The musical project of director
David Lynch and sound engineer
John Neff,
Blue Bob mixes naïve, '50s-inspired music with industrial rhythms, noise-scapes, and the overall strangeness that
Lynch brings to all of his projects.
Lynch has collaborated with other musicians, most notably composer
Angelo Badalamenti and singer
Julee Cruise. His partnership with
Neff began in the late '90s, when
Lynch hired the former session guitarist (who was also the studio engineer for
Walter Becker) to help form Asymmetrical Studios, his home studio in Los Angeles. Along with recording music there,
Lynch and
Neff also do ADR (additional dialogue recording) and sound effects for
Lynch's films and other projects. In
Blue Bob,
Lynch and
Neff work separately on sound effects and certain pieces of music, then collaborate on distorting them with guitar effects pedals, using up to 15 effects at a time. The duo began work on
Blue Bob songs in the spring of 1998 and continued to work on them for two years, including the time
Lynch was directing Mulholland Drive; several of
Blue Bob's songs made it onto the soundtrack of that film, as well as the group's self-titled album, which was released in 2003.
Lynch also made videos for some of
Blue Bob's songs featuring his Mulholland Drive stars Naomi Watts and Laura Elena Harring, which were available on www.davidlynch.com.
–
Heather Phares, Rovi