For decades, film fans have marveled at the creativity of filmmaker David Lynch. Truly a one-of-a-kind filmmaker, Lynch has wowed audiences with his films and TV series that don’t quite fit in specific genres or structures. He’s someone that constantly keeps a viewer on their toes and always guessing. And that level of unique sensibility extends to his creative process, as outlined by “Twin Peaks” composer Angelo Badalamenti.
Today, “Twin Peaks” celebrates its 30th birthday, and to honor the occasion, we wanted to take time to highlight one of our favorite clips associated with the legendary mystery series. And though the clip doesn’t actually feature David Lynch, Badalamenti opens up about the creation of the Laura Palmer theme music from the series and, in doing so, shares one of the best stories about the filmmaker’s creative process we’ve ever heard.
Merely transcribing the discussion doesn’t do it justice, but basically, the way the music of “Twin Peaks,” particularly the theme for Laura Palmer, came about is with Lynch and Badalamenti sitting at a piano with a cassette recorder. Given the prompt to explain what he envisions the music of the Laura Palmer theme to sound like, Lynch goes into great detail about a picture he has in his mind associated with the music. And from there, the duo work on one of the more haunting and beautiful songs in the series.
Then, when Badalamenti finished playing the song, he said that Lynch had heard enough.
“David, got up, gave me a big hug, and said, ‘Angelo, that’s “Twin Peaks,”’” said the composer. “I said, ‘Okay, David, I’ll go home and work on it.’ He said, ‘Angelo, don’t do a thing and don’t change a single note. I see “Twin Peaks.”’ And that’s how it was done.”
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You can watch the full clip below and hear yet another story about Lynch’s creative process that will, at once, surprise and confound you but also sound exactly like what you imagine it might be like to work with the filmmaker.