Transcribed from the record TALKING HEADS. INTERVIEW PICTURE DISC. LIMITED EDITION. BAK 2017

Interview with Tina Weymouth and David Byrne

Separate interviews, taped in the recording studio at which work on the (then un-
titled) album Little Creatures was coming to an end and rehearsals for the music
of the (then projected) film True Stories were just about to begin.

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PART ONE : INTERVIEW WITH TINA WEYMOUTH
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*** How do you feel when you see yourself on film, like in Stop Making Sense?

TW: Ooh, just awful. I mean, you know, I can't really describe it, it is awful
the first time you see yourself forty feet high and sixty feet wide, whatever,
but you get used to it after a while and you just go : "who's that person?".
And you just sort of hope that you're sincere, at least that was what I was
hoping that, because I wasn't playing a role and I think that most of the band
members, with the exception of David, were not playing a role, we were there
strictly to be part of something larger than ourselves, so we were really
forgetting pretty much about ourselves, and about the cameras, and it was
fairly comfortable being like that, and only after you see yourself on the
screen you say : "0h, my goodness, I wore the wrong tights", you know, "that
will date that film forever"' or whatever, but we did pretty much like strip
down as much as possible things that we were embarrassed about years later, I
think it was pretty good, the cinematography in particular by Jordan
Cronenweth, who was great his lightning and I think David will have some
interesting answers for you, I heard him talking on the radio recently. You'll
have to ask him about his role-playing, because he definitely doesn't like it
when he comes out of character, when he sees himself on the screen coming out
of character; but us, we were just ourselves.

*** There are a lot of interesting parts in the film, where someone is playing
a solo and yet, the camera is actually on somebody else, almost an unguarded
moment

TW: That happened and it does happen, but we don't really have more than a
couple of solos. It's just the way our music is put together, since those songs
were mostly more or less layered there wasn't too much of that that was going
on and it's true, you can't get everything at the same time, the camera has to
be like a selective eye, unlike the real show, a real show were you can watch
everything and choose to watch more than one thing happening at the same time.
It's the amazing thing about the human mind. But it's great in a way to have
it, to be so selective because maybe it chooses something to look at you
weren't looking at, and you get very amazingly close-up shots, that you could
never see, except if you when you were actually on stage with the band, and so
that's kinda of nice. There are times I was watching the film, and I thought,
that's exactly a very typical thing that I might see that that was a very real
moment, if I were on stage playing with another band member and that while I
would be perceiving him, although things are always changing even within
certain things, having to be the same every night for those shows, in order to
film them, the lights were in a certain place, so people had to be in a certain
place, or they were not lit, and they just didn't even get on the film, when
they would move out, so certain spontaneous, that were, you know, that might be
missed that you would see in a "real show", a real show!, that was a pretend
Hollywood show, and it was too, even though, what I was feeding of off was all
the audiences that we had played for before, before here we were playing in
front of - a thousand Hollywood people and they were all the friends of the
business, the business people, you know Hollywood is a very weird place, and,
but we had to work with that and so it was all right because we could forget
about, because we had done the show so many times; we forget about all, it's
just one big show and it becomes bigger than the moment and you just go into
another thing, which is just not yourself, It's not, it's bigger then just one
person, you know. It's less of a star-trip that way too, and it's more moving
for me when I see that or feel that happening.

*** On one part of the film Tom Tom Club appear briefly and do a song, why was
that started initially?

TW: Yeah, I don't know, beats me. I think David wanted to change into his big
suit, and, you know where I think the idea came from and the whole idea of
having the show divided into two parts as well was that Tom Tom Club opened for
Talking Heads in Europe - in the summer of '82 - and it was just the best
thing we'd ever had as an opening act. For one thing five players got warmed
up, before we went on stage with Talking Heads and it just really worked very
well. But it were such a different concept, that I didn't see that it could
really work putting just one song in the middle of Talking Heads show because
they are dramatically different. Tom Tom Club has a whole different attitude
and approach, not just musically but in performance. So I didn't really see
putting the two together, in the way that it was represented in the film but,
some people said they liked it, it wasn't really just the Tom Tom Club either,
we didn't have the right singers, the song itself was edited and then in one
time it's very hard to get across a complete change of attitude when we were
working with the sets and with the costumes and everything that're a part of
Talking Heads. And so, you know, it's just one of those things that is, was
worth trying anyway and then when it doesn't work you can say, well I learned
something from that and I think it's really not, Chris is gonna kill me, he's
gonna kill me, but I don't think it doesn't really belong in the film but I
think everyone is entitled to an own opinion, and that's mine. I think it's a
great act I wouldn't belittle it, you know, (and that's my opinion) by putting
it two and a half minutes of it in the middle of this very dramatic dark show.
David looks exactly like an Edvard Munch print of The Scream, you know, and
there is a song of his called "What a day that was" and the lightening, it's
the old flashlight under the chin trick, really simple, but great and it works
and he's doing this maniacal thing, he's got his mouth open like a big hole in
his head and he's singin this way and then he turns his face between each
phrase and it's a wonderful thing because when he was turning his face and he
was looking at me and Alex, and he was laughing his head off and then he turned
back his face front the camera and he's back to that hole-in-the-head-look and
it was terrifying, a real Jekyll and Hyde it was a real monster effect, but I
think for a concert film it's really taking it a step further from what other
concert films. I think The Band did it great, great film, I love that film but
I really like this one even more - and I'm sure that someone else is gonna come
along and do something, a take off and take it even further, maybe eventually
that they'll be able to make something, but I think this thing about this film
is that the concert itself was staged in a very flat, two-dimensional
proscenium, kind of set-up, that was made for film, the set and everything was
almost designed for film format. And I think that anyone who would like to do
the next step would have to take that into consideration when they are doing it
because it's very hard, even though we had six cameras, it's very hard to
capture everything that is going on.

*** It certainly was like a progression from The Last Waltz, because there
weren't all those annoying little bits of interviews and things like that and
it was much more concise then The Last Waltz!

TW: Yeah, I think it was really a film and you would draw your own conclusions
and you didn't have silly shots of the audience, sniffing flowers, you know, to
embarrass you, I mean, he was the audience, watching the film to think, "Gosh,
I'm I was just one of them!" You were able just to completely remove yourself
from it and become part of the film in a different sense without having that,
you pulled back into "here is your place, over here, you 're one of the
plebeians, one of the hoi polloi out there", I was just really annoying because
I don't like that feeling, when I'm in a concert, I like to feel like a part of
it, even when I'm on stage, you know. That is one of the things that I like
about, that show and that tour, so many people were on stage, it was almost
like having everybody up there.

*** On the film you sing with Tom Tom Club you don't actually sing with the
Talking Heads, why is that?

TW: Oh, it's a matter of choice, I think. I don't want to wreck my voice
singing those songs. They 're great songs, I love to play bass on then, I love
to concentrate on playing the bass and keeping it very rock-solid and if I were
singing I think I would have blown out my voice trying to sing those songs and
play base, because the monitors are behind and it's just a whole different kind
of thing, I've very very small little voice and, by the way, so does Liza
Minelli, so does Barbra Streisand; but I don't mean a small voice, you can't
do something with it, I mean You really have be singing LOUD to compete with
the electric guitars and our monitors are behind us so that any volume that
they put in them is just gonna feedback into the microphones, you understand,
it's a technical problem without side-fills! And until I'm good enough to be
able sing without ever hearing myself, I should stay on pitch, I don't think I
should do that, because otherwise I sing too loud and be a wreck, and one of
the girls in fact did, after that tour, she went with the The Police but she
was already wrecked, I mean just her voice was shot, she had to go and get an
operation and everything, and she is a trained opera singer Actually on this
record I sing on all the tracks. Isn't that incredible, unbelievable. It just
happened to be appropriate, with these songs I can do it, you know, because I
don't have to go out there and screech.

*** You just finished recording the new Talking Heads album, is that right ?

TW: We just did one - we're now mixing. Tomorrow we begin rehearsing for the
basic tracks for the soundtrack for David's movie. Now, whether David's movie
happens or not, these songs are going to happen as a record. And they may have
others singers on them but David will also sing on them so that we have a
choice. We don't know yet, how its going to come about. But, we like the songs,
and we'll definitely have another solid album of songs - you know 'soundtracks'
usually sound like synthesisers that kind of thing and this is not like that.
It is just a band - four-piece band with vocals and then, you know, we add some
things. There is one song where we're going to need a choir, because its a
choir in the film that sings it.

*** Is this going to be another Talking Heads' movie?

TW: Not at all, not at all. In fact we're not going to be in it.

*** The new album - what kind of musical direction is it heading? What sort of
progression from Speaking in Tongues is it?

TW: Well, its 180 degrees, because when we were making Speaking in Tongues and
Remain in Light we were jamming and from that we were taking the best bits and
then recording those and then improvising on top of those, the vocals and the
melody, the lyric and all that. This is going back towards, a little bit
towards the way we used to write songs from the first three albums. Its more
like More Songs About Buildings & Food and those, but with all the things that
we've learned since then. But David's singing is in a more relaxed kind of way -
like a singer sings.

*** More controlled?

TW: Yeah, he's come a long way - lets put it that way. It happens to people, no
matter how hard you try to keep that beginner's sound, you cannot hang onto it.
You eventually become accomplished - no matter what. There's still a few
squawks in there, but they're placed just so musically that they were not by a
beginner anymore [Laughs]. So, but its good, its funny, its irreverent and I
like them because its got a lot of fresh qualities to it that I like about it.
I enjoyed working on it - I think everybody did, it was a happy time. We had
our unhappy moments but then they got channelled into the kind of sadness that
was really necessary for singing a song about going nowhere, you know. So it
worked out very well I think. I'm pleased with it and I think everyone else
would say the same - that they're also pleased with it.

*** Does it have a title?

TW: Not yet. I like the idea of Wild Infancy, you know the idea of people who
have a deprived background, you know, I like the idea of starting out wild, you
know [laughs]. But there's lots of different suggestions - I mean everybody's
got their own ideas and we'll see what happens. We are going to be doing an
interesting album cover, by a very primitive artist - not very well known. He's
going to do our portrait. I think that'll be really lovely - you know we'll
find what we look like to somebody else.

*** Are there any singles arranged for this ?

TW: We're trying to get the record company please please tell us as quickly as
possible, tell us which ones they hear as singles - but there are about five or
six that could be possibles. One of them is The Road to Nowhere and another one
is perhaps a song called And she was. That's about a woman having a mystical
experience, kinda a levitating experience and there's another one that we're
working one right now called Perfect World, Perfect Girl and that would
certainly be the perfect album title, wouldn't it ?[laughs]. It's a bit ironic
but it's sweet. And there's another one Television Man, which is another
possibles, about a man who watches TV all the time. But, when I say that they
are 'about' things, you know, it's very very rough, because you could probably
read into them. There's a song about Staying up Late, playing with the baby,
which people could think was really sick, but, I mean its absolutely not, you
know - I wouldn't allow that [laughs].

*** Talking Heads have been going for nearly ten years now. Are there any
particular incidents or things that really stand out as important milestones?

TW: Oh God, we're in transition right now, I mean, something is about to erupt,
or change, I don't know what. Gee, I guess an important transition was, well
working with Eno, was one, that was sort of the end of one thing happening and
the beginning of another thing happening and then NOT working with Eno is
another one. He was great, but you know, we just changed, I guess. And then
working with a big band after just working with four, - oh yeah, I thank a
very big step was when Jerry came into the band, because for a long time we
were just three, and that was unbelievable, that was quantum leap when he came
in and that was probably the greatest, the biggest step of all, and the next
biggest was the big band, and then, I suppose the next big thing that happened,
was all of us going off and working on different things outside of the group.

*** Was that necessary to keep the group going ?

TW: In a sense you could say that, I mean, from one point of view that's true
because it's like a marriage, being in a group, and sometimes, like in a
marriage, a couple will have grievous differences, so that you might have a
fight, you know, a man and wife, and decide to divorce, and after you decided
to divorce, you feel all relieved and all the tensions are gone. You feel
great and you realise "I can live independently and be an individual person"
and then you decide either not get divorced or if you did get divorced to get
re-married, but it's after the relief of knowing that you're an individual
person, and that you're not completely observed by another, that realisation
makes you able to be together again. And I think that was important and that
that happened for us. But that's maybe one of the reasons that I wasn't so
keen on being Tom Tom Club being part of the Talking Heads show, because it was
re-absorbing Tom Tom Club as just a spin-off of Talking Heads, I don't see it
that way at all, I see it as an entirely different thing and just doing one
song, was if as if Talking Heads were covering a Tom Tom Club song, it was not
Tom Tom Club doing their own song. See what a difference it is, it's a world of
difference.

*** I thought that that was probably the most incongruous thing in the whole
film. Why did that happen?

TW: Yeah, I asked to have it removed and then Jonathan Demme, who's the film's
director, he loved it and he didn't want it removed, it's a case of not be able
to see the forest for the trees type of thing, and that was one of his
favourite trees, and he didn't want to take it out because of a number of
reasons and it would have made perfect sense to take it out, although it was in
the show, it gave David the chance to change into his big suit, it was not
necessary for the film, because you can cut a film. But, from another point of
view, I suppose to please the record company to say that we were promoting the
band Tom Tom Club, by having it be in the film, from that point of view we were
doing ourselves a favour, you know. Gee it's hard to be perfect, It really is.
You think about these things after the fact too, I keep learning things always
after I've already been bungled it.

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PART TWO : INTERVIEW WITH DAVID BYRNE
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*** Do you think the movie Stop Making Sense will appeal to the non-Talking
Heads fan?

DB: Yeah, it has, we've gotten that reaction.

*** Was that one of the main reasons for doing the movie?

DB: Yeah, it was a big reason, one of them. We felt that there's a possibility
that people could appreciate the show and the film as a performance and as a
film, regardless of whether or not they liked the ... music.

*** It seems it's like a logical progression on from The Band's movie The Last
Waltz except without all the annoying little interview bits. Was it intended
to be like that as a progression of that movie, or did you consciously think
about that movie when you were coming up with the idea for this one?

DB: It was impossible to ignore that movie. It was a kind of milestone in
performance films, and I did meet with Robbie Robertson from The Band a couple
of times before doing Stop Making Sense. We just talked about films and
whatnot.

*** When did you first start thinking about doing a movie?

DB: I think I was thinking about it fairly seriously very shortly after this
show was performed for the first couple of times in front of an audience. And
it proved itself to be - it worked successfully in front of an audience and at
that point I thought this would really work well as a film.

*** Why did you choose Jonathan Demme, as the director?

DB: He sort of came to us at one point, but I had fixed on the idea that if
this was to be done as a film, that it should be done by someone who had
directed narrative motion pictures before. Because I thought they would see it
from another perspective. They would see the performers in terms of
characters. And they would see the overall show as one would a story or a plot
or they would see it as having a shape from beginning to end. Rather than
someone who's orientated to commercials or films or videos or something, who
would see it in little song segments. I was hoping that a real film director
who would see an overall shape to the whole thing and that would be their way
of thinking, and I think that's what happened.

*** Was that the main reason why you chose those particular songs in that order?

DB: No, that was just worked out by accident.

*** That was the way you've been doing the set?

DB: Yeah, when we planned it out, that was the way we had been performing it.

*** Were all of those performances done specifically for the film, or were they
slotted-in as a part of a wider scheme

DB: The ones that were filmed, were done specifically for the film. We looked -
we spent some time looking around for theatres where it could be filmed, where
there would be room for cameras and all that sort of thing.

*** What particular ideas did you want to get across in Stop Making Sense?

DB: Hard to say, most of the ideas are ideas that come across while, besides
coming across musically, come across visually and through the performance, and
so they're kind of hard to put into words. There are things that - feelings and
ideas that come across best through the performance - and what you see. And I
thought that that kind of thing doesn't come across on records at all, and it's
not suitable for videos either.

*** What do you feel when you see yourself on the screen?

DB: I feel like I'm looking at another person, it's like it's someone else.

*** You're playing a character?

DB: Yeah, yeah.

*** Do you see a certain amount of parody in the character that you're playing?

DB: Yeah, I exaggerate certain aspects of myself or other people or whatever.
And so in a sense like it's a stage performance.

*** Do you think that that can ever go too far with that that people would
actually take you off, some sort of parody of a parody ?

DB: Yeah, there was one on television here recently, I think just the other
night. It was a comedy show that did a parody of me in the big suit, and so
obviously that's gone far enough.

*** How much of a of a division is there between yourself on stage and yourself
when you're in real life? I mean, when you meet people in the street, do you
think they expect you to be sort of wild?

DB: Yeah, they do, they're surprised if I'm quiet or surprised that I tend to
be a quiet person and they tend to be surprised that I'm, maybe, not as frantic
or scatter-brained as I appear on stage.

*** Why is there a different order to the tracks on the record than there is in
the film?

DB: I don't know, they just seem to hold together better when you were
listening to them, in a different order.

*** You don't think people will be disappointed, if they're not Talking Heads
fans, and they go and watch the movie and then go and get the album, just to
find that the other thing are different?

DB: No - they're different mixes as well than in the film.

*** Why did Tom Tom Club appear on the film?

DB: Well, you have to ask them I suppose. I asked them, it hadn't come up and I
think they had some great songs, Although it would be a great addition to the
show, if they performed at least one of their songs.

*** Even though it was a Talking Heads' show?

DB: Hmm, yeah.

*** The big suit, why the big suit?

DB: It's sort of a graphic image of - I guess, whatever - called Mister- Man,
And there he is, and he's big, . he's stiff, and he kinda wiggles around.

*** If you look at you in the big suit, your head and hands are much much
smaller than they would appear.

DB: Yeah, that's the point to make, I'm kind of swamped by my Mister-Manness,
and by the image of, or whatever, it's sort of taken over in my physical body
appears small inside that image.

*** Did you feel like that was a different character or a different role you
were playing than the rest of the film? or a just a natural built up?

DB: Yeah, it's a natural built-up, it sort of takes it another step further.
It's just sort of carrying it further than it is in the rest of the film.

*** Are there any other Talking Heads' film projects?

DB: Yeah, I've written a script, but that's for the future.

*** So at the moment you're in the studio recording the new Talking Heads album?

DB: Yeah, that should be done fairly soon.

*** What kind of direction is that going in?

DB: All the songs are kind of conventional pop songs format in various styles.
There's a Cajun song, and there's a Country & Western song, a funk song and a
ballad and whatnot - but they all have rather odd lyrics. So they could easily
be mistaken for ordinary songs, except for the words, I think. Maybe my singing
too, I don't know, has got a little bit more accessible.

*** More controlled?

DB: Hmm, Hmm.

*** Did the words come first or did the music come first?

DB: Yeah, on this one the words all came first, which I haven't done in a
while, in years and years. It was pleasant to go back to that way of working.

*** Why did you go back to that way?

DB: I think it was the process of having done Stop Making Sense. I became more
aware of these different characters and, working that way it was easy to write -
say putting myself in the frame of mind and write some words from that person's
point of view and become - have a little distance on it. Then, once that was
done, I could easily put music to it that suited it.

*** Tina said that you are also starting to record some other music when the
Talking Heads' album is finished.

DB: Yeah, we'll be doing the soundtrack for this script that I've written.
We'll be doing say, the basic tracks - sketching out the songs for that. We
won't finish them until later in the year.

*** So do know if that will be coming as a Talking Heads' record?

DB: Yeah, yeah, but I'm not sure when - probably not until '86.

*** Can you say anything about the theme of the script?

DB: It's a portrait of a town - and that's about all. It has a lot of odd
people in the town. It just goes around almost like a - it follows some of them
and then some of them you just meet and they disappear.

*** Is it set in the present time?

DB: Yeah.

*** In America?

DB: Yeah, yeah.

*** How important is image to Talking Heads? Is that a major consideration?

DB: Yeah, I think so. I think we're aware of it, or at least to a certain
extent, we're aware of the impression we give, and try to give an impression
that goes along with the music, and so that it all fits together to be of a
piece. We're not ones for dressing up a lot, but not dressing up is just as
much an image as dressing up is.

*** What do you enjoy most about Talking Heads, as opposed of the other solo
things that you do?

DB: I don't know, we've worked together for so long now, that it's fairly
comfortable working together. We have somewhat of an idea of what each person
is going to do, or the kind of way they think of things, so it becomes easy to
work together.

*** You don't think you get stale?

DB: No, not yet. The fact that we branch off and do all these other projects
every once in a while helps us helps it to be refreshing when we get back
together.

*** Are those solo spin-offs essential to the well-being of Talking Heads?

DB: I think so, yeah, I think they keep our relationship healthy.

*** Talking Heads have been together for ten years -

DB: Yeah, It's about ten years now, it's a long time to survive.

*** Are you celebrating?

DB: No, not yet. Maybe when this record's out, finished and out.

*** What particular events over that period really marked turning points for
Talking Heads?

DB: I think when we expanded, doubled in size, that was big a turning point,
and I think probably making Stop Making Sense was a turning point of sorts. I'm
not sure, I don't have enough prospective on that. It's too recent to really
know what it has done, what of an effect it will have, but I think it is of
sorts.

*** And what about you were working with Brian Eno?

DB: Oh yeah, well that went on for quite a while. In a way, it kind of
overlapped expanding into the bigger band, the bigger performing band.

*** Would you work with him again?

DB: Yeah. I'm not sure everyone else would - but I probably would work with him
at some project or other.

*** Before Talking Heads got going, you did a few performances art things like,
I believe, shaving off your beard in public?

DB: Hmm, hmm

*** How did that come about?

DB: I was performing with another guy, he would play accordion and I played
violin and ukulele and we tended to do old standards, and as part of the
performance, I thought it was time - I had a beard - and I thought I would
shave it off, as an extra bonus for the performance. I think that the audience
was kinda stunned, because I kind of hacked my face up a bit, not having a
mirror [laughs] - but it worked out all right.

*** When you look back on those things do you cringe?

DB: No, not at all, I did one last month at a little theatre downtown. I did a
piece about tourism with a group of young children. It was only about a ten
minute long piece, but that was fun, there was a lot of fun and it was fairly
humorous.

*** There's a lot of humour in much of Talking Heads material, and also in the
movie Stop Making Sense, there are also all sorts of funny things going on when
the camera actually catches somebody in, perhaps an unguarded moment. Was that
kind of thing purposely done in the editing?

DB: Yeah, I think it was, that's the kind of thing I was referring to when I
said that a director like Jonathan would see the various people in terms of
their characters and personalities and would be particularly aware of bringing
that out. So in the editing, he would be thrilled when he saw something, some
little quirky thing that somebody was doing on stage that kinds revealed their
personality and made them special and so in, we would do our best to keep
that in there, or cut to it, rather than cutting to a guitar solo or something.

*** You had a fairly important part in the editing as well?

DB: Well, I was around for all of it - yeah - so I was like one of the
consultants I guess.

*** And the same with the lightening?

DB: Yeah, well, that was all designed for the show.

*** You've also done some production work on the B-52's and the Fun Boy Three.
How did it all that come about - did they just approach you?

DB: Yeah, they would just approach me and asked if I would have some time. So
in both cases, the bands were at points where they wanted to try something
different, and they weren't sure what. I don't think they wanted me for any
particular sound, I think they just thought I would be sympathetic to whatever
it is they want to try, and I could lend a sympathetic ear to it, so the
records don't sound anything like each other.

*** Have you been approached by any other people to do production?

DB: Yeah, yeah, lots.

*** Any you got interested in?

DB: Well, there have been lots that have been interesting attempting but I
haven't had time.

*** Do you feel as if you need a reasonably varied diet of things to do, to keep
content?

DB: Yeah, I think one thing feeds the other, and doing one thing all the time,
you can get pretty stale, you can kind of get into a rut.

*** So, besides music and film, what other forms of expression have you been
involved in?

DB: Let me see. I just did, worked on a theatre project with a director named
Robert Wilson. It was done in the spring, I collaborated with him on the
staging of it, and I did music for a brass band for it. So, that sounds
absolutely nothing like Talking Heads, or anything else. I directed some of
the [Talking Heads'] videos, that's about all.

*** Will there be videos to accompany the new record?

DB: Yeah, I think so.

*** Do you have any ideas for these?

DB: Umm, umm - but they haven't been worked out yet.

*** What else do you have planned for the future?

DB: Nothing much right now. There is this film project that I've been working
on for a while, refining it. That's about all.

*** Do you take much interest in current musical trends?

DB: I'm slightly aware of what's going on, but probably less than a lot of
people.

*** Do you listen to the radio much?

DB: No. When I'm visiting Los Angeles, I hear the radio quite a bit, because
there you have to drive around to get everywhere, and you listen to the radio
in the car, but in New York, I don't hardly turn on the radio hardly ever.

*** Do you have see many live performances?

DB: No, I haven't seen very many. I've seen more theatre and films lately, but
I haven't seen very many bands.

*** Has the new Talking Heads' album got a title?

DB: No, not yet.

*** Any particular songs off it that are going to be released as singles?

DB: A lot of people seem to like this one called Road to Nowhere.

*** Is that as the title suggests?

DB: It's actually a very cheery number. I guess its kinda a lot of people
joyfully heading into oblivion.

*** Do you take much notice of world events?

DB: A little bit, yeah, but at the same time I don't trust the papers that
much.

*** Is any of that mistrust reflected in Talking Heads' music?

DB: Only in the sense that, I tend to emphasise individual perceptions, or
people making up their own minds about things. I think that attitude comes
across in a lot of our material.

*** What did you think about the Staple Singers' version of Slippery People?

DB: I liked it, I like their singing. I was real flattered because in a very
round about way, they were a big inspiration at points, and it was nice to have
it come around full circle.

*** Where there any other people you can think of as being a big inspiration at
certain points?

DB: Oh Yeah, but it would just be the usual kind of things, whatever the
Beatles or the Rolling Stones or Marvin Gaye or whatever, but that's not so
extraordinary.

*** Do you think you're a highly strung person?

DB: Sometimes, yes, sometimes I can get pretty jittery - but not as much as
some people think.

*** Watching the film or a Talking Heads video, or hearing some of the music,
especially that Psycho Killer on the film, where the music almost throws you
around.

DB: Yeah, I play it up a bit, there

*** It seems as if you, when you arrive at the line, "I'm tense and nervous and
I can't relax", you believe it when you watch it on the film.

DB: Yeah, I'm not as tense and nervous as that. Most of the time, more and
more, I'm pretty relaxed and comfortable with myself.

*** Why do you think that has happened?

DB: I'm not sure, it's probably a combination of a lot of things. Maybe it's a
certain amount of confidence coming with the public, with some amount of public
acceptance. That could be. That would be seem to be obvious, but I'm not sure
if it's true. Because, with a lot of people that has the reverse effect, with
public acceptance they get more jittery than ever, and they get more sort of
paranoid and whatnot. I feel the opposite, I've become more trusting in people.

*** So it's like a cross to bear, that you gradually learn how to carry?

DB: I guess, you mean learning how to live with human beings? Yeah, I suppose
we all have to learn how to do that at some point. [laughs]

***: Do you enjoy being a celebrity?

DB: Yeah, I can't deny it. It has its drawbacks, and annoyances, and whatnot,
but so far the benefits have outweighed the drawbacks Although I don't think
it's something that everyone would like.

*** Do you feel as if you were constantly on show, as it were, when you're out
in public, or not, or can you actually relax that much when you're in public?

DB: I try to forget about it as much as possible if I am in public. From going
to the grocery store or something? When I'm going to the grocery store, I try
to think about something other than the fact I happened to be in a band and I
might be recognised by someone. Otherwise it would be hard to get things done
and hard to live a kind of reasonable kind of life, if you're constantly
thinking about that.

*** Is home in New York for you?

DB: Yeah , most of the time. Last year I spent a lot of time in L. A. but that
was because of the editing and whatnot for Stop Making Sense was being done,
and I was around for that - and the sound-mixing and whatnot.

*** What is it about New York that you like?

DB: It has a kind of energy in the street and in a lot of people that live
here, that you can kind of feed off of. It's kind of inspiring, it has a lot
of creative activity that, and that activity that isn't seen as being creative
but because of the excess of energy that it forces people to be creative. So
that's a constant source of inspiration, whereas some place like Los Angeles is
a place where one can. It's not quit inspiring in the same way, but it's a more
pleasant place to work and live

*** Are there any early Talking Heads' recordings of songs that you can't
actually live with, or can't listen to now?

DB: There's a few of them I don't think, yeah, that I don't like very much any
more.

*** Any particular favourites?

DB: No, my favourites have changed quit a lot, I mean one day I can, I would
like one because it was so quirky, and then one day I would like another one
because it was touching or it had a nice melody or something. But I tend to
think that the ones being worked on at the moment are the best.

*** When you're recording or writing, do you feel a sort of release or purging
once it's out of your system? Do you get that kind of feeling ?

DB: It comes rather late, it's often once the record is actually been released
or once I see the whole package, there the sleeve with the disc inside and all
that, the whole package, then I feel and I know it's going out to the public,
then I feel that it's gone and that it's no longer my child, or the band's
child or whatever, and that it has been released to the world, and it has to
live a life of its own. So that's - the release comes then.

*** Will you be using an artist to do the new sleeve?

DB: Yeah, we've been talking about using a preacher who lives in Georgia, who
is a painter. He tends to do very odd paintings inspired by visions that he
has. He uses enamel paint - I think he calls it tractor enamel.

*** Will he do portraits of you?

DB: Yeah, we thought we'd ask him to maybe do a painting based on a vision and
maybe a portrait of us incorporated into something of his own.

*** The sound for Stop Making Sense was done digitally, was that an experiment
or just you wanted a really clean sound?

DB: Yeah, it was done mainly because we wanted a clean sound for the film
because in the film-making process, the sound goes through so many successive
stages, before it actually gets on the print that you see in the theatre, that
we wanted to keep the sound as crisp as possible for the theatre audience, and
so that was why that decision was made. But this record is being done in a more
conventional way - and it's not being done digitally because digital is still a
lot more expensive.