Autechre’s Sean Booth on David Lynch: “he likes us enough to want us to do a gig for him”

The musician recently took to Twitch for an AMA in which he talked about Lynch, Nintendo’s Metroid Prime and the ‘two guy theory’ in electronic music.

Responding to a question asking if David Lynch is aware of Autechre‘s music, Sean Booth explained that before Covid, the duo had previously been asked to play a fundraiser for the David Lynch Foundation – which is focused on transcendental meditation. “He sent us a nice little letter, it was really cool,” Booth said, “I was like fucking hell a letter off David Lynch!” Given that Lynch had invited the pair to play, Booth added, “I think he likes us enough to want us to do a gig for him.”

In reply to someone else asking what track Booth would play to Lynch, he said he’d probably play “something unreleased, ’cause I’ve got a few things that I think he might like that I’ve not put out.” In a previous interview with Pitchfork, Booth revealed that Lynch has been a significant influence on his approach to space and time in his music.

Elsewhere in the six-hour Twitch stream, entitled Quick AMA, Booth talked about Nintendo’s Metroid Prime. He said that Autechre had been asked to do the soundtrack for the video game, which Booth refers to as “the best game ever”, by the game company Retro Studios: “They were really keen and we were really keen, because it’s fucking Metroid,” Booth said. He went on to explain, however, that Nintendo had “borked it for some reason and wanted their guy to do it,” with Kenji Yamamoto composing the game’s score instead.

Fans have been speculating about Autechre’s involvement in Metroid Prime since Booth and Rob Brown’s names appeared in the credits for the 2002 game. Some fans have even argued that the soundtrack bears resemblance to Autechre’s early music. In response to this, Booth said that he didn’t see the similarity, “I don’t know how much involvement they had in the sound of it, or whether they intentionally tried to make it sound a bit more us, but I don’t think so really.”

Booth also touched on the ‘two guy theory’, saying for him, “it’s good having another person to bounce stuff off, ’cause I figure if I like it and [Rob] likes it, there’s probably some number of people who would like it so it’s worth releasing.” During the AMA, Booth also responded to questions about Autechre’s live setup and approach to making and releasing music. Watch the full AMA back here.

Last month, a catalogue of decade-old unreleased Autechre and Gescom music was leaked via Youtube, which Booth since confirmed as early works of the electronic groups.