The world lost a giant in January with the passing of David Lynch. How can you describe the career of a legend in only a few short sentences? For Grammy winner Flying Lotus, Lynch was the definition of a creative. He was the most important artist to me, Flying Lotus said of Lynch. Flying Lotus collaborated with Lynch on his song Fire Is Coming. Now, Flying Lotus channels his inner Lynch for his new directorial effort, Ash.

On a distant planet, astronaut Riya (Eiza Gonzlez) wakes up and discovers that her entire crew has been slaughtered. When Brion (Aaron Paul) arrives at the space station after receiving a distress signal, Riya contemplates every possibility. How did this happen? Is she a killer? Is Brion lying? Whatever the answer, Riya must figure it out quickly. She doesnt want to be around if the thing that slaughtered the crew returns.

Recommended Videos In an interview with Digital Trends, Flying Lotus grapples with space exploration, explains his decision to act in the film, and reminisces about his artistic hero.

Related This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Digital Trends: I actually just spoke to Aaron and Eiza, and they specifically said, Please let Flying Lotus know we love him. That is their message to you.

Flying Lotus: Aw, theyre so sweet. I love them, too. Theyre so good. Theyre so good.

Eiza actually said something fascinating to me. She saw Ash and survival horrors in general as sports movies.

Oh, wow.

With how physical you have to be and the journey you go on from one point to another, I want to throw that line towards you.

Thats interesting. Yeah. I could see it. This movie was not easy on her. It took a toll I could tell having to go to psychological places as well as physical places. After a while, it was starting to really beat her up. But thats what the movie is, right? When you sign up for it, you know youre going to go home sticky. [Laughs] You know, its not gonna be a fun comedy ride. But man, it aint easy. Not at all.

I love one of the lines in the film when the teams looking out at the planet. Its in the flashback. Being here is the start of something, not a reminder of what weve done. That really spoke to me about everything in life. I wanted to ask for your interpretation of that line.

I think theres something so inspiring I mean you get to explore a new planet. I think that its a cool concept, but not many people dont really drink that. Its like being alone out there. Its giving up everything. Thats hard. Its such a sacrifice. Even if you were leaving a really fucked-up world, youre still leaving your world, so trying to get in the headspace of that.

Whos the kind of person who would wanna do that? Try to think of that. This place that were at has to be worth leaving Earth for. Even though its a horror movie and its got this oppressive landscape, it also had to have some beauty, enough that you would want to leave for.

Im definitely not that person whos leaving.

Neither am I. I really learned that working on this movie. I was like, I could not do this. [Laughs] I could not do it.

Im glad someone else goes.

Yeah. Doing the space thing sounded really attractive when I was a kid, but nah, I dont wanna do that.

Well, something you did do for this movie was step in front of the camera and act. You had to be a little nervous the first time. Take me to that first day when youre like, OK. Im up.

You know whats worse? It was literally the first day, so that made it way worse. It wouldve been fine if it was like a week into filming, but I had to shoot on day one with Eiza and all the actors. These people whom Ive been watching in movies, I have to do scenes with them. I was like, Ahh. But it was a lot of fun, and Im glad I did it because it was also an icebreaker for all of us to build together and create together.

I dont recommend for directors to do it [acting], too. [Laughs] I do recommend directors try acting, even in a class, because you get to really feel what the actors are going through while theyre doing their scenes. You understand some of the mindset, confusion, frustration, and things that they [actors] may be feeling, so you can better adapt to that as a director.

Aaron talked about how you were playing music in between setups and sequences. Obviously, you have an illustrious musical background. Was that something that you wanted to do? Did you see another filmmaker do it and pick up on it?

Its something that Ive always done whenever Ive had an opportunity to be on set. I think that stems from music videos, right? Ive done so many music videos, and theres always playback of music and stuff. I think between setups, we probably ended up playing music, so I think I just kept that going. I could tell there were a lot of the crew members who were people who would listen to my music. Thats why they joined and did this hard work for very little money.

It was a kind of morale boost in low times. It was also one of those things that we could set a mood and a tone for the actors as well. It was very effective on set. I think more people should use it. It probably wouldnt be super helpful playing Berlin techno when youre doing a Victorian drama or something, but give it a shot. Who knows?

We listen to music to do everything, like writing.

Yeah! I am sure people move a bit faster when Ive kicked up that bpm.

I know we lost David Lynch a few months ago, and youve spoken about how hes been your hero. What a true artist. You spent some time with him. Maybe you could share something surprising that you picked up from him.

Im glad you asked because Ive been feeling like I havent said anything about David Lynch this whole time, acting like he didnt leave us. He was the most important artist to me. It was one of those things I felt was coming for a while. Knowing and feeling that, I was revisiting stuff the past year and rewatching everything. I felt like I saw him in an interview, and I was like, Oh yeah. Its coming soon. I picked up on that.

As far as his influence, I just always felt a kinship to the artists way and the artists life. Youre just giving yourself for the work. You know thats your purpose. Youre here to be a creative. Maybe you wont have that regular life that everyone else gets to have, but you get to have this other life thats very beautiful and get to do great things. Youre going to suffer in some areas, but its the way, and its what were here to do. That has been with me since the beginning.

Ash is now in theaters.

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