![\"Talking](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Talking-Heads-77-1977-Sire-Records-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ Sire Records)<\/p>\n
Thu 1 January 2026 17:00, UK <\/p>\n
Following the massive success of the Talking Heads\u2019 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense, frontman David Byrne<\/a> was bitten by the cinematic bug, setting out to create a story of his own that fused his musical sensibility with his signature eccentricity.<\/p>\n During Stop Making Sense, Byrne oversaw the stage design and choreography that amplified the Talking Heads\u2019 performance. He\u2019d also ventured into theatrical scores before, working closely with choreographer Twyla Tharp to score The Catherine Wheel for a ballet of the same name in 1981, and writing Music for \u201cThe Knee Plays\u201d for the 1985 opera, The Civil Wars: A Tree Is Best Measured When It Is Down. Both projects allowed Byrne\u2019s music to go beyond the studio and grow into lives of their own, adapted for the stage in a way that surely invited new visions of how music could be heard and seen into the artist\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n Working with director Jonathan Demme on Stop Making Sense<\/a> allowed Byrne to literally step into the editor\u2019s studio, granting an elevated look into the filmmaking process that went further than his previous experiences directing the Talking Heads\u2019 early music video offerings for MTV. <\/p>\n Under Demme\u2019s direction, Byrne could envision how he would adapt stories outside of his comfort zone. \u201cWorking with Jonathan got me over my fear of playing in the big sandbox,\u201d Byrne said to Rolling Stone. \u201cA lot of my videos were shot on 16-millimeter, so 35 millimeters seemed like a grown-up medium at the time. I was fascinated by how movies were made, technically, and how editing worked. So after working with him, I thought, \u2018Well, time to try it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Byrne began with a series of drawings and images: people singing, sketches of the Texas landscape and more. He\u2019d match them with headlines and stories that he and his wife collected from the Weekly World News, an American newspaper-style tabloid that published primarily fictionalised \u201cnews\u201d with a satirical flair. A storyline evolved naturally, though with a welcome unconventional flow, and turned into the 1986 film True Stories<\/a>, \u201ca film about a bunch of people in Virgil, Texas,\u201d as Byrne says in the film\u2019s trailer.\u00a0<\/p>\n Narrated by Byrne, True Stories follows a cast of characters that, in the fictional town of Virgil, represent a strange, fascinating era of Americana: a voodoo faith healer, a singing cowboy, a theatrical preacher and more. \u201cI sensed there was a lot of unappreciated creativity in flyover states,\u201d Byrne said, of his impetus to make the film. \u201cIt\u2019s very vibrant and eccentric and a lot of fun there. I still feel that way now about that part of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n For the film\u2019s music, Byrne wrote songs intended for the Talking Heads to provide backing tracks that the characters would then sing. While mixing their sixth album, 1985\u2019s Little Creatures<\/a>, the Talking Heads were simultaneously rehearsing and recording the True Stories material. \u201cThe songs were really written for the characters, for the scenes they appeared in,\u201d Byrne explained. \u201cThat was the first time I\u2019d written songs from a character\u2019s point of view before, but it was an attempt to jump in and make it not just a character, but a scene and a moment that the character is going through.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Talking](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Talking-Heads-David-Byrne-Tine-Weymouth-Chris-Frantz-Jerry-Harrison-Far-Out-Magazine-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>David Byrne, Tine Weymouth, Chris Frantz and Jerry Harrison. ( Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n