David Lynch and Interpol are working on a limited edition NFT series
Sorry Lynch fans, not even someone of his caliber is immune to the NFT craze
Aux News David Lynch
Back in 2011, David Lynch and Interpol had unexpected but perspicuous collaboration, when the filmmaker’s animated short I Touch A Red Button Man was the visual backdrop for Interpol’s song “Lights.” A video of the short soundtracked by the Interpol song then made rounds on the internet.
A decade later, it is happening again.
Interpol re-recorded “Lights” for a fresh project with Lynch, pairing newly recorded versions of the song with the auteur’s animation. But there’s an unfortunate catch: this time, the collaboration is a series of eight limited edition NFTs. That’s right—not even someone of Lynch’s artistry is immune to the NFT game.
The site for the NFT series reads:
In 2008, members of the band Interpol sat down with filmmaker David Lynch to discuss working together on a future project.
In 2010, collaborative talks resumed with plans for Lynch to produce visuals for Interpol’s performance at the 2011 Coachella Festival. The outcome was Lynch’s famous animated short film “I Touch a Red Button Man” accompanied by Interpol’s song “Lights”.
Skipping ahead to present day, Interpol has taken inspiration from Lynch to reimagine sections of “Lights”, their song inspired by the film. Together, Lynch and Interpol are now memorializing their collaboration through a series of seven pieces that will live in the infinite digital realm forever.
In an interview with Forbes about the project, Interpol frontman Paul Banks says, “The marriage of music and visual is an age-old tradition, and Lynch is a musician himself and has a love for music so it was a pretty organic way for artists from two separate media to come together.” He adds, “From our standpoint, we are all crazy about Lynch so it was amazing that our work was paired with his.”
But even those who are just as “crazy” about Lynch as Interpol aren’t thrilled about the filmmaker—who recently complained about people watching movies on their phones—buying into such a silly internet craze.
If you do actually want to own one of these NFTs, there’s still a major downside. The way NFTs work is that they’re exclusive, so you’ll have to compete with tons of other fans willing to pay an exorbitant amount of money to have a unique piece of Lynchian art. The auction begins today.
28 Comments
Every time I see a story about NFTs, I hear “Money for Nothing” playing in the back of my head.Shameless plug: If you’re wondering what NFTs are, I tried my best to offer a layperson’s explanation here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1361605/8570898-episode-23-demystifying-nfts-and-the-blockchain
Seeing any legitimate artists get in on the NFT craze is so unbelievably sad. What a fucking stupid (and destructive) waste of money.
It’s been my experience that any item where the supply has been artificially restricted to drive up the value/demand isn’t really worth owning in the first place.Looking at you, diamonds.
I think that’s true for items specifically made to be an “asset”, like collectables and cyptocurrencies.There’s been some great art that’s gotten limited releases, though, or limited physical releases. Indie games/anniversary collections, posters, collectible card games and so forth would be so much better if they got wider releases or weren’t blind-bagged. Same goes for content that gets vaulted after a limited window, or walled behind a subscription service; or devices and parts that get grabbed up by scalpers.In other words, where such things *are* worth owning, the artificial limits actively detract from them or diminish the value relative to the cost.
NFTs seem to be a phenomenon akin to social media, wherein they allow us to see people we respect demonstrate their fallibility or unscrupulousness.
That’s a take.
Pwould should honestly go to prison for this shit
If you want evidence that we are living in a video game/simulation, think of NFTs like a gold sink reducing inflation in a MMORPG. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_sink
Apparently this Interpol is a band or something? I was hoping the actual Interpol (as in international police) was working with Lynch — maybe on a project to end NFTs once and for all.
They’re too busy getting embarrassed by Carmen Sandiego for decades to do anything about annoying cryptobros.
I thought “cryptobros” said “ouroborous” and for a minute thought far too deeply.
*sighs, crosses Lynch off List of Good Ones*
I love interpol. I love David Lynch. I will not get an NFT from either of them because it’s so, so stupid.
Same, exactly
“The way NFTs work is they’re exclusive…” They’re really not. Every single thing you can buy an NFT for you can just right click and download without difficulty.An NFT is a unique link to a file on a server somewhere. They’re not actually that file.
The premise of the article seems a little off-base, at least for Lynch. For me, the biggest downside of all this is that it potentially takes time away from WHATEVER Unrecorded Night is/was.
If Lynch can make money off some more ugly doodles — grand. It hopefully just reduces his need to seek outside funding for future projects, making said projects more likely and less reddit speculation. If Lynch were a money-driven artist, he wouldn’t have made a three-hour movie about anxiety starring Laura Dern and co-starring Naomi Watts in a rabbit costume.
At first I was shocked that there was a previous Interpol/Lynch collaboration that I didn’t know about, but then I saw it was for a song off their self-titled album, which kind of sucks, so I guess that’s why I wasn’t paying attention.
This genuinely makes me want to die.
Lynch has already fallen for bullshit before, like transcendental mediation.
One of these days tulips are going to come back around and then I’ll be laughing.
“This is brilliant subversion of the NFT concept, actually…taking the blockchain too literally is a mistake, it operates on dream logic”
This is depressing
for Lynch art is a thing you do. paint draw film make a song etc., the only way to engage with it is to do it, so he’s doing an NFT. Also, some people are upset about this aspect, but artists are rarely completely insensible to the art market. NFTs are another scam, but so is the entire art market (especially when it doesn’t pay the artist, which at least NFTs tend to).Lynch making an NFT is no more worrisome to me than Lynch writing a country song (and I bet he’s written a country song).
He has! Lol
I wish all his previous projects had been as pointlessly destructive as the NFT market. All every day he worked on Twin Peaks he had to burn down 500 trees and slap a video card out of a kid’s hands.
Knowing Lynch, this is him just trying to do the new art thing. Otherwise truly disappointing.
pay an exorbitant amount of money to have a unique piece of Lynchian art.
to have the Link to a unique piece of Lynchian art. Because that’s the point of NFTs. That you Don’t actually own the thing.
I’m a huge Lynch fan, but if you know anything about him you know he can be a shameless promoter if it can supplement his better work. The original run of Twin Peaks had more books than I could keep up with and freakin’ trading cards. The Return came with even more official merchandise. Still, my bet is his use of NFTs is probably driven by his career-long obsession with emerging technologies and interacting weirdly with them. I also doubt anything he earns from the NFT will be going towards a new Lambo; it’s probably going to his Foundation. Gossip and entertainment bloggers are always looking for the next Great to fall from grace. David Lynch ain’t it.