The DePaulia (DP): Your films have pretty routinely dealt with youth culture. You’re 50 now, and have been making films for a lot of years. What keeps you interested in that topic that makes you keep going back to it?Gregg Araki (GA): I mean, it’s actually something that I’ve kind of tried to avoid in a way. back in the mid-’90s, I specifically sort of set out not do movies about teenagers, because I really don’t want to be pigeonholed and characterized as only making movies about teenagers.

As filmmaker, I really want to continue to stretch and do all kind of different things, and that means working in all kinds of different genres, and not just making the same movie over and over. So, after I finished “Nowhere” back in ’96, I kind of, like you said, I could already tell I was sort of getting pigeonholed in a way, and I was getting sent a bunch of bad, teenage movies to direct.

I definitely, specifically set out to do other stuff, and that’s when I made this sort of postmodern romantic comedy called “Splendor,” and then after that I got sent the book “Mysterious Skin” and it was, you know, again 18-year-olds, and a familiar sort of territory, but at the same point, I loved it so much, and I really, really wanted to do it. Then after that I did the stoner comedy with Anna Faris, “Smiley Face.”

I’ve tried to do all different kinds of things. “Doom Generation” and “Nowhere” have this cult following that has lasted now for 15 years. Frequently, when I go to these film festivals and stuff, I’ll run into the fans of those movies, and a lot of times, “Nowhere” in particular, really changed their life.

It was something they sort of clung to, and watched over and over and over again. A lot of times, they’re these young people that sort of lived in a backwoods small town that was super homophobic, and just like a terrible place to grow up. The movie just became something that was really important to that. As a filmmaker, the highest compliment that someone could ever pay you is that something meant so much to them.

So, I was sort of interested in doing a movie like that with “Kaboom,” for the next generation. But at the same point, I also didn’t want to go backwards. Like, didn’t want to make “Doom Generation 2.”

Also, I just can’t really do that movie. I’m older now and I have a totally different kind of perspective on things. It was really important to me that, when I did “Kaboom,” to make this sort of super-indie, cult movie, but that it not be the same as these other movies. It has elements of those other movies, [but] it’s a completely different thing in and of itself.

DP: I read somewhere that you worked as a music critic for a time. Music has a huge presence in this movie and certainly in your other films as well. Can you talk about selecting what you put in the film?

GA: Yeah, all my movies are super, super music influenced, and inspired by music. This film is really, definitively the most music heavy (laughs.) One of the ways this film is definitely most like what I did a few years ago, “Mysterious Skin,” is that it sort of uses music to really create it’s mood and atmosphere. So much of the soul of the movie is tied to the music.

DP: Another thing you’ve dealt with frequently in your movies is sexuality. Can you talk about the decision to revisit that and look at it from different perspectives?

GA: Well, as a filmmaker, it’s been one of the themes I’m really interested in. Sex and sexuality and sexual identity, it’s something that I personally find really fascinating.

I feel like so many American movies are hypocritical and puritanical when it comes to sex. My interest in sex is not really for titillating purposes. It’s really about that moment between people, and it’s that you really find out the secrets of the characters in these intimate moments. not only physically but emotionally as well. That’s what I love about cinema is that it lets you see these moments you wouldn’t get to see normally.

DP: You talked a little bit about your influence before, with people coming up to you with this cult following mentality. This film has also been compared a lot others like “Donnie Darko” and “Twin Peaks.” Can you talk a little bit more about your inspiration for the movie?

GA: David Lynch has always been a huge influence on me, as a person and as a filmmaker. I’ve wanted to do a “Twin Peaks-like,” sprawling, epic mystery for a really long time and make this kind of cult type movie.

It was the perfect time to play with that sort of Lynchian mystery genre. Of course, “Kaboom” combines many different genres. One of them was that.epic mystery.