{"id":20998,"date":"2025-09-14T00:45:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T00:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/20998\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T00:45:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T00:45:11","slug":"david-byrne-who-is-the-sky-interview-on-cooking-olivia-rodrigo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/20998\/","title":{"rendered":"David Byrne ‘Who Is the Sky?’ Interview: On Cooking, Olivia Rodrigo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDavid Byrne<\/a> tested his cooking skills while gathering ideas for the songs that ended up in his latest album, Who Is the Sky?<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI should get out my cookbook and tell you what recipes I tried. Of course, I knew how to make a very traditional mole, the dark one,\u201d Byrne tells Billboard Espa\u00f1ol in reference to mole negro during a video call from his home in Brooklyn, New York.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe British-American musician, producer, avant-garde rock pioneer and intellectual shares that he primarily cooked Mexican and Indian dishes during the pandemic, when the first notes of the tracks included in his first album since the acclaimed American Utopia (2018) began to take shape.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI learned how to make tortillas, not so good at first. I decided, \u2018OK, I\u2019m going to try maybe for health not using the lard fat in the tortilla and see if I can put something else in,’\u201d continues the 73-year-old artist. \u201cBut it didn\u2019t work out at all. So I had to go back to the more traditional method.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen it comes to music, though, the former Talking Heads<\/a> frontman never follows a traditional method. Who is the Sky?, released Sept. 5 under Matador Records, features 12 songs<\/a> as colorful as the album\u2019s cover art. The rhythms used turn Byrne\u2019s voice into yet another instrument in these subtle melodies, infused with avant-pop touches and orchestral textures. The lyrics are characterized by their ironic but always intelligent sense of humor. \u201cEverybody Laughs,\u201d<\/a> with sublime backing vocals from St. Vincent<\/a>, offers a joyful and hopeful moment.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor this project, Byrne enlisted Grammy-winning producer Kid Harpoon (Harry Styles, Miley Cyrus), telling him, \u201cI want this to be a good-sounding, accessible record, but I also want to do something a little bit unusual.\u201d The orchestral arrangements, meanwhile, are courtesy of the New York-based chamber ensemble Ghost Train Orchestra. \u201cI heard a record [from them] I guess in 2023 \u2014 a record of compositions and songs by a guy named Moondog, who was kind of a street poet and he wrote really beautiful music,\u201d he explains. \u201cThey did an interpretation of his music. I really liked it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLongtime friends and new collaborators \u2014 including Paramore\u2019s Hayley Williams on \u201cWhat Is the Reason for It?\u201d,<\/a> drummer Tom Skinner from The Smile and percussionist Mauro Refosco from American Utopia \u2014 also contribute to the album.<\/p>\n

\n\tByrne and St. Vincent \u2014 whose real name is Annie Clark \u2014 previously collaborated on the 2012 album Love This Giant, with most of the songs co-written by the two. \u201cShe was always doing really interesting things and she lived just a few blocks from the studio where I was, so I called her up and said, \u2018Annie, can you come by for just a little while, maybe sing on a song?’\u201d Byrne says. \u201cAnd we had a great time. She did great. She wanted to do more, but she had to get back to her baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCollaborating with younger musicians has become increasingly common for the \u201cPsycho Killer\u201d singer. Pop star Olivia Rodrigo invited him to perform<\/a> a duet of the Talking Heads classic \u201cBurning Down the House\u201d at the Gov Ball festival in June.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen I talked to her, I said, \u2018Do you have time to rehearse a little bit of choreography? Can we work out some movement at the same time?\u2019 And she said yes. So we had some rehearsals and worked out some movement. Some of it I think was inspired by [the Talking Heads\u2019 1983 concert film] Stop Making Sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThese collabs have shown the How Music Works author that many young artists appreciate what he and his band did in their time. \u201cIt\u2019s very flattering and very exciting, that kind of mutual appreciation,\u201d he says with satisfaction. \u201cI like what they do too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tInducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Talking Heads, Byrne has explored many genres and global rhythms including from the Latin scene, with collaborations with artists like Celia Cruz, Caf\u00e9 Tacvba, Los Amigos Invisibles, Los de Abajo, and Marisa Monte \u2014 some of them through his Luaka Bop label, founded in the late 1980s.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSome months ago, I went to a concert here in New York of Mon Laferte<\/a>. I know she\u2019s Chilean, but she lives in Mexico<\/a>. I like her music as well. I have to say, I was surprised at the concert. It was really, really good,\u201d says Byrne. He also revealed that he\u2019s a big fan of Natalia Lafourcade<\/a>\u2019s music, whom he met during the recording of Caf\u00e9 Tacvba\u2019s second MTV Unplugged in Mexico City in 2019.<\/p>\n

\n\tAmid a busy work schedule, Byrne announced recently his marriage to financier Mala Gaonkar and the tour accompanying the release of Who Is the Sky?, which will take him to stages across the U.S., Canada, and Europe between 2025 and 2026. He also hopes to include Mexico on the trek next year. \u201cI think in the spring,\u201d he notes. \u201cThe dates are not set, but they are coming soon.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Byrne tested his cooking skills while gathering ideas for the songs that ended up in his latest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,22062,20137,5620,6820,157,3296,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-20998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-genre-latin","10":"tag-genre-rock","11":"tag-interview","12":"tag-mexico","13":"tag-music","14":"tag-music-news","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}