SOUND ADVICE
David Longstreth of Dirty Projectors Is Taking His Musical Talents to the Movies
Photo courtesy of David Longstreth.
Welcome to SOUND ADVICE, Interview’s weekly destination for playlists curated by our friends, enemies, and lovers. In recent weeks, we’ve collected playlists from Chase Icon, Sausha, and Pressure Point. This week’s installment comes from singer, songwriter, and now composer David Longstreth of the Dirty Projectors. Originally formed in 2002 by Longstreth himself, the band projects a sound as folksy and green as the Yale campus it was founded on. But the frontman has since decided to put down the acoustic guitar and call in some different strings: an orchestra to score the newest A24 fantasy film The Legend of Ochi. As the movie hits theaters, Longstreth made a playlist especially for us filled with XXXTENTACION and Bob Dylan, fitting given the project’s taste for chaos and adventure. Afterwards, he took a stab at our Sound Advice questionnaire, where he revealed which rock legend he’s dreaming of collaborating with and the iconic composers who inspired Ochi‘s sound.
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Where do you dance? In the kitchen.
Who do you trust most with the AUX? This is kind of a cagey way of looking at it, right? Go ahead, plug in! For me, curiosity and the possibility of discovery trumps the comfort of sitting in a curated bubble of me & my friends’ exquisitely tasteful sensibilities lol…
What’s your earliest musical memory? Four years old, jumping on the living room couch to Richie Valens’ “La Bamba,” folding and unfolding the plastic cassette case as if it were a percussion instrument.
What song on this playlist do you wish you wrote? All of them.
Favorite Silver Jews album? Natural Bridge.
Dream collab, dead or alive: Jim Morrison.
Where do you find new music? My friends & Shazam.
All-time favorite film score: Black Orpheus.
What were the biggest inspirations for the soundtrack of The Legend of Ochi? For the three years before they shot the movie, the director and I talked only about [György] Ligeti, [Olivier] Messiaen, [Iannis] Xenakis, [Gérard] Grisey, [Kaija] Saariaho, and Jonny Greenwood. Once they were editing, it was John Williams: ET: the Extra Terrestrial and Jurassic Park.
What’s your all-time favorite movie-needle drop: Probably Bob Dylan’s “Man in Me” in The Big Lebowski.
Fuck, marry, kill: L.A. music venues. Lol… Fuck — Arts & Archives 2220. Marry — Disney Hall. Kill — The Wiltern.
Name your favorite artist no one knows about: Not enough people listen to Mississippi John Hurt. Not enough people listen to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Not enough people listen to Patrick Shiroishi.
What does your notes app look like? Uh, insanity? I’m actually writing my answers to this interview in the notes app.
Name three things you need in the studio: Good weed, Stoli, 5-hour Energy. JK. In the studio, I need time. I need the outside world to go away. I need to forget myself. And I need 70-year-old Telefunken V72 tube preamps.
