David Byrne

David Byrne was born in Dumbarton, Scotland, on 14 May 1952. When he was 2 years old, his parents moved to Canada at the expense of a company that was recruiting engineers and semi-scientists from Europe. When David was 8 or 9 years old, his parents moved again, this time to the suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland.

In September 1970, David went straight from High School to the Rhode Island School Of Design. It was here that he met Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth who were also enrolled as Freshmen. David was not very impressed by art school: "I think art school is a real racket, especially in this country. You run into a couple of good teachers and some interesting students but for the amount of money you spend, it's not worth it".

At Rhode Island School Of Design, David studied a functional design programme known as the Bauhaus Theory course. He also took a conceptual art course. The staff were not sure about David, particularly when he put on a performance in which he had his hair and beard shaved off onstage to a piano accordion accompaniment and a showgirl displaying cue cards written in Russian. The professors at RISD were less charmed, however, and David found himself out on the street. He had been at the RISD for one year.

After that he travelled around the United States. Back in Baltimore David met a guy called Marc Kehoe and together they formed a duo called Bizadi - and apt name since David played violin, ukelele and sang and Marc Kehoe sang and played the accordion. Bizadi lasted from February 1971 until March 1972, during this year they played at the art school, a theatre and the Baltimore Playboy Club, before moving to San Francisco where they busked on the streets and sometimes got jobs in restaurants. Their repertoire consisted mainly of old standards such as 'The Glory Of Love', 'April Showers' and the Frank Sinatra songbook. They also performed Questionmark and the Mysterians' '96 Tears', which Byrne also sung as a duet with Richard Thompson during their 1992 acoustic tour in the states. When spring came around, Marc Kehoe went off to make underground movies and David decided to move back to Providence, Rhode Island to see his friends Chris and Tina.

David was leadsinger and guitar player of Talking Heads. He also (co-) wrote most of the Talking Heads music and lyrics. Since 1981 he has been doing solo projects, which eventually resulted in the split of Talking Heads in 1991.

Solo albums:

• My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts (with Brian Eno)
• The Catherine Wheel
• Music For The Knee Plays
• Soundtrack 'The Last Emperor' (with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Cong Su)
• Sounds From True Stories
• Rei Momo
• The Forest
• Uh-Oh
• David Byrne
• Feelings
• The Visible Man (only available on-line)
• Your Action World (only available at art exhibitions)
• In Spite of Wishing and Wanting (only available on-line)
• Look into the Eyeball
• Lead us not Into Temptation ("Young Adam" soundtrack)

Listen to audio samples

Books and photo projects

• David Byrne Photoworks
• Strange Ritual
• Your Action World
• The Wedding Party (2000)

Collaborations:

• Guitar on 7" and 12" 'Kiss Me Again' by Dinosaur.
• Guitar on Staple Singers Talking Heads-cover version of 'Slippery People'
• Vocals on Robert Fripp track 'Under Heavy Manners'. Available on the albums 'God Save The King', 'God Save The Queen' and the EP 'Network'.
• Producer for The B-52's album 'Mesopotamia'.
• Played guitar on the Love of Life Orchestra's 12" 'Extended Niceties'.
• Producer for the Fun Boy Three album 'Waiting'.
• Co-producer and background singer on Margareth Menezes' 'Eligibo' album.
• Actor in Jonathan Demme's TV-play 'Survival Guide'.
• Producer of the promo video clip 'Umbabaraouma' to promote Brazil Classics 1.
• Additional vocals and guitar on Tom Ze's 'The Hips Of Tradition' album.
• Guest singer/guitarist on 10.000 maniacs' MTV-Unplugged session.
• Short acoustic US-tour with Richard Thompson, which rseulted in a bootleg, called 'An Acoustic Evening'.
• Guest background vocalist/songwriter on Bernie Worrell's 'Funk Of Ages' album.
• Guest background vocalist on Tom Tom Club's Boom Boom Chi Boom Boom album.
• Did a duet with Selena on her album 'Dreaming Of You' called 'God's Child (Baila Conmigo)'. Also available on the Luaka Bop release 'Blue In The Face'.
• Co-writer of La Casa's song 'Mi Barrio' on the soundtrack 'Blue In The Face'.
• Contributed a cover version of Cole Porter's 'Don't Fence Me In' for the AIDS-benifit compilation 'Red, Hot & Blue'.
• Contributed a cover version of a Richard Thompson track for the RT-tribute 'Beat The Betreat'.
• Covered the song 'Maria Lando' on the Luaka Bop release 'Afro-Peruvian Classics : The Soul Of Black Peru'.
• Songwriter for 2 tracks on Philip Glass' album 'Songs From Liquid Days'.
• Balanescu Quartet's 'Byrne/Moran/Lurie/Torke' release on Argo includes a performance of Byrne's composition 'High life for strings'.
• Co-musical producer for the soundtrack album 'Something Wild'
• Musical director for the soundtrack album 'Married To The Mob'
• Actor in Jonathan Demme's short movie 'Trying Time'
• Guest actor in the movie 'Checking Out'
• Guest in the TV-documentary 'Heavy Petting'
• Composer of the main title theme for 'Alive from off-center' (first season, 1984-85).
• Soundtrack for 'Dead End Kids', filmversion of the stageplay by JoAnne Akalaitis (Unreleased)
• (co-)Producer of many albums released on his Luaka Bop label.
• Contributed a yet unreleased song to the "Mantra Mix" compilation album.