David Byrne
photo: Simon Alexander
53 articles
Free articles
David Byrne: Leicester De Montfort Hall, 7th July
Live Review by Andy Farquarson, Rock's Backpages, July 2002
AN INCONGRUOUSLY large stage dominates the tiny park which is the setting for a one-day festival at Leicester's De Montfort Hall. As two risers are ...
Audio interviews
Talking Heads' David Byrne (1980)
Interview by Van Gosse, Rock's Backpages audio, September 1980
The Heads' head talks in depth about new album Remain In Light, tensions within the band, his interest in World Music and much more.
File format: mp3; file size: 71.6mb, interview length: 1h 18' 13" sound quality: **
Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages audio, August 1986
The Talking Heads frontman on his film True Stories: about the meaning of Texas; conspiracy theories; yuppies and generational attitudes; the band's uneasiness with the film and soundtrack album; New York v the rest of the USA, and the meaning of cities.
File format: mp3; file size: 64.5mb, interview length: 1h 07' 11" sound quality: ***
Interview by Gavin Martin, Rock's Backpages audio, March 2004
David Byrne talks frankly about his home life, family background, NYC, the massive variety of his artistic enterprises, and his tricky relationship with former Talking Heads band-mates.
File format: mp3; total file size: 36.9mb, total interview length: 40' 17" sound quality: ****
List of articles in the library
David Byrne: The Head Boy Talks
Profile and Interview by Roy Trakin, Time Out, 28 November 1980
CENTRAL PARK, end of summer, 1980. The Talking Heads are playing to a crowd of over 5000 people who are literally overflowing a converted ice-skating ...
Brian Eno, David Byrne: My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts (Sire)
Review by Richard C. Walls, Creem, June 1981
"You see, the problem is that people, particularly people who write, assume that the meaning of a song is vested in the lyrics. To me ...
David Byrne: The Catherine Wheel; Jerry Harrison: The Red And The Black; Tom Tom Club: Tom Tom Club
Review by Van Gosse, Musician, February 1982
Talking Heads Alone ...
David Byrne: First Degree Byrne
Interview by Max Bell, The Face, June 1983
FOR SOMEONE WITH such an aversion to limelight, fame and wild applause, David Byrne certainly puts himself about a bit. Ever since he formed Talking ...
Interview by Steven X Rea, High Fidelity, September 1983
Talking Heads leader Byrne is a songwriter, video producer, theater composer, artist, and a part-time member of the 20th century literati. And some people think ...
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, June 1985
MORE CURIOUS CONNECTIONS: NEW ORLEANS BRASS MEETS SPOKEN WORD ...
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, June 1985
MORE CURIOUS CONNECTIONS: NEW ORLEANS BRASS MEETS SPOKEN WORD ...
David Byrne: Music For The Knee Plays (EMI)
Review by Sean O'Hagan, New Musical Express, 21 September 1985
KNEE JERK! ...
Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Mail On Sunday, 1986
THERE'S SOMETHING faintly forbidding about David Byrne. Oh, he's friendly enough, sitting over the table of a discreet suite at Blake's Hotel in Kensington for ...
David Byrne: A Talking Head's Guide To The Big Country
Interview by Mat Snow, New Musical Express, 6 September 1986
COMING SOON to a cinema near you is one of this year's funniest yet most thought-provoking films. It is called True Stories, and is a ...
Talking Heads' Byrne Chats Up His Movie
Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, San Francisco Chronicle, 19 October 1986
THE LAST TIME we saw David Byrne on the big screen, he was herky-jerking his way through a Talking Heads concert, doing his chaotic, turkey-necked, ...
David Byrne: "It Didn't Feel Like Acting"
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Q, December 1986
True Stories: first the book, then the Talking Heads LP, now the film. David Byrne writes, directs, acts and supports the cause ordinary people everywhere. ...
Profile and Interview by Mark Cooper, The Guardian, 18 March 1988
With Naked, Talking Heads' tenth album, David Byrne is still asking "How did I get here?" Mark Cooper examines a stranger in paradise. ...
David Byrne With Les Miserables/Hugo Largo: Cambridge Theatre, London
Live Review by Jon Wilde, Melody Maker, 9 July 1988
EVEN BEFORE THE safety-curtain rose to reveal David Byrne sitting on a tree stump, there were some willing highlights. ...
David Byrne, Durutti Column, Hugo Largo: ICA Benefit, Cambridge Theatre, London
Live Review by Barbara Ellen, New Musical Express, 9 July 1988
SATURDAY NIGHT, time yet again to support the arts at the second gig of the weekend to support the ICA and celebrate its 40th birthday. ...
Interview by Martin Aston, Auckland Star, 1989
NOT FOR nothing has New York been labelled "the first Third World city in a First World country." ...
Report and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 12 January 1989
Album spotlights 'tropicalismo' ...
David Byrne: Rei Momo (Sire-WEA)
Review by Len Brown, New Musical Express, 28 October 1989
PURISTS AND cultural segregationists must be reaching for the suicide pills. There's Acid Bhangra, African House, Japanese ska, Brazillian Hip-hop, Yemenite disco, Turkish rap, Kate ...
Review by Mark Cooper, Q, November 1989
DESPITE DAVID Byrne's beaver-like activities over the last few years, his persona and his work have gradually been losing much of their old allure. Perhaps ...
David Byrne: A Composer of Pleasure
Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, The Times, 1 December 1989
What do you think you are best at? David Byrne, neat in a blue button-down collar shirt and college athlete’s haircut, looks nervously into the ...
David Byrne: Town & Country Club, London
Live Review by Simon Witter, New Musical Express, 6 January 1990
I'M NOT saying the first sign of rain should have you reaching for the Leonard Cohen Sings Joy Division album, but in the dazzling depression ...
Interview by Mark Cooper, Q, February 1990
Although embarrassed at being hailed a "cultural ambassador", David Byrne has temporarily put Talking Heads on hold to step out with his 14-piece Latin big ...
Interview by Michael Azerrad, Hits, 19 March 1990
NO DOUBT about it, the musical flavor of the week is Latin/Brazilian — even Paul Simon's recording an album of Brazilian music. It figures that ...
David Byrne: From Ur to L.A. and back again
Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 23 June 1991
In performance, and as the 'compere' in his film True Stories, David Byrne comes across as the epitome of Wasp uptightness, nervy and ill at ...
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, March 1992
If you should bump into David Byrne on his forthcoming world tour, for God's sake don't mention the word "renaissance". Talking Heads are no more, ...
Severed Heads: Talking Heads and David Byrne
Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, March 1992
"LOOKING AT old videos of Talking Heads," says David Byrne, "it's like three normal kids backing up this maniac — three people who have their ...
Review by Andy Gill, Q, April 1992
PACKED WITH ALL MANNER of musical invention, oddball observations and joyous pop nonsense, Uh-Oh is by some way David Byrne's most commercial – and enjoyable ...
More Songs About Psychos: David Byrne: Uh-Oh (Luaka Bop/Sire)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, April 1992
DAVID BYRNE has always enjoyed looking at the globe from the most unusual perspectives. He used to draw ephemeral pictures of the States on an ...
Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, May 1992
For years the frontman of Talking Heads, David Byrne has emerged as a solo artist now – but his newest album shares the same off-beat ...
Review and Interview by Richard Cook, MOJO, June 1997
Head boy's follow-up to 1994's David Byrne finds him working with a variety of producers, including DJ Hahn Rowe, The Black Cat Orchestra and Morcheeba. ...
Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 8 August 1997
The former Talking Head gets comfortable with his outsider status ...
Morcheeba: Calm before the storm
Interview by Jack Barron, Vox, April 1998
They were quietly successful with their dark, hip-hop textures and Skye-scraping vocals. Now, with their genre-defying second LP, Big Calm, MORCHEEBA are quietly heading for ...
The King of Afropea: David Byrne
Interview by Andy Farquarson, The Independent, 11 June 2000
"Isn't this where the Profumo thing started?" someone asks. We're soaking up the seedy mock-opulence of The Eve Club on Regent Street and, for the ...
David Byrne: "Therapy is like a lobotomy. Who wants to have all their edges shaved off?"
Report and Interview by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 27 April 2001
HE'S ACCEPTED NOW, at last, that he'll always be known for one thing: the Big Suit. In 1984, David Byrne, the voice of New York ...
David Byrne: How the Talking Head learnt to Sing from the Heart
Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 28 February 2004
David Byrne, former leader of the Talking Heads and a man whose life's work has been wrapped in irony and knowingness, has made an album ...
Profile and Interview by Peter Ross, Sunday Herald, 21 March 2004
NOT far from David Byrne's London hotel, a fashion store is selling T-shirts bearing the logos of the Ramones and of CBGBs, the legendary New ...
Interview by Steven R Rosen, Harp, April 2004
David Byrne – whose funk-rock-art band Talking Heads brought New Wave into the mainstream a generation ago, and who has pursued his interests in rhythm-based ...
Review and Interview by Andy Gill, Uncut, April 2004
New wave god turned worldbeat evangelist gets opera bug ...
David Byrne: Grown Backwards (Nonesuch)
Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 29 April 2004
Ex-Talking Head – and the most cosmopolitan man in New York – continues his global luau. ...
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, May 2004
The angular former Talking Heads frontman on love, war, the ariasof Verdi and Bizet, and the problems of "art by committee". ...
David Byrne Looks Forward...and Back
Interview by Carol Cooper, The L Magazine, Fall 2004
Q: AS A SOLO ARTIST you have worked with horn sections and now with string sections to color and embellish your songs. Aside ...
David Byrne: Imelda – The Nightclub Years
Interview by Andrew Purcell, The Guardian, 29 January 2007
DAVID BYRNE KEEPS a small black diary on his bookcase, with 'DB – Idears' written on the spine in gold ink. Without rifling through its ...
The Importance Of Being David Byrne
Interview by Ken Scrudato, Filter, November 2007
I WAS IN ZURICH recently and found myself at the rather legendary Cabaret Voltaire. It was in that very same place, all the way back ...
Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, August 2008
IN NEW YORK CITY this summer, David Byrne is everywhere. His installation titled Playing the Building transformed the Battery Maritime Building into a giant musical ...
David Byrne: Colston Hall, Bristol
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, March 2009
LIKE SOME KIND OF vaguely sinister religious cult, David Byrne and his band kicked off their latest British tour dressed in pristine white from head ...
The Business is an Exciting Mess: Brian Eno and David Byrne
Interview by Edward Helmore, The Guardian, 27 March 2009
DAVID BYRNE IS sitting outside the ladies parlour, upstairs at the Tampa theatre, one of the most spectacular 1920s movie palaces in the US, in ...
David Byrne: Speaking in Tongues
Profile and Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 1 August 2009
THE SUN HAS just melted into the distant purple mountains on a sweltering Italian night when David Byrne starts speaking in tongues, throwing his arms ...
Book Review by Michel Faber, The Guardian, 9 November 2012
GIVEN THE VASTNESS of the subject, calling a treatise How Music Works seems intellectually arrogant, but it could also be seen as disarmingly frank, a ...
David Byrne: Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Live Review by David Burke, Classic Pop, August 2018
ALL THE SUPERLATIVES you've heard or read about David Byrne's American Utopia tour are true. ...
see also Talking Heads
back to LIBRARY
