(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Fri 27 June 2025 3:00, UK
There doesn’t seem to be anything that David Byrne can’t do.
Not content with fronting Talking Heads, one of the most influential and beloved bands of their generation, the man has done it all. He’s also had a successful solo career, done amazing work as a composer, written How Music Works, one of the most celebrated music books of the modern era, and, comprehensively dwarfing all of those achievements, appeared in John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch.
The man is an Emmy award away from an EGOT, and for good reason. He’s one of the most captivating artistic voices ever to come from the New York punk scene, and the only thing to ask when looking at the length and breadth of his work is, “How come he hasn’t done more work in film?” The man is clearly a wonderful visual storyteller and is partly responsible for Stop Making Sense, which, with a bullet, is the single best concert movie ever made.
His work as a director, at least of feature films, is limited to one. 1986’s True Stories is his sole effort behind the camera, although, true to David Byrne and his polymath ways, he also wrote, composed and starred in the film. If the title sounds familiar, it’s because the Talking Heads’ seventh album of the same name was actually a soundtrack album for it. Unfortunately, while the film was made when the Heads were at the peak of their popularity, the feature wasn’t exactly a hit.
Which makes sense. The film is a deeply strange set of interconnected vignettes about life in small-town Texas. Think a cinematic version of all the silly bits from Twin Peaks, connected by some agreeable Talking Heads songs, narrated by a Stetson-wearing Byrne, and you’re just about there. Charming in its way and worth a watch, but hardly box office dynamite, the picture was all but dead on arrival commercially and passed straight into cult movie status shortly after release.
Did that experience make David Byrne give up on Hollywood?
It might sound strange on the surface, but no. Despite the critical shrugs and the box office tumbleweed, the multi-hyphenate was actually pretty excited by the prospect of making another movie, despite the fact that True Stories had been a tough production. One that had deepened the existing tensions between members of the Talking Heads. But then, Byrne was never one to care much about outside approval of his artistic vision, no matter what medium he was in.
Thus, he was very keen to continue his work as a director… so why didn’t he? In an interview with The Talks, Byrne elaborated on why he never pursued his calling as a director. When asked why he hadn’t made any more movies after True Stories, he responded, “Somehow it was my fault. After that movie, I was seduced by it and tried to get other movies going in Los Angeles, and it was a disaster”.
He elaborated, saying, “You hear the story over and over again of people who spend years trying to get something done and if it takes too long, so I thought, ‘No, I don’t have the patience. I’ll write some songs and make a record’.” Which makes the most sense out of all of this, really. The film industry is no place for people with no patience, and Byrne is the kind of person who creates whenever he wants to create.
So, while it would absolutely have been cool to have a few more movies directed by the Talking Heads mainman, it wasn’t to be. Yet that’s meant that what we’ve got instead is truckloads of art in basically every other medium! Given the two options, I know which one I’d prefer to have.
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