Yaron Gat : John, please introduce yourself to people who haven't heard of you yet.

John Neff : My name is John Neff and I’m originally from Detroit, Michigan area of the United States and I've been playing guitar since 1961. Been in bands since 1963, and made my first record in 1965. Toured for 11 years and made many records. I was a session musician for many non Motown Detroit based R&B artists in the early 70s, a lot of soul records. Settled in Toronto in the mid 70s with a group called "High Times" and we had a little album there and toured Canada and the north U.S. Then moved out west started working in California’s studios, toured with Steppenwolf and Hoyt Axton. Got out of the business for a year, moved to Maui. Then I built a studio in Maui and got back in the business started a Hawaiian record label. Hooked up with Walter Baker and Donald Fagan, made both of their solo albums and moved back to the main land and here we go again.


Yaron Gat : So you have played with a lot of musicians before, how is it to play with David Lynch ? Different ?

John Neff : Well, making this record was totally different than any other way I ever recorded. Because Dave works in a manner that he calls "act and react". You start with an idea, or not, and you make a thing and then that thing, it starts talking to him. He starts working it, and I won’t speak for David but that is what I observed. So we would start with a core, like an acorn and grow it into a tree. Usually it was developing a percussion patterns out of machines and later with drums. Maybe I would have an idea for some cords, a slight musical idea, or David would be experimenting on his guitar and come up with a music idea, and so then we recorded something, and that would tell us where to go from there. And sometimes the original things we recorded would be thrown out and it would be a second or third idea based on the first one that we kept. One of them we ended up doing a different key. An idea, similar to the first idea, but in a different key. It ended up being a whole other song. So whereas with Walter and Donald they knew exactly what they wanted, and their goal was to slice the the hair so fine to get the perfect performance from everyone and try to make it what Donald heard in his head. He had the complete record in his head. Whereas with Dave it’s - lets throw something in the furnace and see what happens when the molted metal comes out. It was a joyous recording process.

Yaron Gat : To follow the process and not to force the process.

John Neff : Correct. We went into sounds and music territories that I’ve never been in before and that with the other discipline would never be explored, without David’s ability to work a rough idea.


Yaron Gat : David can you describe your special way of playing the guitar ?

David Lynch : Well, it’s an opportunity. It’s a dialogue, that’s what it is. I don’t think you can call me a guitar player, but I play a guitar. It starts talking to me. Because of the sounds it wants to be a certain thing, so it’s been an experiment. It’s a real thrill, I’m starting to make it talk and now I’m hoping to make it walk.


Yaron Gat : You are now working on two more music projects right ? Thought Gang and Industrial Soundscape. Can you describe them ?

David Lynch : Right, Industrial Soundscapes is sort of what the name applies. "Thought Gang" is a deal that Angelo and I started a long ago.