David Byrne (musician)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

David Byrne
David Byrne speaking at the 2006 Future of Music Policy Summit hosted by the McGill University Schulich School of Music in Montreal, Canada
Background information
Born	May 14, 1952 (age 54)
Origin	Dumbarton, Scotland, UK
Genre(s)	Experimental music Worldbeat New Wave Alternative rock
Occupation(s)	Musician, Artist, Singer, Actor, Director, Producer
Instrument(s)	Bass, Keyboards, Guitar, Synthesizer, Flute, Clavinet, Slide Guitar, Autoharp, Harmonium, Vocals
Years active	1977 to Present
Label(s)	Luaka Bop
Associated acts	Talking Heads Brian Eno
Website	Official Website

David Byrne (born May 14, 1952 in Dumbarton, Scotland) is a Grammy Award, Academy Award and Golden Globe winning musician best known as a founding member and the principal songwriter of the New Wave band Talking Heads. He lives in New York City.

Contents 1 Early years 2 Varied work 3 Present 4 Discography 4.1 Studio albums 4.2 Collaborations and soundtracks 4.3 Singles 5 Contributions 6 External links 7 Books 8 References

[edit] Early years

Byrne was born in Dumbarton, Scotland on May 14, 1952. Two years later, his parents moved to Hamilton, Ontario, then Arbutus, Maryland when he was 8 or 9 years old. He attended the Rhode Island School of Design for one year before dropping out and forming Talking Heads in 1974 with fellow RISD students Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, later joined by Jerry Harrison. He also attended the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland for one year.

During his time in the band, Byrne took on outside projects, collaborating with Brian Eno in 1981 on the album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, which attracted considerable critical acclaim and was an early use of sampling.

Byrne has a daughter, Malu Abeni Valentine Byrne, with Bonnie Lutz. Byrne and Lutz divorced in 2004.

[edit] Varied work

In 1981, Byrne partnered with choreographer Twyla Tharp, scoring "The Catherine Wheel," a ballet prominently featuring unusual rhythms and lyrics. Productions of "The Catherine Wheel" appeared on Broadway that same year. In Spite of Wishing and Wanting is a soundscape David Byrne produced for the Belgian dance company Ultima Vez.

His work has been extensively used in movie soundtracks, most notably in collaboration with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Cong Su on Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor, which won an Oscar for Best Original Score. In 2004, Lead us not Into Temptation included tracks and musical experiments from his score to Young Adam. Byrne also directed and starred in True Stories, a musical collage of quirky Americana released in 1986, as well as directing the documentary Île Aiye and the concert film of his 1992 Latin-tinged tour titled Between the Teeth. He was chiefly responsible for the stage design and choreography of Stop Making Sense in 1984.

Byrne wrote the Dirty Dozen Brass Band-inspired score for Robert Wilson's Opera The Knee Plays from The CIVIL warS. Some of the music from Byrne's orchestral album The Forest was originally used in a Wilson directed theatre piece with the same name. The Forest premiered at the Theater der Freien Volksbuhne, Berlin in 1988. The Forestry Maxi-single contained dance and industrial remixes of pieces from The Forest by Jack Dangers, Rudy Tambala, and Anthony Capel.

Byrne also appeared as a guest vocalist/guitarist for 10,000 Maniacs during their MTV Unplugged concert, though the songs in which he is featured were cut from its album.

Byrne founded Luaka Bop, a world music record label which releases the work of artists Cornershop, Os Mutantes, Los De Abajo, Jim White, Zap Mama, Tom Zé and others.

Byrne is also a photographer, and has shown his work in contemporary art galleries and museums around the world since the 1990s. His images are sometimes exhibited as part of sound installations. He is represented by Pace/MacGill Gallery, NYC.

[edit] Present

In 2001, his hit single "Like Humans Do" was selected by Microsoft as the sample music for Windows XP to demonstrate Windows Media Player.^[1][2]

In 2002, he provided vocals for a track, "Lazy" by X-Press 2, which reached number 2 in the United Kingdom and number 1 on the U.S. Dance Charts.

In the 309th episode of The Simpsons, "Dude, Where's My Ranch?", first-aired April 27, 2003, Byrne makes an appearance as a researcher of indigenous folk music of Springfield who co-sings and produces Homer Simpson's hate-song of Ned Flanders, and at the end of the episode also produces The Moe Szyslak Connection. In the episode, Byrne also claims to be a former wrestler, called "El Diablo."

In late 2003, David Byrne released a book with a companion DVD called Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information (ISBN 3-88243-907-6). The work included artwork composed entirely in Microsoft PowerPoint. It includes one image that depicts, according to Byrne, "Dan Rather's profile. Expanded to the nth degree. Taken to infinity. Overlayed on the back of Patrick Stewart's head." ^[3]

On March 16, 2004, Byrne released his latest solo album, Grown Backwards, on Nonesuch. This album used orchestral string arrangements, and includes two operatic arias. He also launched a North American and Australian tour with the Tosca Strings. This tour ended with Los Angeles, San Diego and New York shows in August 2005.

On February 21, 2005, the album The Cosmic Game by Thievery Corporation was released, featuring the track "The Heart's a Lonely Hunter" sung by David Byrne.

In late 2005, Byrne, with Fatboy Slim, began work scoring a disco opera focused on the life of controversial former First Lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos, entitled Here Lies Love.

In early 2006, the My Life in The Bush Of Ghosts album was re-released with new bonus tracks. In keeping with the spirit of the original album, two of the songs' component tracks were released under Creative Commons licenses and a remix contest site was launched.

In late 2006, Byrne released Arboretum, a sketchbook facsimile of his Tree Drawings, published by McSweeney's. He also had an exhibition of his chairs — drawings, photographs, sculptures, and embroideries — at Pace/MacGill Gallery, NYC.

In present history

On January 14, 2007 the New York Times profiled Byrne and his role as the patron to a new generation of indie rock artists.^[4] The article refers to his April 15, 2006 journal entry where he said, “I was a peculiar young man — borderline Asperger's, I would guess.”^[5]

On February 3, 2007, Byrne debuted new music at Carnegie Hall from "Here Lies Love" a song cycle about the life and times of Imelda Marcos.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Studio albums

• 1989 Rei Momo
• 1991 The Forest
• 1992 Uh-Oh
• 1994 David Byrne
• 1997 Feelings
• 2001 Look Into the Eyeball
• 2004 Grown Backwards

[edit] Collaborations and soundtracks

• 1981 My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
• 1981 The Catherine Wheel
• 1985 Music for the Knee Plays
• 1986 Sounds from True Stories
• 1987 The Last Emperor
• 1996 Avalancha de Éxitos
• 1997 The Visible Man
• 1999 In Spite of Wishing and Wanting
• 2003 Lead Us Not Into Temptation: Music from the film Young Adam
• 2006 Forro In the Dark - "Bonfires Of Sao Jao"
• "Heart is a Lonely Hunter" lyrics and vocal, Thievery Corporation, The Cosmic Game (2004)
• "Lazy" lyrics & vocal, X-Press 2 (2002)
• "Rio" lyrics & vocal, Vinicus Cantuaria, Vinicius (2001)
• "No Controles" vocals, Café Tacuba, Avalanche de Exitos (1996)
• Forestry, with Jack Dangers and Rudy Tambala (1992)
• "Liquid Days" and "Open the Kingdom;" lyrics by David Byrne, music by Phillip Glass (1986)
• "Let The Mystery Be," "Dallas," and "Jolene" duet with Natalie Merchant on MTV Unplugged, 10,000 Maniacs (1993)
• "God's Child" (Baila Conmingo) duet with Selena "Dreaming of You" album
• "Hoy no le temo a la muerte" lyrics & vocal, La Portuaria (2006)
• Score to Dead End Kids: A Story of Nuclear Power, film by Joanne Akalaitis
• Main title theme for "Alive From Off Center," Season 1 (1984)
• Something Wild, directed by Jonathan Demme: "Loco de Amor" song co-written with Johnny Pacheco; sung with Celia Cruz backed by Ray Barretto's band (1986)
• Married to the Mob, directed by Jonathan Demme (1988)
• A Young Man's Dream and a Woman's Secret, film by Philip Haas (1990)
• The Giant Woman and The Lightening Man, film by Philip Haas (1990)
• Producer: Mesopotamia, B-52's
• Producer: Waiting, Fun Boy 3
• Producer: Elegibo, Margareth Menezes, tracks "Canto pra Subir" and "Abra a Boca", Mango/Island Records, 1990

[edit] Singles

• 1981 "Three Big Songs (Big Blue Plymouth; Big Business; My Big Hands)"
• 1989 "Make Believe Mambo"
• 1989 "Dirty Old Town"
• 1990 "Don't Fence Me In"
• 1992 "She's Mad"
• 1992 "Girls On My Mind"
• 1992 "Hanging Upside Down"
• 1994 "Angels"
• 1994 "Back in the Box"
• 1996 "Waters of March (With Marisa Monte)"
• 1997 "Miss America"
• 1998 "Fuzzy Freaky (Mark Walk & Ruby Mix)"
• 1999 "Dreamworld (With Caetano Veloso)"
• 2001 "Like Humans Do"
• 2001 "U.B. Jesus"
• 2001 "Desconocido Soy (With NRU from Café Tacuba)"
• 2002 "Lazy (With X-Press 2)"
• 2002 "Glass, Concrete & Stone"
• 2004 "The Other Side of This Life"

[edit] Contributions

• 2004 Contributed the song "My Fair Lady" under a Creative Commons license to The Wired CD.

[edit] External links

• Official site: DavidByrne.com
• His journal
• Fan site from talking-heads.net
• David Byrne Radio
• Arboretum, Byrne's Book Reviewed from The Open Critic
• LipanjePuntin Gallery featuring works by David Byrne
• Pace/MacGill Another gallery which sells some of David Byrne‘s work

[edit] Books

• Henry Keazor, Thorsten Wübbena: Video Thrills The Radio Star. Musikvideos: Geschichte, Themen, Analysen. Bielefeld 2005, p. 237ss.

[edit] References

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ [2]
3. ^ [3]
4. ^ [4]
5. ^ [5]

Talking Heads
David Byrne – Chris Frantz – Tina Weymouth – Jerry Harrison
Discography
Studio Albums: Talking Heads: 77 (1977) - More Songs About Buildings and Food (1978) - Fear of Music (1979) - Remain in Light (1980) - Speaking in Tongues (1983) - Little Creatures (1985) - True Stories (1986) - Naked (1988)
Live Albums: The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads (1982) - Stop Making Sense (1984)
Filmography
Stop Making Sense (1984) - True Stories (1986) - Storytelling Giant (1988)
This box: view • talk • edit