Wild Card with Rachel Martin: NPR

David Lynch says it felt like he was living three different lives as a teenager.

Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images

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Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images

David Lynch says it felt like he was living three different lives as a teenager.

Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images

A comment from Wild card host Rachel Martin: David Lynch says that the first time he tried transcendental meditation, “It was like I was in an elevator and someone cut the cables – poof! In I went.”

Down he delved into his own subconscious.

And that analogy – of sitting in a cut-away elevator – is also what it feels like to absorb Lynch's work. Whether it's the TV show Twin Peaks or the movie Mulholland Driveit feels like you're entering a dark and surreal part of the human psyche and it's totally confusing but also exciting.

And honestly, that feeling of being in freefall in the elevator is a bit like what it feels like to talk to him. Our conversation started with some fond memories of his childhood and then the elevator drops and suddenly we're much deeper into Lynch's mind than I expected, and we're all along for the ride.

At the age of 78, Lynch is still making art. He plans to release a new album with artist Chrystabell in August. He told me that the music started as a sound experiment he was working on. When he got Chrystabell to sing the music, he discovered that “she's perfect for this and in ways I can't really explain.”

That said, he doesn't think the new music is easy to listen to. He says even he was put off by it at first: “First time I heard it: total bulls***.” But he also says that with repeated listens it opened up for him. 'Second hearing, a little less. Third hearing, beautiful.”

The title of the album, Cellophane memories, is a reference to the way the music moved him. “We just clicked like a friend. And it brings back memories… listening to this, all these distant memories started to bubble up. Something about this music brought back memories.”

He says this will happen to anyone who listens: “You will find music that brings back memories… that will bring so much beauty and happiness into your life. Beauty is so tender. It's tender music, but tender as in beautiful. “

This Wild Card interview has been edited for length and clarity. Host Rachel Martin asks guests randomly selected questions from a deck of cards. Tap play above to listen to the full podcast, or read an excerpt below.

Question 1: What is a moment from your childhood when you realized you wanted to make different choices than your parents?

David Lynch: I was sitting in the front yard of my girlfriend's house in ninth grade. And I met a guy named Toby Keeler, who didn't go to my high school. He went to a private school. And he told me that his father was a painter. And at first I thought his father was a house painter. But he said, “No, a painter.” And a bomb exploded in my head. A bomb that changed my life in a millisecond – changed my life completely.

And from that moment on I wanted to be a painter – just that. So I never really wanted to be my father, who was a scientific researcher at the Ministry of Agriculture. But because I wanted to become a painter, an artist, I was sure that I would not follow in my father's footsteps.

Lynch poses for one of his works of art at the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art in 2007, during his exhibition “The Air is on Fire”.

Dominique Faget/AFP via Getty Images

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Rachel Martin: You had to have a high risk threshold to go down that path – or delusional, some might say. Where do you think that instinct came from, since these weren't necessarily things that manifested in your parents' lives?

Lynching: If you like something, there is no problem. There is no problem. You are in love and you take whatever comes along. You are in love.

Question 2: What was your form of rebellion as a teenager?

Lynching: Well, I've lived three lives. I lived a domestic life. I lived a school life, with my lover, my girlfriend. And the studio, you know, the art life – and was also a bit of a party animal at the time.

So I had these three lives and I didn't really want any of them to intermingle. So I started having intestinal spasms.

Martin: You developed a condition, so you created it for yourself? Was it psychosomatic?

Lynching: It was a psychosomatic illness, yes.

Martin: And what has it done for you?

Lynching: I suck my pants. That's what happened. It was something terrible. However, I will tell you a good side of this. The Vietnam War broke out around this time. And my father took me to a doctor because of the cramps in the intestines. I have a [colonoscopy]. And the man was a great doctor and he pretended – as he watched – it was a race track. And he said, “Here they go around the corner! They go around – so and so number seven is in the lead! And they go around this corner!” – according to the [colonoscopy], you know, while he was telling me about my intestines. Anyway, he said, “You're having intestinal cramps,” and he said, “By the way, I see on the X-rays that you have a vertebra out of place, and if you ever get drafted into the army, I'll can give you these x-rays, and you probably won't get called if you want to leave.”

So intestinal spasms led to a doctor who helped me get out, and I didn't have to go to Vietnam.

Question 3: What failure have you learned the most from?

Lynching: My movie Dune. I already knew you had to have the final cut before signing up for a film. But for some reason I thought everything would be fine, and I didn't take a permanent reduction in my contract. And as it turned out, Dune was not the film I wanted to make, because I had no final say.

So that's a lesson I knew before, but now I can't. Why would someone work for three years on something that isn't yours? Why? Why do that? Why? I died a death. And it was all my fault for not knowing to put that in the contract.

Question 4: Where have you experienced awe?

Lynching: My first meditation. I was there [the transcendental meditation] center and I had just gotten a lesson. And I was taken to a small room and my teacher said, “Sit here, close your eyes. Sit here and begin your meditation. I will be back in 20 minutes.”

So I sat down and closed my eyes and started with what I had just learned and tree! It was like I was in an elevator and someone cut the cables — poof! Inside I went. Wow. Bliss. The bliss that makes you cry. Very nice. So powerful. Transcendental meditation is garbage going out and gold coming in.

I always say we live like a suffocating rubber clown suit of negativity. We don't want to be clowns. We don't want that heavy, smelly rubber of negativity around us.

You begin to transcend every day, the rubber begins to disintegrate and evaporate. And freedom comes. Happiness starts to come. It just happens automatically. It is so beautiful. Why doesn't everyone and their little brother meditate? Don't know. Go figure.

Martin: I have to say it seems like you've really found a level of satisfaction that I don't think many people have found.

Lynching: It's all there. If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone. And it's an amazing journey that we're all on. It only makes it greater when you transcend every day. Money in the bank. 20 minutes in the morning, 20 minutes in the afternoon, and the rest of the time you do your own business.