David Lynch interview: 'Even in the so-called dark things, there's beauty'

In a rare interview in 2023, the late Mulholland Drive director told BBC journalist Matthew Sweet about his defining work with composer Angelo Badalamenti.

From the darkness of Mulholland Drive to the soaring sweep of Twin Peaks, Angelo Badalamenti created the soundscape that accompanied director David Lynch's vision. The composer died in December 2022, and Lynch – who has died at the age of 78 – gave an interview to BBC Radio 3's Sound of Cinema the following year. "Even in the so-called dark things, there's a beauty," he told journalist Matthew Sweet.

David Lynch: Angelo, he can do anything, he can write any kind of music. He studied all the classical things, but he wrote jingles for a long time, so he can kind of do anything. The secret to Angelo is that if you know what you want, you've got to bring it out of him. It's there in him but you've got to bring it out.

Matthew Sweet: You first met him on the set of Blue Velvet, can you describe how he struck you? Was it love at first sight?

DL: In a way it was – Wilmington North Carolina was where we were. I wanted to get a local band, not a good band, just a local, hard-working band to back up Isabella Rossellini singing Blue Velvet. We were working away, working away and nothing was happening. We've got Fred Caruso to thank because he kept at me: "David. This isn't working, let me call my friend Angelo" but he was calling him Andy then. Angelo went by Andy Bedali in the early days, bless his heart – he sure didn't have to do that, but he did and Fred said, "Andy will come up and make this right." And I said, 'okay bring Angelo up'. And the next morning he worked with Isabella in the lobby of her hotel which had a piano that was there and came at lunchtime and played it for me at the Beaumont house in Blue Velvet. And I said, Angelo, we can cut this into the film just the way it is! It's fantastic!

Lyrics start saying something to Angelo's music brain and out comes this feeling from the lyrics. Because he can do anything, I could say things to him and he'd start playing that. And if I didn't like that, I'd say something different and it would change!

MS: You wrote lyrics for him in Mysteries of Love in Blue Velvet, and I think I can tell that Angelo Badalmenti loved you, because he'd say in interviews, David Lynch gave me these lyrics and they didn't rhyme, they had no hooks, what am I supposed to do with this!

DL: Angelo is in a way, old school – so I kind of confounded him, and he did like lyrics that rhymed and he did like form, but he could break that form easily if you force him. And bless his heart, this guy could do anything! Another thing, Fred Caruso said, "You're always writing these little things on scraps of paper, why don't you send something up to Angelo">window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'alternating-thumbnails-a', container: 'taboola-below-article', placement: 'Below Article', target_type: 'mix' });