Thomas Truax - Songs From The Films Of David Lynch (Available Now) (1/2) By Michelle Dee

(1/2), (2/2),

'What does this song need to come alive?'

New York anti-folk hero, Thomas Truax has oft had his music described as that of befitting a David Lynch film. The surreal settings, the darkly twisted stories, the cult appeal lend themselves well to his compositions - the innovator, the rebel, the outsider. The epiphany moment came when Truax's photographer friend, Chris from Sheffield was photographing the iconic film maker and passed on a few of Thomas' CDs to him hoping that David Lynch would like them.

The two friends mused over the idea of a covers album and when they heard that Lynch was a fan of Truax's work, the die was cast.

Truax met Lynch just the once, and found they shared a penchant for striking shoes, a passion multi-faceted music and rockabilly. Thomas spoke to me about how he had seen Eraserhead as a young man and the profound affect it had on him. One of those times when the child finds a new secret world away from parent's prying eyes. I felt the same way about Twin Peaks and played the soundtrack endlessly, obsessing about the characters wanting to escape into their world.

I'm interrupted by Matt Thompson (The Holy Orders) proudly proclaiming he has sold one of the new albums from a haphazard merchandise stall in the opposite room. The CD in question is a limited edition (250 copies), blue velvet-covered album Thomas Truax Plays songs From the Films of David Lynch. Thomas already knew he wanted to do songs from Lynch's Wild at Heart. He knew, and could play half of the songs from the soundtrack straight off.

Not wishing to be repetitious, he purposely avoided Wicked Game due to already having a song in the set with high pitched howling - Full moon over Wowtown. The idea began as a small project - a side project, you might say - a stripped down rockabilly take on tracks from some of Lynch's film soundtracks. Serendipity played a hand in the way the collection came together. Whilst working on the string-a-ling a member of his extended family of instruments, he filed a few of the notes off the music box and found it played a rough version of the melody to In Heaven, so that song was clearly in.

Thomas' partner, Hazel gave him a bat detector as a birthday present. The two went off to find the nocturnal creatures and subsequently record them. Bats make two kinds of noises; a squeak that children can hear, but adults tend not to be able to (hearing diminishes with age) and the echo location system that allows them to find their way around in the dark. Thomas and Hazel set out to record the ones you can't hear. Thomas was able to lower the pitch of the recorded noise by using a device similar to an old synthesizer oscillator in order to hear it. He says the sound is like that of a wet clap; essentially a percussive sound.

Thomas worked on the sound further, managing to incorporate the bat noises into one of the songs on the new album.

Continued....Next Page (2/2),

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