David Lynch: ‘Blue Velvet’ to BlueBob

Music has been nearly as important as the scripts and visuals in such influential David Lynch film and TV projects as “Twin Peaks” and “Blue Velvet.”

And Lynch has been active as a producer and collaborator with composer Angelo Badalamenti and singers Julee Cruise and Jocelyn Montgomery. So his opinion probably is worth noting in a discussion about the music and marketing strategies of a new act called BlueBob.

“It’s all horse manure,” says the director, sitting in the combination screening room/recording studio of his Hollywood Hills home, smoke trailing from his cigarette as he gives his hand a dismissive flip.

Sitting with him, John Neff and Pascal Nabet roll their eyes. It’s not just that they’ve heard this act before. It’s that Neff is half of BlueBob, while Nabet owns Soulitude, the label releasing its debut album.

Oh, and also because Lynch is the other half of the group.

Lynch writes the lyrics (little vignettes of paranoia and underbelly cruising) and plays guitars and various percussion items, while Neff adds everything else and handles the gruff, largely spoken vocals. Overall, the space-age bluesy atmosphere and dark scenarios make it perhaps a cousin to Tom Waits and Captain Beefheart more than to the stark, haunting beauty of Lynch’s other collaborations.

“BlueBob started because I love machines,” Lynch says. “I said, ‘John, I want beats like machines, like dogs on PCP -- when they bite down you feel it.’ ”

Lynch and Neff became acquainted in 1997 when the latter, a longtime studio engineer and designer, built Lynch’s home facility and wound up being hired as the director’s audio specialist.

Soon they started some musical experiments and officially teamed to produce Montgomery’s 1998 album, “Lux Vixen,” which featured interpretations of compositions by medieval mystic Hildegard von Bingen. It was released in this country by Mammoth Records.

BlueBob, Lynch says, started as an experiment. “There was no thought of an album at all, until we got four things recorded,” he says.

More serious about it, they continued writing and recording and last year finished the debut BlueBob album. It was released in Europe last month and got strong press interest and is due here in February or March. The group, with the two joined by Nasbet and three other musicians, made its first and so far only live appearance Nov. 11 at Paris’ historic Olympia Theatre, sharing a bill with Portishead singer Beth Gibbons.

Lynch, with no real musical performing experience, is thrilled about the opportunity but dubious about his own live role. “John is a performer and we had a killer band,” he says. “I am not a performer. I just sat there like an idiot. It was torment.”

However, with much radio exposure outside of public and college stations unlikely, there is talk of designing a multimedia theater presentation to bring the music to the public. Lynch is not committing. “It just depends on how much torment you can put up with,” Neff says to his partner.

Will Enrique get a response? Perhaps

An Enrique Iglesias single, “Quizas” (Perhaps), addressing family estrangement and reconciliation, is a hit on Spanish-language pop radio. Now the singer will make an attempt to reach an English-speaking audience with the song, but not by doing a new vocal.

Instead, a version of the song’s video -- a melancholy clip with Iglesias and others lip-syncing the lyrics in solitude reminiscent of a sequence in the Paul Thomas Anderson movie “Magnolia” featuring Aimee Mann’s song “Wise Up” -- is being released by Interscope with subtitles.

It will be featured this week on an installment of MTV’s “TRL” as well as on various TV entertainment news shows.

But the person at whom the song is most directed doesn’t need subtitles. Iglesias won’t specifically discuss the lyrics, but representatives say there’s no doubt the song was largely inspired by his own estrangement from his father, Julio Iglesias, and recorded in part with hope that it might bring about a response.

So far, the senior Iglesias has said nothing of it to his son. In a recent interview, though, he acknowledged hearing the song, and the two have occasional contact.

A spokesperson for the father said there was no further comment about the matter.

A word from their sponsors

Celine Dion, who has signed on to represent Chrysler’s new models with a song written for the campaign, is now working on an entire new album that will include that song. Max Martin, Peer Anstrom, Rick Wake and Umberto Gatica have all been producing tracks for the collection, which is expected to be released in conjunction with the March 25 opening of Dion’s concert production, “A New Day,” at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, Apple will offer a limited-edition Madonna signature model of its iPod digital music player in the days before Christmas. Bearing a laser-engraved autograph from the singer, the item will sell for regular price, but will only be available through her official Web site, www.madonna.com.

Small faces

New York trio Secret Machines had an impressive music business turnout at a recent Spaceland concert. Large contingents from Warner Bros. Records (including chairman Tom Whalley) and ArtistDirect (including Vice Chairman Marc Geiger) were on hand, along with representatives of Capitol Records and MCA Records. All seemed quite taken with the band’s atmospheric space-rock, which falls somewhere between Pink Floyd and Spaceman 3.

California rock band AFI is shooting a mini-movie for a DVD that will be packaged with its major-label debut album, due from DreamWorks Records on March 25. Meanwhile, the band’s three independent-label albums -- on vinyl LPs -- are being sold in an elaborate boxed set featuring the albums pressed on clear vinyl and a 24-page full-color booklet, all housed in a black velvet box. The set is available only through Nitro Records’ Web site, www.nitrorecords.com.

Rapper AZ, having asked for and received release from Motown Records, is shopping for a deal for his Quiet Money label. He’s working with two new acts, Trav and Nova, and plans to put out a single of his own in February. He’s also acting in the movie “Envy,” co-starring Lisa Ray, Ray-J, Chico DeBarge and Maya Campbell and set to premiere in April.

On March 18, the reunited Concrete Blonde will release “Live in Brazil,” a new album recorded, uh, live in Brazil. The group will tour in the spring as well.

A DVD tribute to late singer-songwriter Steve Goodman will be released March 18 by Red Pajama Records, the label he founded 20 years ago. The disc features 20 Goodman songs, including his most famous one, “The City of New Orleans,” drawn from performances on “Austin City Limits,” plus a mini-documentary with interviews of Goodman, John Prine, Kris Kristofferson, Arlo Guthrie and others. Goodman died of leukemia in 1984.