Legend David Byrne (‘Stop Making Sense’) is Still Burning Down the House

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

Lemonada Media

Society & Culture, Film Interviews, Tv & Film

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 24 September 2023

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For the better part of a decade, David Byrne was the front-man of Talking Heads. To celebrate the revival of Jonathan Demme’s concert film, Stop Making Sense, we’re revisiting our special talk with the legendary musician himself.

At the top, we discuss how Byrne processed the pandemic in New York City (6:45), finding creativity in unlikely places (9:50), the evolution of his Broadway show ‘American Utopia’ (10:47), the influence of poet William Blake (13:00), his gift for collaboration (16:36), and the power of the song, Glass Concrete & Stone (20:54).

On the back-half, he opens up about his pivot from New Wave to Latin music (23:40), getting comfortable with creating on his own terms (30:35), and why he turned to performance as a response to being neurodivergent (36:32). He also reflects on his relationship to the Talking Heads (41:30), the cross generational impact of his art (44:15), the unique interpretations of American Utopia (46:30), and how he “found the world” through making music (50:25).

Purchase tickets to see Stop Making Sense in theaters here.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Pushkin. This is talk easy. I'm San Frigoso. Welcome to the show. Today we return to our conversation with artist and musician David Byrne.
0:48.0	For the better part of a decade, Byrne was of course the front man of Talking Heads, a ragtag collection of former art school
0:55.0	students that found each other in the New York punk scene of the 1970s.
0:59.2	Together they would become pioneers of the new wave movement, producing hit songs like
1:04.8	burning down the house, road to nowhere once in a lifetime, and this must be the place.
1:10.6	But at the height of the band's success, something remarkable happened in December of 1983.
1:17.0	For three nights at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles,
1:21.0	the group performed a kind of retrospective of their work, and all of it,
1:26.0	lucky for us, was captured on film. The result was stopped making sense, directed by the late great Jonathan Demi.
1:35.2	And to celebrate the film's 40th anniversary, the good people at A24 have recently
1:41.1	restored it in 4K and are putting it back in theaters starting this week.
1:46.0	If you haven't seen it in a bit or just want to hear some talking heads,
1:50.0	here's a clip from the trailer. Same as it ever once. Time isn't holding us.
2:04.0	Time isn't after us.
2:06.0	Time isn't holding us.
2:08.0	Time isn't holding us. Time isn't holding us.
2:10.0	Time isn't holding us. And in the days my life... And the day's mother, once in our lives,
2:15.0	once in our lives. That was from the film Stop Making Sense. It's currently available in IMAX for one week
2:34.6	before expanding the theaters across the country on September 29th. If you'd like to
2:40.0	check out the new 4K restoration which is really just so stunning. You can get
2:45.7	tickets at stop making sense dot movie. That's stop making sense dot movie. You can
2:52.4	also find that link in the description of this episode, wherever you are listening right now.
	...

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