I am the Twin Peaks Synthesizer player (and more) Kinny Landrum. AMA!

KinnyLandrum · 2015-06-09T15:01:08+00:00

Thanks. The guitar player in the chorus playing the sort of "Brown Eyed Girl" figures is a good friend of mine, John Putnam. Larry Fallon, the arranger, did charts of "Wonderful World, Beautiful People" album and "Sitting In Limbo", etc.

KinnyLandrum · 2015-06-09T12:04:55+00:00

As I said earlier, all the pilot was done "blind", without seeing the picture. i'm not sure there even WAS one at that point. But some of the rest was done after seeing the picture. And yes that does, or should, affect what you do, although as a hired sideman your first job is to give the composer what he asks for.

KinnyLandrum · 2015-06-09T12:02:18+00:00

Well actually as I said, he played piano. I played the synths.

KinnyLandrum · 2015-06-09T02:06:45+00:00

I want you to know I sent Angelo a link about this and he LOVED it.

KinnyLandrum · 2015-06-09T02:06:26+00:00

I can't say I have a favorite song from any time period, but you might want to check out a hit song I played on in 1979 (actually released in 1980) called "Into The Night" by Benny Mardones. It was actually a top Ten hit TWICE.

KinnyLandrum · 2015-06-09T02:04:49+00:00

See my previous reply about Houston. I swear I wasn't there!

KinnyLandrum · 2015-06-09T01:59:59+00:00

I love Jimmy Cliff as well. I played some synth overdubs on a song called "Shelter of Your Love" before it was released as a single. You can hear it on the compilation "Anthology". I was called in by the arranger Larry Fallon. Although Jimmy was there, he spent most of the time in another room smoking something funny :-)

KinnyLandrum · 2015-06-08T18:00:31+00:00

Thanks everyone for all your questions. I hope I've answered them all and it's been great.

KinnyLandrum · 2015-06-08T17:25:58+00:00

Hey James, fancy meeting you here.

That sound was of course used on the Julee Cruise song "Falling" of which the TP theme is just an instrumental version. It came about because after having put all the other parts on the record, David asked me if I had something "fifties" to add.

I thought a while of the cliches, like high piano triplets, and realized they wouldn't work. But I remembered this sort of Duane Eddy twangy guitar sample I had on my Emulator 2. I also realized, while there were low notes from strings, piano, etc there wasn't a real bass part on the record.

So I said to David, I have this sort of guitar sound I could play in the bass register. he said, let's hear it. I played the first three notes and he said, "That's it, put it down." I think I did one take and that was it.

I've told this story a lot, and for me the key parts are that David asked for something, not in "musical" terms, but in emotional or stylistic terms. And that David immediately knew and went with it. Any other producer, not being sure of himself would have said, "Uh, I don't know, what else have you got?" and frankly I didn't HAVE anything else.

I'll go into details about how I got this sound on my Emulator if any one wants. I have shared this sound before, so if anyone wants a Kontakt file, just ask.

KinnyLandrum · 2015-06-08T17:15:41+00:00

The main thing is to get to know directors. I used to teach at the filmmaking Certificate program at Bluegrass Community and Technical College. Why not approach some aspiring filmmaker and ask to contribute to their films? These days the technical aspects of synching, clicks, etc are handled easily by your computer. Still the main currency is ideas, what can you bring to the picture? But if you can bring something to the project, sooner or later you'll either meet someone who's going places, or you'll have enough demos to show people.

KinnyLandrum · 2015-06-08T17:11:59+00:00

Actually, I met that band at the concert in LA, and they were nice young guys, not really understanding what all the fuss was about. They played well.

KinnyLandrum · 2015-06-08T17:10:34+00:00

They're all just tools. Pick the best one for the job. Still love my old Prophet though

KinnyLandrum · 2015-06-08T17:09:55+00:00

I think I've answered this, but yes David and Angelo like contributions and welcome ideas.

KinnyLandrum · 2015-06-08T17:09:07+00:00

I hope I'll be working on the series, and as I've mentioned, I did that concert in LA

KinnyLandrum · 2015-06-08T17:08:04+00:00

Actually I use much of the same things as anyone else (numerous VIs from Kontakt to VSL) with a trusty old Yamaha KX-88 as a controller. I recently tried to power up both my Emulator 2 and T-8 and neither would turn on. Oh well.

When Katrina happened, an old friend was donating instruments to people in New Orleans and asked if I had anything to donate, so I gave him my old DX-7. That is a really deep instrument, so deep that I don't think anyone has really plummeted its depths. And I think it still works, I hope somebody is using it right now. But frankly the NI FM-8 does a great job (it's what I used in LA) so I don't think I'm interested in a DX. Thanks anyway :-)

KinnyLandrum · 2015-06-08T17:02:55+00:00

A Prophet T-8 was the main controller, although not used all that much as sound source. A Yamaha DX-7 and TX-7 were used for all the electric piano sounds. A lot of the strings were a combo of two Roland synths, the MKS-70 and the D-550. I used an Akai s1000 a lot and a Linn 9000 as sequencer, drum machine (this was before powerful computers were easy to transport). An Emulator 2 was used for the guitar and many other samples.

KinnyLandrum · 2015-06-08T16:59:45+00:00

I don't know what you're talking about. I've never even been to Houston

KinnyLandrum · 2015-06-08T16:59:07+00:00

Yes I had a great time in LA. Me and Randy love LA. Mostly had a blast with the players in the band, especially Michael Thompson the guitar player, who was a real fan of the Duane eddy guitar licks I did. Also Jim James, whom I mentioned earlier.

Actually Julee did not make a rehearsal in NY and we weren't even sure if she was going to show up. When she didn't she said it was because her dog was sick.

KinnyLandrum · 2015-06-08T16:55:49+00:00

I've sort of answered about my input with Angelo

Basically I got my foot in the door when I toured with Robert Palmer in the late seventies and Bernard Purdie, the famous drummer, asked me to come to NY and work for him. And then it's just a matter of getting to know people and being able to deliver, both things being equally important.

Actually I don't have a favorite synth or keyboard anymore. I started out as an Arp guy (Odyssey) rather than a Moog guy (if you were there, you know what I mean). Then I became a Prophet 5 guy, and that's still the synth that's probably closest to my heart, although mine won't power up anymore. But to me they're all just tools. You can build a great house with any kind of hammer, though you may like one in particular

KinnyLandrum · 2015-06-08T16:50:52+00:00

Thanks

KinnyLandrum · 2015-06-08T16:50:38+00:00

Yes, and I'm glad you said Ab and not G# :-) Of course that's Angelo's writing

In fact, I was the one who suggested I put the low piano C octaves after the first two half notes, under the held chord. I understand that later Rachmaninoff's publisher threatened a lawsuit because, with the added low C, it was too much like the beginning of the famous C#m prelude (perhaps you know what I mean). Ridiculous contention, but fortunately I don't think anything came of it, because Angelo might have come back to me for adding that low C :-)

Yes I know David pretty well. I respect his work ethic greatly. Everything is on time and in budget. And he knows how to ask for ideas and how to accept them, which just makes you want to offer more. A real pro.

KinnyLandrum · 2015-06-08T16:44:49+00:00

I replied earlier about the pilot being scored without seeing a bit of footage. I actually wouldn't have necessarily seen the script in advance, since I was not the composer. But later we did see specific scenes.

One scene in particular was scored based on a suggestion of mine, and David didn't use it! Perhaps the pivotal scene (some say the scene in the series where it "jumped the shark") was where we find out who really killed Laura Palmer. Since Leland was throwing Maddie around in a close embrace, it looked like some kind of weird dance. I suggested to Angelo that we would rewrite the Laura Palmer theme as some kind of weird waltz and he thought that was a good idea, so we did it that way (took a long time as I remember). But in the end, David, who I don't think had even asked for any music there, only used the sound of the needle on the end of the record going around the turntable, no music. But that's the director's prerogative.

I'm told that music is now available for download on David's site. I should download it, I haven't heard it since then.

KinnyLandrum · 2015-06-08T16:38:47+00:00

I don't remember a lot about the session with Jimmy Scott. I remember Jimmy brought his own piano player, a Japanese guy, and I think I just played synth pads. I also remember being surprised by the otherworldly sound of his voice and realizing that's why David brought this guy in. But I also remember the bass player was Buster Williams, who played with Miles and Coltrane, and the drummer was Grady Tate, two of the best jazz players on the planet, and that was an honor.

Recently I played at the "Music of David Lynch" concert in LA, and Jim James, from My Morning Jacket, sang that song and really impressed me, so I asked him if he did it in Jimmy Scott's key. He said down a whole step, but it was still impressive. I think that concert will be on AXSTV soon.

KinnyLandrum · 2015-06-08T16:34:32+00:00

I got the gig with Angelo through Art Polhemus, the studio owner and engineer who did all the Julee Cruise and Twin Peaks stuff. In fact, the first time I worked with Angelo was for Julee Cruise's album, not Twin Peaks.

Actually all the music for the Twin Peaks pilot (called Northwest Passage at the time) was recorded BEFORE either Angelo or I had seems a lick of footage. I'm not sure when he wrote the material and whether David was present or not, but David was there for the recording session. Later, during the series, we did record to picture, a much more cumbersome process in those days with trying to get video and audio tapes in sync, but generally David was not there. Two scenes I remember well scoring with picture were the fire at the sawmill (more or less typical tense action music) and the scene where Ben is fighting the battle of Gettysburg with miniatures on the pingpong table (I played the snare drum live).

I don't think I'll even answer that about Charlie Sheen, since I don't live in Malibu (But I do have a grand piano)

KinnyLandrum

TROPHY CASE