{"id":4546,"date":"2025-09-06T23:45:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T23:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/4546\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T23:45:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T23:45:09","slug":"david-byrne-on-who-is-the-sky-why-talking-heads-shouldnt-reunite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/4546\/","title":{"rendered":"David Byrne on ‘Who Is the Sky?,’ Why Talking Heads Shouldn’t Reunite"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDavid Byrne<\/a> has been a part of the pop-culture bedrock for nearly 50 years \u2014 so long that it\u2019s sometimes easy to take him for granted.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter the creative burst that vaulted him into the public consciousness via his first five albums with Talking Heads<\/a> \u2014 a period that includes most of his best-known songs, from \u201cPsycho Killer\u201d to \u201cOnce in a Lifetime\u201d and \u201cBurning Down the House\u201d \u2014 he\u2019s long since settled into a kind of creative cruising altitude: He\u2019s still exploring and innovating, working diligently on a long array of albums, art projects, soundtracks, books and other endeavors that reflect his seemingly boundless curiosity and delight in art, humans and the world. But it\u2019s with less intensity and confrontation, and less of a sense of hurtling toward the sun.<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, it\u2019s hard to think of another artist who\u2019s collaborated as widely over the years, spanning as many genres and generations and disciplines with such focus. To cite just two analogous examples of his vast array of work, he won an Oscar in 1988 for the soundtrack to \u201cThe Last Emperor,\u201d in collaboration with the late Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, and was nominated for a second 36 years later for the song \u201cThis Is a Life,\u201d<\/a> from \u201cEverything Everywhere All at Once,\u201d with indie-rock icon Mitski, who wasn\u2019t even born when Byrne won his first.<\/p>\n

\n\tHis countless other collaborators over the last half century include everyone from Brian Eno to playwright Robert Wilson, from St. Vincent to dancer-choreographer Twyla Tharp, from the B-52s to Caetano Veloso, Phillip Glass and De La Soul; he\u2019s covered songs by Cole Porter, Yoko Ono, Whitney Houston, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Janelle Monae and even one from Verdi\u2019s 1853 opera \u201cLa traviata.\u201d At the Governors Ball festival in June, he not only performed two songs with Olivia Rodrigo, they\u2019d spent a couple of days working out choreography to go with them. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe long second phase of Byrne\u2019s musical career began with Talking Heads<\/a>\u2019 1985 album \u201cLittle Creatures\u201d and has continued through the 13 pop-leaning albums he\u2019s made since, including the new \u201cWho Is the Sky?,\u201d<\/a> his first for the iconic indie label Matador, which is out today (Sept. 5). Unlike the later catalogs of most of his predecessors and contemporaries, a deep dive into the Byrne canon is continually rewarding. Each album is inspired \u2014 rather than perfunctory or aimless \u2014 and has a dominant musical style, yet they also have, say, a calypso or disco or alt-rock song, one sung in Spanish or French or Italian or with a string quartet or zydeco band, or an overlooked gem like\u00a02001\u2019s \u201cThe Moment of Conception\u201d or his infectious 2010 collaboration with TV on the Radio\u2019s Dave Sitek, \u201cApartment Wrestling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHis albums and collaborations have seen him exploring widely while at the same time remaining in place \u2014 his songwriting has stayed relatively conventional and constant, bearing his distinctive melodies and lyrics peppered with pop-culture references, delivered in his unmistakable reedy voice.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the music accompanying those songs has changed dramatically with each album \u2014 from the African rhythms of \u201cNaked\u201d through the Latin beats of \u201cRei Momo\u201d to a dozen-year stretch that saw him moving from string-and horn-driven chamber pop (\u201cGrowing Backward\u201d) to the reunion with his late-\u201970s collaborator Brian Eno (\u201cEverything That Happens Will Happen Today\u201d); then a musical about Imelda Marcos (\u201cHere Lies Love\u201d) followed by a brass-powered joint album with St. Vincent (\u201cLove This Giant\u201d). It all reached a sort of culmination with \u201cAmerican Utopia,\u201d his 2018 album that spawned a galvanizing, career-spanning tour that morphed into a Broadway show <\/a>and then a Spike Lee-directed concert film.<\/p>\n

\n\t* * *<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWho Is the Sky?\u201d \u2014 its title is taken from a mis-transcribed voicenote \u2014 continues and expands on that history and finds Byrne\u2019s creativity in full bloom. The album includes plenty of his characteristic lyrics and oddball stories \u2014 one about a man whose use of skin moisturizer makes him age backward, another a comic poke at the avant-garde, another with the definitively Byrne title \u201cMy Apartment Is My Friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHis collaborators are as far-reaching and unexpected as ever: Harry Styles\/ Miley Cyrus producer Kid Harpoon; the esoteric dozen-member Ghost Train Orchestra; even Paramore singer Hayley Williams. Several of the album\u2019s songs are among the first ones he wrote after a rare writer\u2019s block induced by the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat songwriting hiatus \u201cwasn\u2019t on purpose \u2014 I tried to write,\u201d Byrne says, sitting at his desk in his loft-sized downtown Manhattan office. \u201cThe pandemic made people question everything, sometimes in a good way: \u2018Does what I do matter? Who even cares about a song at this point?\u2019 But as we started to come out of it, I realized, \u2018Oh, music does help people\u2019 \u2014 it\u2019s not that I\u2019m 100% altruistic, it\u2019s as much therapy for myself as it is for the listener. And then it started coming back of its own accord, little by little.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tByrne\u2019s songwriting process is its own tale. During a listening session for the new album earlier in the summer, he was asked about the inspiration for his songs. \u201cIt can come from a lot of places,\u201d he replied. \u201cLike, I was riding my bike up here today, and I saw a man and thought, \u2018He\u2019s got cowboy titties!\u2019 And then I thought, \u2018Maybe there\u2019s something there.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tReminded of the exchange, Byrne says after laughing uproariously, \u201cWell, obviously that one\u2019s not going to be a song. But yes, sometimes there\u2019s a little phrase or image, and I jot down an idea for a song title or maybe the first two or three lines, like \u2018I Met the Buddha at a Downtown Party,\u2019\u201d he says, citing another \u201cWho Is the Sky?\u201d song. \u201cThere\u2019s a story in that \u2014\u00a0\u2018OK, what happens next?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOne of the more bizarre is \u201cMoisturizer.\u201d \u201cMy fiancee [businesswoman and artist Mala Gaonkar, whom he\u2019s scheduled to marry this weekend] often reminds me, \u2018David, don\u2019t forget the moisturizer.\u2019 And one time I just thought, what if it really works? Then you have this fantasy of waking up and looking a lot younger, and that comes with its own problems.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat\u2019s the nice thing about music,\u201d he continues. \u201cIt\u2019s in some ways multidimensional: The music can be telling you one thing, and the lyrics don\u2019t have to be saying that exact thing. Something happens when they\u2019re put together and you have this tension or conceptual dissonance \u2014 you get this third thing that\u2019s kind of exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe first songs he ever wrote, however, were not so exciting. \u201cI remember writing one called \u2018Bald-Headed Woman\u2019 when I was a teenager,\u201d he recalls. \u201cIt was terrible, really derivative, and I said, \u2018No, you\u2019re not ready to do this yet.\u2019 So maybe seven years later, I tried again, and that was \u2018Psycho Killer.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe pauses before saying, with no small understatement, \u201cPeople liked that one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t* * *<\/p>\n

\n\tByrne\u2019s office almost seems like a reflection of his mind. The main room is dominated by towering floor-to-ceiling shelves loaded with meticulously organized books, magazines, vinyl, CDs, DVDs, trophies \u2014 including a Grammy and his Oscar \u2014 and a collection of esoteric tchotchkes and objects. Sitting on a windowsill are anatomical models of human brains, a human ear, an earthworm and a clam. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot going on in the earthworm!\u201d he enthuses. \u201cAnd what\u2019s going on inside a clam?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAsked whether Variety is getting an unexpected reveal of themes for his forthcoming tour, Byrne says with a laugh, \u201cNo, nothing about worms and clams. But these anatomical models, they\u2019re kind of beautiful.\u201d He picks up the ear. \u201cLook how abstract it looks. I just like these as kind of art objects.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA hallmark of Byrne\u2019s creative work is finding art where others often don\u2019t \u2014 he\u2019s staged full-scale projects based around things as seemingly mundane as PowerPoint and color guards \u2014 but also with a simplicity that seems obvious but isn\u2019t. For example, Talking Heads\u2019 \u201cStop Making Sense\u201d tour of 1983-84, where each of the nine band members took the stage one song at a time, or \u201cAmerican Utopia,\u201d where even the drummers were mobile.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat\u2019s what I thought!,\u201d he says of the seeming obviousness of the tour concepts. \u201cBefore \u2018American Utopia,\u2019 I was like, \u2018Am I gonna be a couple of weeks into the tour and then somebody says, \u201cDavid just copied Phil Collins\u201d or whoever?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOf course, both the \u201cStop Making Sense\u201d and \u201cAmerican Utopia\u201d tours were wildly successful, and his musicians will again be mobile for the \u201cWho Is the Sky?\u201d concerts.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI thought, \u2018I can\u2019t go back to the players and singers being static,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cIt came out of working with St. Vincent, where there were a lot of brass players, who are used to being mobile because a lot of them came out of marching bands. But what I didn\u2019t realize was the other effects that it would have: It kind of democratized the band and the performers. The drummers could now come to the front of the stage and the audience would cheer, and I realized, \u2018Wow, everybody gets to be a star at some point in the show.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe forthcoming tour will have many new elements as well. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be more dancers and lots more movement this time,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd there\u2019s going to be a kind of curved LED screen, so that for one song we\u2019re somewhere in a forest and for another we\u2019re on a New York street or an apartment, and so on. I did some tests a couple of months ago at a soundstage, and it\u2019s one of those things where [the illusion] doesn\u2019t quite fool you, but you buy into it by seeing how the trick is done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t* * *<\/p>\n

\n\tEven as he relentlessly drives forward, Byrne is often pulled back into the past. The last year has seen a pair of archival projects related to the approaching 50th anniversary of Talking Heads\u2019 first two albums, complete with a new video for \u201cPsycho Killer\u201d starring Saoirse Ronan<\/a> and directed by Mike Mills (\u201cThumbsucker,\u201d \u201c20th Century Woman\u201d). The video was teased with countdown clocks that inevitably were seized upon by fans as foreshadowing a Talking Heads reunion, which Byrne has said many times isn\u2019t going to happen.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m not a nostalgic person and I don\u2019t want to live in the past,\u201d he says. \u201cSo [when the rumors started], it was like, \u2018Oh no, here we go again.\u2019 But so far, it\u2019s been pretty good. I know Mike Mills, and he had a wonderful idea for the video that was a very different take and didn\u2019t involve some psycho killing people,\u201d he laughs. \u201cSo it\u2019s kind of making something new out of something old.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAlthough he\u2019s reached a very positive place with his former bandmates,<\/a> he cautions, \u201cThere are always people who will long for [a reunion], but be careful what you long for. You can\u2019t rewind the clock and be 20 years old again. The music you hear, the shows you see at that point in your life can have a huge impact, but you can\u2019t recreate that. You might enjoy hearing those songs again, but it\u2019s not going to be the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut maybe the most telling difference between then and now is Byrne himself. His early-career persona was awkward, angular and at times confrontational (he\u2019s described himself as a \u201clittle tyrant\u201d<\/a> during his years with Talking Heads), but suddenly, around the time of the band\u2019s mainstream breakthrough in the mid-1980s, he seemed much more at ease with fame and attention, and more open to collaboration.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think in the in the past I\u2019d be more \u2018My way or the highway: I have a vision and this is the way it has to be,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cBut now, I think I can catch more flies with honey.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIndeed, says \u201cWho Is the Sky?\u201d producer Kid Harpoon, \u201cDavid allows you to really explore your own creativity within what he\u2019s trying to achieve. The freedom you feel working with him is really inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTo a degree rare for someone at his level of fame, Byrne has been a ubiquitous and exceedingly normal presence in New York for decades, frequently spotted at concerts and art openings, often by himself, or riding his bike all over the city. Most stars roll with at least one security staffer if not an entourage; longtime SoHo resident David Bowie flew under the radar in dorky outfits one would never dream he\u2019d be seen in. Especially in the selfie age, how does Byrne still move about so freely?<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf I go to a show and there\u2019s a bunch of music fans there, then there\u2019s a good chance they\u2019re going to recognize me and maybe ask for a picture or something like that,\u201d he says. \u201cBut if I\u2019m getting my groceries, pretty much no. New York is good in that way \u2014 they leave people alone, for the most part.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI also think that [celebrity brouhaha] is sometimes self-inflicted,\u201d he continues. \u201cIf someone shows up with bodyguards in a big limo and make a big entrance, or if they come across as being slightly unapproachable and mysterious, then people are going to clamor. But if you just seem like an ordinary person, where\u2019s the excitement?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSo was that earlier David Byrne, with his gawky vocal tics and demeanor, a persona, or was it him?<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf it was a persona, I\u2019m not totally aware of that, although I might be\u2026\u201d He thinks for a moment before continuing. \u201cIt was really how I was feeling at the time: I felt very awkward, as somebody who wasn\u2019t always socially comfortable, to be thrown into this situation where you have to socialize and be nice to a whole bunch of people you don\u2019t even know.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBut,\u201d he continues, smiling, \u201cI\u2019m going to guess there might have been a little part of me that thought, \u2018I can make a thing out of this \u2014 I don\u2019t have to hide it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter hundreds of collaborations and thousands of public appearances and interviews, he certainly seems to have gotten past whatever it was.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI credit performing, working with other musicians,\u201d he concludes. \u201cIt\u2019s like when people say, \u2018A DJ saved my life\u2019: Music is very therapeutic, and I think eventually, little by little, it got me out of that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Byrne has been a part of the pop-culture bedrock for nearly 50 years \u2014 so long that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[5252,93,61,60,278,5253],"class_list":{"0":"post-4546","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-david-byrne","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-talking-heads"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}