From UFOs to rock'n'roll, David Duchovny expands his repertoire

From UFOs to rock'n'roll, David Duchovny expands his repertoire

By Jane Rocca
19 January 2018 — 11:00am

Best known for playing FBI Agent Fox Mulder in The X-Files, actor David Duchovny has found his second calling – as a musician.

Right now his professional worlds are colliding – he's about to begin a tour of Australia/NZ and last month he finished filming The X-Files after a 14-year absence.


David Duchovny will perform in Australia in February.
Photo: Adam Stein

Filming the rebooted series between Vancouver and Los Angeles has given Duchovny a great throwback buzz, but he's also fallen in love with writing and recording his own music.

No stranger to the written word, Duchovny mastered a knack for storytelling by writing novels; his 2015 debut, Holy Cow: A Modern-Day Dairy Tale, made it to No. 15 on the New York Times Best Seller List.


David Duchovny as transgender FBI agent Denise Bryson in Twin Peaks.
Photo: Patrick Wymore

His debut studio album Hell or Highwater was released three years ago and his next, Every Third Thought, is due in early February.

"I always thought about music, appreciated it and listened to it, but I didn't pick up a guitar until about seven years ago and started writing songs four years ago," he says of his musical epiphany. "The whole thing came out of the blue for me and I am pleasantly surprised. I've found a whole different way of expressing myself."

The title track on his debut is low and murky, hinting at Leonard Cohen's almost spoken raspy inflection while Unsaid Undone is more poppy, with a crackling riff. Lately It's Always December gallops to a country beat, proving he's most comfortable in the deep dark alley of folk-pop.

"I haven't been singing my whole life, so I am not naturally gifted with a big voice," he says.


Actor David Duchovny - seen with Gillian Anderson in The X-Files - has found music and writing as another way to express himself artistically.

"For me, exploring a music path is very much revolved around trying to figure out what I can do. Once I figured out the sort of music I could sing, I naturally stuck with that.

"The second album is less heavy," says Duchovny of broadening his sound palette. "The first album was like, 'I can't believe I have actually written an album' and the second one is realising this is part of what I do now. It was more of a natural thing."

Now 57, Duchovny didn't start writing novels or music until he was in his 50s.

His third novel, Miss Subways in April, is described as a love letter to New York by way of character Emer, who battles natural and supernatural forces to find her true voice. Before that was Bucky F---ing Dent – a story about a 30-something stoner living in a Bronx tenement.

Duchovny's father, Amram, had his debut novel, Coney, published at the age of 72 in 2000 (three years before he died) and his 88-year-old mother Margaret, a Scottish-born teacher who lives in New York, also loves literature.

"I've always been surrounded by people who appreciated the written word," he says.

"My father ... always identified himself as a writer and had the greatest respect for others who wrote."

Duchovny recently gave his mother an audio book of his forthcoming release.

"Her eyes aren't that great but she tells me she's read my books. I find when it comes to relatives, it's hard for them to consume the works you write ... my mother is afraid she'll end up in one of the books. You read with that fear, of 'please don't say anything about me'."

Duchovny separated from Tea Leoni in 2014 and has two children – Madelaine West, 18, and Kyd Miller, 15.

Best known for The X-Files and Californication, in which he played a womanising novelist, he doesn't like to think too far ahead when it comes to work. "I figure my downtime is going to come," he says. "I still love my acting, I've just found other passions as well.

"When you're an actor-for-hire, you're always afraid you'll be put out to pasture or they're going to stop wanting to see you. I like to keep working while the work is there. That has always been my approach, but having found music and writing prose for the last six years I have other ways to express myself."

Last year, Duchovny reprised his role as cross-dressing FBI Agent Denise (formerly Dennis) Bryson in Twin Peaks.

"It's been great to come back and do a role that's more than 25 years old," he says. "When I do a scene as Denise it's as authentic to me as when I first approached it."

For him, the performance was not designed to be a political statement about transgender issues.

"For better or worse, there is so much politics everywhere now. I think all art is political, but I don't personally approach it in a conscious way with a political axe to grind. That would ruin me as an artist to do that. Luckily I didn't have anything in mind and I think that's why it works. The way the character was treated and portrayed was without any judgment or agenda at all."

Duchovny's new album, which he funded via Pledge Music, is released on January 20.

"If I wrote my debut album in my 20s it would probably be different to what I have to say now," he says.

"But a first album is a first regardless of what age you release it. Every Third Thought is about as honest as I get to what I want to say."

David Duchovny performs at 170 Russell St, Melbourne, February 23; Metro Theatre, Sydney February 24; Anita's Theatre, Wollongong , February 25, and Newcastle, February 28. selecttouring.com.au


Brisbane Times

janerocca_

From his roles in The X Files and Californication to life as a musician and now also an NY Times Best Selling author, David Duchovny is coming to Australia swapping scripts for rock'n'roll. My interview with the superstar in today's Age and SMH. @davidduchovny @sydneymorningherald @theagephoto @selecttouring @thexfilesfox @johnriot42 #davidduchovny #musician #xfiles #mulderandscully #australiantour #actor #tvseries #thexfiles