The Los Angeles-based experimental pop band Xiu Xiu are probably the most well-known interpreters of David Lynch’s soundtracks and soundscapes. So, to satisfy founding member Jamie Stewart within the backroom of Stockholm’s music venue Slakthusen, or slaughterhouse, on a twilit winter afternoon feels acceptable. A loud, ambient hum all through our interview renders it nearly religious.
The band is halfway by a European tour of their new present., Eraserhead Xiu Xiu, a reinterpretation of Lynch’s 1977 debut characteristic that follows on from their wildly profitable present Xiu Xiu Performs the Music of Twin Peaks. Stewart, who makes use of they/them pronouns, is in response to a number of mutual mates “a sweetheart,” an outline that immediately cracks them up and loosens any wintry insularity.
Initially commissioned as a one-off efficiency by Brisbane’s Gallery of Fashionable Artwork to coincide with an exhibition of David Lynch’s paintings, Xiu Xiu Performs the Music of Twin Peaks ended up touring for 3 years after the sequence made a shock return with a 3rd season, birthing a brand new era of followers. When Lynch died, Stewart mentioned, audiences and presenters requested whether or not the band would revive the present. Xiu Xiu, who’ve launched round 20 albums since beginning in 2002, declined.
“We wouldn’t exist with out David Lynch,” Stewart mentioned. “But it surely felt disingenuous to play it once more at this level. I imply, it was very a lot of that second, and it’s too essential to us to only undergo the motions.”
“The phrase fandom generally appears somewhat bit diminishing,” they continued, “however I feel as a result of — and that is gonna make me sound very tacky, however I’m positive you are feeling the identical method — artwork is deeply impactful and essential to my existence, and I’m repeatedly profoundly moved by it. Attending to discover that’s not one thing we take flippantly. This sort of participatory fandom is one thing we put all the things we’ve got into.”
As a substitute, Stewart and musical companion Angela Website positioning started growing a brand new efficiency based mostly on “Eraserhead.” The selection was pragmatic as a lot as reverential. “‘Twin Peaks’ and ‘Eraserhead’ are the one Lynch works with that sort of singular sonic surroundings,” Stewart mentioned. “All of the music and all the flicks are glorious, however you couldn’t actually do a ‘Mulholland Drive’ live performance. The music goes in quite a lot of completely different instructions.”
“Eraserhead” solely options one unique tune, “In Heaven,” and two songs by jazz pianist Fat Waller, however its sound design, created by Lynch and Alan Splet, is a universe unto itself. Its mixture of selfmade industrial drones, mechanical pulses, and sustained low frequencies capabilities nearly as a steady rating. Whereas Sacred Bones Data has launched an official soundtrack sourced instantly from the movie’s audio, Stewart mentioned that precise replica was by no means the purpose.
“As a result of Alan Splet and David Lynch did one thing so particular, it was not that tough to take that palette and broaden from it,” Stewart mentioned. “It’s not a remix of ‘Eraserhead’, however we took their very particular and explicit concepts and grew concepts out of that.”
The event course of started with repeated viewings of the movie, an in depth rereading of Lynch’s printed interviews and biographies. Stewart assembled a palette of sounds, however early on, the undertaking stalled.
“I had all of the sounds,” Stewart mentioned. “After which I used to be caught.”
Website positioning proposed a structural resolution. As a substitute of approaching the movie musically, the pair mapped it narratively. Watching the movie once more, they divided it into 30 to 40 discrete segments. “The infant seems,” Stewart mentioned. “Dinner at Mary’s, Henry alone at residence; every one obtained a heading.”
Every section was assigned a common length and a cluster of sounds. From there, Stewart and Website positioning rehearsed by improvisation. In keeping with the band’s press launch, the present makes use of “discipline recordings, selfmade devices, organ, modular synths, vocals, flashlights, electrical interference, and parts of musique concrete”.
“Eraserhead” has been interpreted as a movie about parenthood, industrial alienation, masculinity, and anxiousness. Stewart doesn’t dispute these readings, however they weren’t the main focus of the efficiency.
“I’m not a father or mother,” Stewart mentioned. “That side wouldn’t have been sincere for me.”
As a substitute, Stewart and Website positioning focused on what Stewart describes because the movie’s “darkish sexuality.” They emphasised that this was not meant as a revisionist interpretation or a declare of discovery, however one thing that grew to become apparent on repeat viewings.
“Darkish sexuality is one thing that’s a part of my regular life,” Stewart mentioned. “I’ve some — and Angela has some — familiarity with that, so it appeared attention-grabbing to have that be an even bigger a part of the aesthetic. With ‘Twin Peaks,’ we would have liked to slender our focus, so we mentioned, ‘What if BOB was enjoying the music of “Twin Peaks”?’ There’s a lot happening in “Eraserhead,” however principally we’re specializing in the darkish sexuality and violence — I imply, there’s infanticide in it — and never a lot the familial themes or the failure of industrialism.”
When requested in regards to the attraction of those points, Stewart mentioned, “Numerous it simply comes from private historical past, ? Unlucky points of my private historical past. That is an annoying factor to say, however I attempt to not be too analytical about it. If I feel too exhausting about one thing, it tends to unravel or begin feeling somewhat bit much less real than I wished to. So, I discovered that these are the issues I used to be reacting to and thought, ‘OK, let’s simply go along with it.’”
That distinction issues inside Xiu Xiu’s broader physique of labor, which is ceaselessly described as confessional. Stewart agrees that many Xiu Xiu albums operate as private paperwork and diaries. Initiatives like Eraserhead Xiu Xiu, although, occupy a distinct class.
Stewart first encountered this mode of working throughout the “Twin Peaks” undertaking. “It was the primary time, as an grownup, that I’d made music that wasn’t instantly about my very own experiences,” Stewart mentioned. Slightly than inserting Xiu Xiu’s narrative into the fabric, the band’s purpose was to method the work from inside its present aesthetic logic. “We weren’t making an attempt to show ‘Twin Peaks’ into Xiu Xiu,” they mentioned. “We had been making an attempt to honour it by working inside one thing it helped create.”
The identical method applies to “Eraserhead.” Stewart resisted evaluation of their very own motivations. “I attempt to keep in what I consider because the decrease brainstem,” they mentioned. “When you intellectualize an excessive amount of, it may well unravel.”
That philosophy aligns with Lynch’s personal refusal to clarify his work. “That’s the reward,” Stewart mentioned. “Not telling individuals what to assume.”
Xiu Xiu’s relationship to Lynch himself has been longstanding, however oblique. The band carried out at Lynch’s Competition of Disruption in 2016, however Stewart elected to not meet with him. “I used to be too scared,” they mentioned. Stewart later discovered that Lynch had been standing side-stage throughout the band’s competition efficiency. “I’m so glad I didn’t know,” they mentioned, laughing with reduction. “It was clearly unimaginable that he watched us play, however I’d not have been capable of deal with it.”
Stewart believes it’s for one of the best that there have been by no means discussions about collaborating with Lynch. “We don’t sound just like the music he places in his movies,” they mentioned. “However I feel we sound like what his movies really feel like.”
This distinction additionally explains why Xiu Xiu didn’t seem on the Roadhouse throughout “Twin Peaks: The Return.” “All of these bands sound like music that will be in his motion pictures or that he likes,” they mentioned. “Though he was very, very supportive of what we did, he doesn’t really want that. Personally, it could have been cool, however I didn’t really feel dangerous about it as a result of it didn’t actually add up. After I noticed who else was doing it, I used to be like, ‘OK, that every one fully is smart.’”
When the information of Lynch’s loss of life broke, Stewart mentioned they had been shocked by the depth of their response. “I intellectually perceive parasocial relationships, however I really feel like any individual who was a giant a part of my life died,” they mentioned. “It nonetheless felt like dropping somebody essential. Proper when it occurred, I wished to attach with any individual who would perceive, so I known as a pal of mine who’s one other huge David Lynch fan. He’s additionally into Transcendental Meditation, and he mentioned one thing very nice. He mentioned, ‘You recognize, he was most likely completely blissed out in a meditative state, like, proper earlier than he went.’ Contemplating his devotion to that observe, it appears possible that he would have been.”
That emotional response partly knowledgeable the choice to create Eraserhead Xiu Xiu, although Stewart is cautious to not body the efficiency as a memorial.
“Normally engaged on music isn’t notably cathartic, and performing this live performance is traumatic as a result of it’s new and we’re nonetheless concentrating on the technical points, however as we’re placing it collectively, there was positively a way of catharsis,” they mentioned. “It’s a strategy to type of say thanks and goodbye.”
Eraserhead Xiu Xiu continues its tour by April with exhibits in Miami, Liverpool, Glasgow, Athens, and extra.
