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a film by David Lynch
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Barry Adamson Interview

about his contribution to "Lost Highway"

"David Lynch rang me up and said 'Yesterday, I listened to your music for eight hours. I really like what you do and I'd like you to contribute something to my new picture'," says Adamson. What began as one track soon blossomed into a dozen when the two s at down and worked through the script. "The film is so up my street," adds Adamson. "I connected with it totally. It's a thriller, it's noir, there's mystery, horror, it was perfect for me."

Tell me about you and David Lynch?

"I just finished doing 40 minutes of music on his new movie. It'll probably get honed down . Trent Reznor is also contributing, underneath a score by Angelo Badalamenti. We've got a healthy crack at what's going on. It's a pretty amazing movie, right up my street. It fits well with what I do, which is pretty much why he got me on board in the first place. I'm working with a director of such incredible calibre and ideas..."

How did you tackle the job?

"I read the script first just to get an idea of what it was about. He asked what I thought about it and I said `F*#k! It's wonderful.' He said (Adamson does a stirling impression of Lynch's character Gordon from Twin Peaks) `Right up your alley, right?' I said `Yeah.' A lot of the ideas I try to get to, and the world I try to create - we're very similar, but on a greater level. I've always done stuff like this, y'know soundtrack stuff. When I did Moss Side Story it was like a calling card, saying I was `Soundtrack minded. I think in those terms, y'know. I'm pretty visual. So if you're making a movie and you can hear this fitting in anywhere then I'm your man.' When this Lynch thing came along, I wasn't too blown away, `cos I know what it is to write to picture. I've done those kind of things. I've done enough of it to get over certain things that hang you up in the first place."

Did you use all original music?

"I wrote 10 original pieces in a six week trail-blazing, crazy period. There's a party scene that's really weird..."

No! Weird?!? Not our David!

"You'll see. I'm not gonna tell you; but that's putting it mildly. They're slotting in Something Wicked This Way Comes from Oedipus Schmoedipus - which is a great feel for that mood. As the scene progresses, it gets a little darker and the song will fade into the background. That's the only `pre-released' song."


The August issue of England's "The Wire" magazine features an Invisible Jukebox column with Barry Adamson, who's done some music for Lynch's "Lost Highway." For those unfamiliar with him, he was bassist with postpunk group Magazine and a founding member of Nick Cave's The Bad Seeds. Here's what he has to say:

Adamson: "I've just done some work with David Lynch and he was very clear about what he wanted from the emotion of the scene, so he'd direct me in certain ways. Once I got in the ballpark, he'd say, 'Now I want you to go in a little further. Look at the eyes there. What are they saying, even though they're talking about this?' Then you start to underpin the emotions so it becomes three-dimensional."

Interviewer: "When I first saw Lynch's "Eraserhead" in my teens, I found Alan Splet's sound design extremely draining."

Adamson: "Incredible, incredible. This new film is draining, I tell you. I left the screening of it so worried. [Laughs] One scene is not too far from that ["Background To Murder"] in terms of the orchestration, lots of bass trombones and stuff, then it goes into other areas that are pure horror-noir. It's scary. I couldn't listen to this music for very long because things would start happening to me. I'd go home and people would start ringing the door bell at two in the morning and I'd think, 'That's never happened to me. What's going on?'"

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© Mike Hartmann
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