David Byrne (musician)

David Byrne (born May 14, 1952 in Dumbarton, Scotland) is a musician best known as a founding member and the principal songwriter of the New Wave band Talking Heads.

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. He later attended the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland for one year.

During his time in the band, Byrne took on outside projects.

He collaborated with Brian Eno in 1981 on the ground-breaking album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, which attracted considerable critical acclaim and represented a significant step forward in the evolution of sampling as a legitimate musical endeavour.

David Byrne also has a 16 year old daughter named Malu Byrne.

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.

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. Byrne also directed and starred in True Stories, a musical collage of quirky Americana released in 1986, as well as the films Île Aiye and Between the Teeth.

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 successful photographer, having 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.

Present

For the 2001 release of Windows XP, Byrne's song "Like Humans Do" (radio edit) ^* from the album Look Into the Eyeball was included with the operating system — more specifically, with Windows Media Player 8.

In 2002, he provided vocals for a track, "Lazy" by X-Press 2, which reached number 2 in the United Kingdom.

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'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/DVD, called Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information, of artwork composed entirely in Microsoft PowerPoint. It includes such images as one 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." ^*

On March 16, 2004, Byrne released his latest solo album, titled Grown Backwards, on Nonesuch. This album is most noticeable for its use of orchestral string arrangements, and even 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. It was considered by many fans to offer some of the live music highlights of his career.

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 (a collaboration with Brian Eno) was re-released with new bonus tracks.

Religion

David Byrne is a member of the Church of the SubGenius. The church is a part of his movie True Stories, which he directed and co-wrote.

Discography

Studio albums

Collaborations and soundtracks

Singles

Year	Title	Chart positions				Album
Year	Title	U.S. Hot 100	U.S. Modern Rock	U.S. Mainstream Rock	UK	Album
1989	"Make Believe Mambo"	-	#11	-	-	Rei Momo
1989	"Dirty Old Town"	-	#8	-	-	Rei Momo
1992	"She's Mad"	-	#3	-	-	Uh-Oh
1994	"Angels"	-	#24	-	-	David Byrne

Contributions

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

External links

Gourt Home::Gourt :: David Byrne (musician)