David Byrne
David Byrne (born May 14, 1952 in Dumbarton, Scotland) is a musician best known as a founding member and the principal songwriter of the New Wave band Talking Heads.
Early years
Byrne was raised in Baltimore, Maryland, and attended the Rhode Island School of Design for one year before dropping out and forming Talking Heads in 1974.
During his time in the band, Byrne took on outside projects.
He collaborated with Brian Eno in 1981 on the ground-breaking album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts attracting considerable critical acclaim, and represented a significant step forward in the evolution of sampling as a legitimate musical endeavour.
Varied work
His work has been extensively used in movie soundtracks, most notably in collaboration with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Cong Su on Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor, which won an Oscar for Best Original Score. Byrne also directed and starred in True Stories, a musical collage of quirky Americana released in 1986, as well as the films Île Aiye and Between the Teeth.
Byrne founded Luaka Bop, a world music record label which releases the work of artists Cornershop, Os Mutantes, Los De Abajo, and others.
Byrne is also a successful photographer, having shown his work in contemporary art galleries and museums around the world since the 1990s. His images are sometimes exhibited as part of sound installations. He is represented by Pace/MacGill Gallery, NYC.
Present
For the 2001 release of Windows XP, Byrne's song Like Humans Do [1] from the album Look Into The Eyeball was included with the Operating System, and more specifically, Windows Media Player 8. In late 2003, David Byrne released a book/DVD, called Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Informsdrassafdasdfsdation, of artwork composed entirely in Microsoft PowerPoint. It includes such images as one that depicts, according to Byrne, "Dan Rather's profile. Expanded to the nth degree. Taken to infinity. Overlayed on the back of Patrick Stewart's head." [2]
On March 16, 2004, Byrne released his latest solo album, titled Grown Backwards, on Nonesuch. This album is most noticeable for its use of orchestral string arrangements, and even includes two operatic arias.
Discography
Studio albums
- 1989 Rei Momo
- 1991 The Forest
- 1992 Uh-Oh
- 1994 David Byrne
- 1997 Feelings
- 1999 In Spite Of Wishing And Wanting
- 2001 Look Into The Eyeball
- 2004 Grown Backwards
Collaborations and soundtracks
- 1981 My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
- 1981 The Catherine Wheel
- 1986 Sounds From True Stories
- 1987 The Last Emperor
- 1997 The Visible Man
- 2003 Lead Us Not Into Temptation: Music from the film Young Adam
Singles
| Year | Title | Chart positions | Album | |||
| US Hot 100 | US Modern Rock | US Mainstream Rock | UK | |||
| 1989 | "Make Believe Mambo" | - | #11 | - | - | Rei Momo |
| 1989 | "Dirty Old Town" | - | #8 | - | - | Rei Momo |
Contributions
- 2004 Contributed the song "My Fair Lady" under a Creative Commons license to The Wired CD.
Quotes
- (On why he hates the term "world music"): "It’s a way of relegating this 'thing' into the realm of something exotic and therefore cute, weird but safe, because exotica is beautiful but irrelevant."
- "To shake your rump is to be environmentally aware."
- "There is a finite number of jokes in the universe."
- "(In a self interview):" "Interviewer: If I gave you fifty dollars, right now, what would you do with it? David Byrne: I would get something to eat."
- "(In answer to many questions from interviewers):" "I'll tell you later." Also, in response to several questions: "It's like 60 Minutes on acid."
- "(In his film True Stories):" "I really enjoy forgetting. When I first come to a place, I notice all the little details. I notice the way the sky looks. The color of white paper. The way people walk. Doorknobs. Everything. Then I get used to the place and I don't notice those things anymore. So only by forgetting can I see the place again as it really is."