{"id":351756,"date":"2025-08-17T13:52:26","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T13:52:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/351756\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T13:52:26","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T13:52:26","slug":"i-found-happiness-in-music-and-life-after-talking-heads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/351756\/","title":{"rendered":"I found happiness in music and life after Talking Heads"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an upmarket hotel in Mayfair, David Byrne walks into the so-called Pink Room, wearing a sharp pink suit. The man is so meticulous that I imagine his suitcase to be full of different coloured suits, ready to be deployed depending on the colour of the room. His shoes are as white as his hair, and he does not so much sit as glide into his chair, kicking off an hour of conversation filled with so much joy that it becomes less Talking Heads, more Laughing Heads.<\/p>\n

There is plenty to celebrate. First, Byrne\u2019s groundbreaking legend of a rock, pop, funk, punk band, Talking Heads, is marking half a century \u2014 a milestone heralded by special releases including a funny new video for Psycho Killer, starring Saoirse Ronan, that somehow manages to reinvent that beloved old song. <\/p>\n

Could this reinvigoration lead to a reconciliation for a group that split in 1991? After all, two years ago their revered concert film, Stop Making Sense, was rereleased and on chat shows it appeared as if the infamous frostiness between the bandmates \u2014 Byrne, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison and Tina Weymouth \u2014 might have thawed (Weymouth had previously called Byrne \u201cTrumpian\u201d and a \u201csly fox\u201d who will \u201cuse you until he has no more use for you\u201d).<\/p>\n

\u201cI recall,\u201d Byrne, says with a wry smile when I ask if Talking Heads may play together again. \u201cWe were on TV together and people went, \u2018Well, they all seem to be getting along.\u2019\u201d He grins, before delivering the expected hammer blow. \u201cBut no, I don\u2019t think so. On a practical level, trying to recreate the feeling that people had when they were in their early twenties? The time that they first heard that music? That\u2019s a fool\u2019s errand. And besides, I\u2019m really enjoying what I\u2019m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which leads to the second celebration \u2014 Byrne\u2019s new solo album, Who Is the Sky? It is the singer\u2019s first for seven years, since American Utopia and its subsequent raved-about tour<\/a>. The new music hits like a surge of optimism, replete with humour, huge choruses and, every now and then, pithily delivered lessons from a 73-year-old who has lived about as well as anyone could aspire to. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hearing the new songs seem to be offering feelings of hope, humanity,\u201d Byrne says. Oh, I say in surprise, showing him my notebook where I had written down \u201chope\u201d and \u201chumanity\u201d. Bryne confesses with a grin: \u201cI read your writing upside down! But yes, it was like therapy, given all the things happening in the world \u2014 especially in the US.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2022 Why Talking Heads are back together \u2014 30 years after their bitter break-up<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Byrne\u2019s optimism stems from his Reasons to be Cheerful project, a website and occasional variety show that seeks to buoy people up in difficult times. Its newsletter is subtitled A Weekly Dose of Dopamine for Your Inbox, and has upbeat features such as \u201cHow street art in Singapore is helping people with dementia get around\u201d, and \u201cWe can stop glass windows from killing birds\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"David<\/p>\n

Byrne in his oversized suit<\/p>\n

ALAMY<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople need something like that,\u201d Byrne says about his good news service. \u201cIt\u2019s not simply to forget what\u2019s going on, but to remind people of hope, community and humanity. Despite politics and social media, they still exist. They haven\u2019t gone away.\u201d<\/p>\n

I mention a Psycho Killer lyric from Talking Heads\u2019 debut album, Talking Heads: 77: \u201cI hate people when they\u2019re not polite.\u201d Has Byrne been beating a kindness drum for most of his life? \u201cI read recently that kindness and empathy is the new punk,\u201d he says, laughing. \u201cPunk used to be yelling and making a big noise, but, now, this is the resistance \u2014 kindness and empathy.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is an incredible openness to Byrne, no matter that he\u2019s a legend with an Oscar, Tony and Grammy who has sold more than 40 million albums. He is a pop star with a finger on the pulse of the people, a man not only spotted cycling around his native New York, but also riding a Lime bike when in London.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Every album by Talking Heads ranked \u2014 from worst to best<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very important for me to see the world as other people do,\u201d says Byrne, who lives in New York with his fianc\u00e9e, the businesswoman and artist Mala Gaonkar, 55. He has one grown-up daughter, Malu, with his ex-wife, Adelle Lutz. \u201cRock stars who hide away end up creating an isolation that cuts them off from the experiences ordinary people have. That will limit their writing but, also, create a situation that might be hard to manage \u2014 this celebrity, fanaticism thing, because they are unreachable. But in New York and here as well people see me biking and go, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s just David. We see him all the time.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Byrne was born in Dumbarton in 1952, the elder of two children, to Tom, an engineer, and Emma. When he was two the family moved to Canada and when he was eight they settled in Maryland in the US. Before secondary school he had already learnt guitar, accordion and violin. After a couple of less successful bands, he went to New York, where he formed Talking Heads in 1975. The group won acclaim for the jagged thrust of their first album before their next three morphed into something more cinematic with the producer Brian Eno. The 1980s brought radio hits such as Burning Down the House and acclaim for their extraordinary live shows.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Talking Heads in 1977: Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, Byrne and Jerry Harrison<\/p>\n

GIJSBERT HANEKROOT\/REDFERNS\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

The band\u2019s split allowed the restless Byrne to become the polymath he is now known as, America\u2019s answer to David Bowie. He has written soundtracks and books, started a record label and a radio station; teamed up with Fatboy Slim to write an operetta about Imelda Marcos; displayed artwork, photos, sketches; designed a bike rack; and even played himself on The Simpsons. <\/p>\n

Next year he will take Who Is the Sky? on tour. Age does not seem to have dimmed his vitality; at one point he tells me he had to go to Los Angeles \u201cfor a medical procedure\u201d before very quickly pointing out: \u201cBut I\u2019m fine!\u201d<\/p>\n

On his new album, though, I picked up hints of vulnerability and mortality \u2014 never more so than with the lyric: \u201cOne foot in the pearly gates and one foot in the flames.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I\u2019m certainly aware I am older,\u201d Byrne says. \u201cBut I have consciously tried not to write about ageing or death approaching. It creeps in, but that is a well-trodden subject by songwriters.\u201d <\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t the plaintive new song A Door Called No also about death? \u201cNo, its first half is about discrimination \u2014 then it\u2019s a love song.\u201d Is it annoying when people misinterpret your lyrics? \u201cWell, I cannot help but think I have failed, because I wasn\u2019t able to communicate what I thought I was.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Portrait<\/p>\n

\u201cI am quite a bit more socially comfortable than I was,\u201d says Byrne<\/p>\n

AHMED KLINK<\/p>\n

What is the daftest interpretation of one of his songs? Byrne bursts into his most raucous cackle yet. \u201cI mean, the stupidest was some radio stations said that they wouldn\u2019t play Burning Down the House because they thought it was about arson!\u201d<\/p>\n

There is one new song that cannot be misinterpreted \u2014 Moisturizing Thing, a track that is, bear with me, about Byrne being moisturised and waking up looking like a baby. I mean, he does have fantastic skin. \u201cWell, thank you.\u201d So it\u2019s a true story? \u201cTo some extent,\u201d he says with a grin. \u201cMy fianc\u00e9e will sometimes come at me with greasy hands, ready to smear my face. And at one point I thought, \u2018What if I wake up and really looked younger?\u2019\u201d Hence the song. \u201cBut there\u2019s a message, too. About how people judge us by the way we look. You learn a lesson you didn\u2019t expect at the start.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Read more music reviews, interviews and guides on what to listen to next<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Which is Byrne to a T \u2014 a fun, strange, catchy song hiding a universal truth. It is this blend that makes him both mainstream and avant-garde \u2014 but did his art school credentials ever make him afraid of writing music that may be popular? \u201cOh, you get that in downtown New York,\u201d he says, sighing. \u201cThe sense that, if somebody does something that connects with the public, they have sold out, that the work must be trivial \u2026 When Talking Heads got more popular in the Eighties, there were fans from the early days who just said, \u2018No \u2014 you are too popular.\u2019 And I just thought, \u2018Your loss, I guess.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

We end on yet another project that Byrne has busied himself with recently. No, not showing up on stage with Olivia Rodrigo in New York, where the duo sung Burning Down the House. \u201cHer songs are funny, clever, she was charming,\u201d he says of the star. Instead, we speak about his immersive play, Theater of the Mind, which he co-wrote with Gaonkar a few years ago. Using autobiographical elements, it is a tender insight into the man and ends in a replica of his parents\u2019 old attic as an actor reads: \u201cYou can change the story, any time. Isn\u2019t that nice?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Olivia<\/p>\n

Byrne on stage with Olivia Rodrigo<\/p>\n

DUSANA RISOVIC FOR GOVERNORS BALL 2025<\/p>\n

\u201cThat line\u2019s just saying that our memories change, and that we\u2019re not stuck,\u201d Byrne says. \u201cWe\u2019re not believing the same crazy things we believed when we were ten, or having the same prejudices we had when we were 20. We keep on changing. And it\u2019s wonderful that our faults become kind of advantages.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s changed about himself the most? \u201cWell, I am quite a bit more socially comfortable than I was,\u201d he says. Is that shift down to anything particularly? \u201cI do think music really helped,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a clich\u00e9, but music is cathartic. And it\u2019s also about getting older.\u201d He pauses before adding with the gusto of a man very much looking forward to the future: \u201cBecause you can change with time. I have friends who\u2019ve told me, \u2018David, some things that you did were ridiculous.\u2019 I\u2019d invite people over to my house and then go and hide.\u201d He smiles. \u201cI don\u2019t do that any more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Are you looking forward to David Byrne\u2019s new album? Let us know in the comments below<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In an upmarket hotel in Mayfair, David Byrne walks into the so-called Pink Room, wearing a sharp pink…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,269,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-351756","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115044440289557727","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}