked at singing and the dark side of minimal music. I didn’t really start doing music until my 20s, so now I’m in my 30s and being grouped into that same sort of realm is definitely not anything I saw coming. I still haven’t processed that because it feels like a movie.
I’d never met David Lynch before. That was definitely new. I did not foresee that. I’m still a bit awestruck. Between the bands that I grew up listening to that I loved, current bands that are definitely in my top ten, and a handful of friends that I also got to share the same experience with, David Lynch has definitely captured a circle of music that I’ve surrounded myself with. He just has such a broad range of taste that encompasses some of my favorites as well. I’m honored.
Lynch chose “Tarifa” for us to play. He even asked for a mix without the horns so it would look like a live band. I was just thrilled that he appreciated that song. For him to pick that one out, which is definitely a slow-build — well, most of my songs are slow-builds, let’s be honest [Laughs] — but I was thrilled.
We basically showed up the day that they were shooting, and all the bands were waiting in the wings. They shot band after band, after band, after band. He had the megaphone and was directing. The music was so loud. Everyone was just waiting in the wings, nervous. I even felt like Trent Reznor was nervous. [Laughs.] We were all very humbled to be under the same roof. And that was it, it was in and out. Lynch was super nice and very specific. He was sitting in his director’s chair, watching every little detail, from angles of light to color to moving things on stage a matter of inches. He was giving orders through his megaphone, like, “Are you okay with everything, Sharon? Are you happy with your performance?” I was just trying to look natural, even though in my head I was just like, “Don’t look at the camera, don’t look at the camera. Just play and be introspective, be like you normally would.” It was all a haze.
In terms of performing, I did musicals and choir in high school, but I’m not a good actor. That was kind of what was appealing about working on The OA. The character was so close to part of my biography that I actually connected to the character enough to try it out. I cannot believe that they reached out to me to do that. I never would have thought that that would’ve been a path in my life. I’ve been in the same place [NYC] for a while now, in a stable relationship, and I have a child. His name is Denver, and he’s just over five months old. [Baby cooing] See? He’s chiming in. I couldn’t have asked for a more chill baby. So, it’s been really nice to be home. I haven’t been on tour since 2015. I’ve been focusing on my life here. As long as I’ve lived in New York, this is the first time I’ve really done that, which sounds wild, but that’s the nature of the industry. I like going with the flow with what the universe sends … so here we are.
“No Stars”
by Rebekah Del Rio
Appears in: “Part 10”
As told to Special Agent Lior Phillips…
I’d like to preface meeting David with a little backstory. I was a fan of David’s work since I saw Blue Velvet. I just couldn’t wrap my mind around it. But I think that’s what I liked about it. Honestly, I didn’t watch Twin Peaks when it came out because I was busy raising a child by myself and trying to get a record deal in Nashville. In the ‘90s, I was already singing Roy Orbison’s “Crying” in Spanish a cappella because the band that I was working with didn’t know how to play the changes. My friend Randy Sanders, who was working on developing artists said, “You should try doing that in Spanish.” So I found a wonderful songwriter, Thania Sanz, and she wrote the most beautiful translation — I tweaked it a little to fit the meter of the song — and for several years I worked the circuit and I sang that song as the finale of my show. It was a huge hit for me then, and because of it I landed management, a record deal, and my agent Brian Loucks at CAA. I cut a record in Nashville and “Llorando” was on it.
How I met David in the flesh? I was due to come to Los Angeles for a photo shoot for my country record and Brian [Loucks] said, “You know when you’re in town, I want to introduce you to David Lynch,” and I said, “Blue Velvet David Lynch?, Twin Peaks David Lynch? Wild At Heart David Lynch?” I was beside myself and quite perplexed. I thought, What would David Lynch, director of strange, want with little ‘ol country me? Brian said, “So when you come to David’s I want you to look cute, I want you to be on time, and I want you to sing when I tell you to.” I show up, cute enough, on time, and ready to sing! Brian and I met with David in his studio, and Brian was telling him about my history and how I have this really great song which he signed me because of. So I just stood up and started singing to David, a cappella, no mic!
I’m singing to him, and he’s listening, staring at me intensely so I keep going. He then stopped me right in the middle of it which had never happened to me before. My first reaction was, “Oh no, he doesn’t get it!” But he said, “Wait, wait, wait is there any way you can go into that booth over there and sing through that microphone we just got? There are only two of these mics in the world and we are excited to hear how it sounds.” When I finished, the thing that David said, that I’ll never forget was, “Ding dang, Rebekah Del Rio … that was aces!” Little did I know at the time how ‘much’ David did indeed “get it”! It was really brief but made a deep impact on us both. I sang my song, enjoyed some coffee with him, and then went on with my life.
About two months later I found out David couldn’t get my song out of his head (“He can’t stop listening to ‘Llorando’!”) I had no idea he had recorded me. You’d think as a recording artist I would have figured that out, but I didn’t know. Brian said, “It’s haunting him and he has this television pilot for ABC that will be sort of like the new Twin Peaks called Mulholland Drive. He wrote a specific scene especially for you and he wants you to come back and film.”
Based on what I know about David, he has such an affinity for music. His musical tastes are so pure and classic. We share a love for Roy Orbison’s music, his sound, the pain in his voice. I think David would put my sound in that category. The Roy Orbison, Little Jimmy Scott sound is powerful and haunting and downright sad. This is the kind of voice that takes you to another place, sometimes you don’t want to go there, but when you’re there, it’s like a deep soul embrace and you never want to leave. David described meeting me as, “A Happy Accident”, so perhaps it was meant to be.
We wrote “No Stars” years ago with John Neff, David’s long time engineer, producer, mixer, guitar player, and song collaborator. In 2002, when I was back in LA, Brian told me that David has something he wants to write with me. David showed me some chicken-scratched words, a sort of free form poem he wrote, and he said, “So Rebeky, I want you to write some Spanish lyrics and then come up with a melody, can you do that?” I told him absolutely, I’ll take it home and bring it back in a week or so. He said, “No, no, I want you to do it here now.” I remember Brian looking at me and saying, “Well, you’ve never disappointed me before!” I thought, Oh, no pressure at all thanks Brian! Fortunately, I was listening to a lot of Morrissey at the time, so I felt inclined to repeat some of the oddball lines and it worked. The melody came out the first time, it was magical. I waited for the changes and then sang after them just like Little Jimmy Scott. It sounds deliberate, but I was waiting for the chords to change, thus the pretty cool delay. I’m rather proud of that collaboration.
“No Stars” was one of my late son, Phillip DeMars, favorite songs. He loved the music and the pureness of my voice. I included that song on my Love Hurts Love Heals album as that album is dedicated to my son. I never thought of my song being the only foreign language song, but you’re right, it is and what an honor that is to be the singer who brings that into the Twin Peaks world. I hope that all the Latino fans felt something fulfilling in that song. What the Log Lady said before my song was very touching, especially since Twin Peaks was her last filming. Her words were so profound and telling. It makes me cry to think of that dear woman and her beautiful work. I’m honored to have shared a moment on the air with her. David set that scene up so beautifully and I only have him to thank for it.
Moby performed the song with me. He’s amazing! He and I have never worked together although I’m a big fan. I will tell you this, we did a little impromptu jam before the filming together of “Sweet Home Alabama”, one of my favorite songs. I leaned in and whispered to him, “Now I can say I played with Moby.” He was gracious and a total gentleman. I hope to collaborate with him one day.
Filming “No Stars” was almost exactly like filming “Llorando” in the Club Silencio scene for Mulholland Drive. The only difference was I had an audience. I looked into the lights, I pictured Laura Harring and Naomi Watts crying there in the mezzanine, and I got lost in the performance. I went back in time to the Tower theater and I could feel David watching me and I felt his heart beat into the music. I only wanted to make him proud. I needed to show him that I could still deliver. It was a true testament to the power of music. I was transported to another dimension with the girls, David and myself, alone together. I had tunnel vision and was escorted into a Lynchian time warp. What a way to go.
Another happy accident was how I was told to come camera ready which basically means that there was no hair, makeup, or wardrobe offered. I fussed for weeks about what to wear. I looked everywhere for the perfect dress. Two days before the shoot, I was at a department store and I was about to give up when I caught a piece of that chevron pattern out of the corner of my eye. It was calling out to me in a rack of clothes in the clearance section. I practically jolted for it because the store was closing and I was being led out by the manager. I pulled it out and, much to my amazement, it was a beautiful sequined chevron dress in my size! The next day, I had it tailored to fit me, and it did until I put the corset on underneath, then it was quite revealing. I guess that worked itself out too. I honestly don’t remember David telling me what to do, or not to do this time. “Llorando” is a different story. Let me know if you want to hear that tale! [Laughs.]
“Wild West”(Roadhouse Mix)
by Elisabeth Corrin Maurus, aka Lissie
Appears in: “Part 14”
As told to Special Agent Lior Phillips…
I was familiar with and a fan of David before this, and just around the time he started talking about my music and reached out to me, I had just gotten into Twin Peaks. So, it was doubly awesome to have that connection in the midst of my new TP obsession! Of course, it was flattering and validating that this person, with a mind as brilliant and interesting as his was fond of my work! David seemed to get me. It was very gratifying and pretty fucking cool. He understood and appreciated that there is a raw passion and power in what I do that is very instinctual. Sure, it doesn’t always translate in studio albums, in interviews or day-to-day interactions, but the heart of that live moment of letting loose is something I feel in a deep and wild way. I’m even more thrilled that he has supported and championed me as an artist, and blessed to keep that company. He is also just a very kind person with an encouraging and openhearted energy.
I knew nothing about this new season other than when I was approached to perform in the Roadhouse I was given the chance to choose which song I’d like to do. “Wild West” off my most recent album My Wild West seemed like a good fit. The song is about exploring one’s own potential and reality with a vibe that would work perfectly with whatever the script turned out to be. So much of David’s work deals in questioning reality, of light and darkness, so it felt appropriate.
I got home just before my episode aired, so I skipped ahead on my Showtime App to see my part. I felt full of pride and awe, an indescribable feeling. It made sense because when we shot the performance it all felt very relaxed with no time to overthink anything, so seeing the final result, it was just so beautiful. I did my thing and felt supported in that, and I couldn’t have hoped for it to turn out any better.
I remember David shouting out encouraging words on his megaphone! Everyone was in a great mood, people were mingling in the back, and some of the other artists were there having either just shot their scene, or about to shoot. I knew that I just needed to sing the song from my heart and enjoy the moment, and everything around me supported that. I can’t express enough how honored and pleased I am to be a part of something so iconic.
“Axolotl”(Roadhouse Mix)
by The Veils
Appears in: “Part 15”
As told to Special Agent Lior Phillips…
There aren’t many people you can say you’ve loved everything they’ve ever made, but David Lynch is certainly one of them for me. You never know what to expect meeting people that have achieved so much, especially in Los Angeles … the undisputed feeding grounds of the ego-monsters. We said before we arrived, “What if he’s an asshole? He could be, in fact he sort of should be.” But he wasn’t at all. I met a Bhutanese monk once when I was young and David reminded me a little of him, very gentle and sure of his movement. He certainly appears to be operating on a different psychological plane most of the time. The crew around him were all really warm and quietly protective of him, they reminded us a little of our band I guess, far more like a family than anything else. It was very heartening to see a group of people of such astounding talents working without a trace of arrogance or pretension. The best things are made with love and they’re testament to that.
It all started when we had recorded a song with the mighty Dean Hurley at David’s house. I think David heard it and Dean played him some other stuff off our new record. We really had no idea what we were doing until we got there, an absolute leap of faith. “Axolotl” fits into that curious dream-logic of the show, and it echoes all kinds of imagery from earlier on in the series too. I was just delighted I got to join in on a “Lynch Scream”. I didn’t realize quite how big a dream of mine it was until it happened. El-P was involved in the song’s creation and I did suggest he make an appearance, but he’s a very humble human being and I think wanted to leave us to have our moment up there.
During the actual filming, I wasn’t nervous which is unusual for me. We’d been through a tough year with all kinds of things fucking out; running out of money, people being indifferent to us, turning us down … we were really pretty despondent at that point. I just remember thinking, I’m going to stand up here and sing the whole song staring directly at David Lynch and really make him glad he took a risk on us. It was a really cathartic three minutes for me actually.
When we were on tour in The Netherlands, we had no idea it had even aired, so I just woke up to about a million text messages. I was hungover frantically trying to download the episode on rural Dutch wi-fi. I must have looked a real fright.
Otis Redding – “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long”(Live From Monterey Pop)
by Dean Hurley
Appears in: “Part 15”
As told to Special Agent Lior Phillips…
Otis Redding, that was just the needle drop. Let me give you a more bird’s eye view picture of this: David is a music lover. He has favorite songs that he’s always loved. I’ve been working with him since 2005, and in 2005, he played me “Sharp Dressed Man” by ZZ Top, and not just Otis Redding, “I’ve Been Loving You”, but this specific recording of him performing at Monterey Pop Festival. So, that’s the kind of beauty about this soundtrack, some of these are songs that he’s always wanted to use in scenes, and now they finally are. So this soundtrack is literally David’s playlist. This is what he would probably listen to if he was driving around town. There’s a couple supplemental things that I’m the most proud about is introducing him to Chromatics and Sharon Van Etten. He was obsessed with songs and arguably you could say some of the scenes were born out of songs.
I remember when David put Otis Redding in that scene himself, and when he laid it in he called me down to check it out because he was pretty proud. We watched the scene and he had this real devilish grin. He said, “Look at how when Ed says ‘I’m free: I just spoke with Nadine and she’s giving me my freedom back.’” This is exactly when Otis Redding sings, “… And you want to be free.” David laid it in the scene so naturally, but his tuning and the way his soul resonates with things, that’s an indication that he knows it’s meant to be when something like that happens, he’s looking for surprises and he’s looking to be surprised. He’s always been a real genius at leaving room for discovery and excitement in the process because that’s what pulls you through the work, through the long arduous process of committing years of your life to bring those 18 hours to the screen.
Julee Cruise – “The World Spins”
by Johnny Jewel of Chromatics
Appears in: “Part 17”
As told to Special Agent Michael Roffman…
In “Part 17”, it’s the final stop at The Roadhouse, and Chromatics was asked to be Julee Cruise’s backing band, so we had to do that in addition to our other two performances, and that was just absolutely incredible. We did “The World Spins” in six minutes and 38 seconds. The only drums are these really, really rare cymbal hits — they’re really sparse and random. So, we actually practiced for over a week, like seven or eight hours a day, playing the song.
I gave them a stage spot of where I thought Julee should be in regards to Chromatics because I played piano, Ruth played organ, Adam played guitar, Alex played saxophone, and Nat played drums. So, we had to figure out how to get everyone on stage. That was pretty much the only coordination.
It was really important for me not to be feeling myself or pretending that Chromatics was the new Julee Cruise or anything like that. I mean, Angelo, Julee, David — all that shit is 100% untouchable. And so it was just so important to me to be respectful and contribute in any way that he and Mark [Frost] saw fit and not get in the way, get on social media, or Instagram backstage — a selfie with Julee or some shit like that. It just wasn’t appropriate.
