![]() ![]() In 2005, he started his own internet radio station, Radio David Byrne, on which he posts a monthly playlist of music he likes, linked by themes or genres, including African pop, country music, vox humana, classical opera, and Italian movie scores. ![]() It has grown to include music from Cuba, Africa, the Far East and beyond, releasing the work of such artists as Cornershop, Os Mutantes, Los De Abajo, Jim White, Zap Mama, Tom Zé, Los Amigos Invisibles, and King Changó. Byrne founded the world music record label Luka Bop in 1990, originally to release Latin American and Brazilian compilations. Like Peter Gabriel, who also quit a highly successful progressive rock band at the peak of its success, Byrne has been a champion of world music for decades, particularly the intoxicating pulse of Latin, Caribbean, and South American rhythms, with their adventitious use of percussive effects such as cowbells and congas. His previous expression of puzzled and anxious surprise as erstwhile bandleader of Talking Heads has mellowed into a more concentrated, quasi-academic demeanour which nevertheless retains much of its original quirkiness. Such a cerebral approach is precisely what audiences have come to expect from Byrne, whose querulous, queasy, and querying approach appeals equally to adolescents and lateral thinkers. "Here is a region that is seldom used / Here is a region that continues living / Even when the other sections are removed." By the final verse, he is joined at the table by two backup singers, harmonizing with his vocals as he starts to pace back and forth at the front of the stage, using the model as a visual aid as though teaching a high school anatomy class. "Here is a region of abundant details," he intones. It is the only splash of colour on an otherwise barren stage, encircled by shimmering beaded curtains. Scotch-born singer-songwriter David Byrne starts each show on his latest world tour stroking a pink brain as he sits alone at a table in a gray three-button suit singing a song called Here from his latest album American Utopia. Plus, he gets into American Utopia, his weirdly cool dance moves, and the power behind his art."The mind is a soft-boiled potato" - David Byrne On Bullseye, we talk with Byrne about his time with the Talking Heads. A24 is set to rerelease the film in September. The Talking Heads' groundbreaking concert film was directed by Jonathan Demme - the director of Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia. Since then, another live masterpiece is brewing in Byrne world: it's the 40th anniversary of Stop Making Sense. When we talked to David Byrne back in 2021, he'd just brought American Utopia back to Broadway. Then, American Utopia's live show became a movie directed by the one and only Spike Lee. In 2019, he parlayed the tour into a full on Broadway production. Only, he's David Byrne, so he went the extra mile and then some: 12 musicians, all dressed alike in gray suits, carrying their instruments like a marching band and dancing with them. It started as an album in 2018 then he toured on it with a handful of dates across the US. ![]() At the same time, he takes high art - the kind of stuff you see in Manhattan galleries or in repertory theaters in Brooklyn - and makes it more familiar.Īmerican Utopia is his latest project. If you wanted to find a common theme in his work, it might be that David Byrne has always worked to push the boundaries of what pop music can be. He even wrote and directed his own movie back in 1986: True Stories. He's written books and scored soundtracks. Vincent, Philip Glass, Selena and so many more. The Scottish singer recorded instrumental electronic albums, pop records and even spoken word. The band behind iconic songs like "Psycho Killer" and "Burning Down the House."īut Byrne is also a solo artist in his own right. He's the lead singer and frontman of the Talking Heads. David Byrne performs onstage during the 2018 Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Field on Apin Indio, California.ĭavid Byrne's career is nothing less than extraordinary. ![]()
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