David Byrne (musician)

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David Byrne in 2006 at the Future of Music Policy at the McGill University Schulich School of Music in Montreal , Québec
David Byrne 1978

David Byrne (born May 14, 1952 in Dumbarton , Scotland ) is a British - American musician (vocals and guitar) of Scottish origin. In 1975 he co-founded the post-punk and new wave group Talking Heads and became known as their front man .

Life

David Byrne came to the United States with his parents as a child , but did not take US citizenship until 2016 at the age of 64. In retrospect, he described himself as a "strange young man [...] on the verge of Asperger's Syndrome ".

Byrne was not only successful with Talking Heads , but also with his solo career, which he started in 1981. His first album, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts , recorded together with Brian Eno , is considered to be groundbreaking for the use of (then analog) sampling of predominantly traditional ethnic music.

In 1986, Byrne was the director, producer, and screenwriter of the film True Stories ; he also played the leading role alongside John Goodman . In the same year he also worked with Philip Glass on the Songs from Liquid Days , for which he partly wrote the lyrics. For the soundtrack to The Last Emperor in 1988 he received together with Ryūichi Sakamoto and Cong Su the Oscar .

In 1990, Byrne founded the world music label Luaka Bop . Originally, samplers with Latin American music were supposed to be published there, then the spectrum expanded to include music from Cuba , Africa and Asia . There were u. a. Works by Silvio Rodríguez , Cornershop , Os Mutantes, Los De Abajo, Jim White, Zap Mama, Tom Zé , Los Amigos Invisibles and King Chango published.

His song Like Humans Do was shipped with Microsoft Windows XP as a music sample for Windows Media Player .

In 2003, Byrne had a guest appearance on the television series The Simpsons . He produced and sang Homer's song I Hate Ned Flanders .

With Norman Cook , Byrne founded the music project The Brighton Port Authority , which attracted attention with a music video for the song Toe Jam .

David Byrne puts most of his daily journeys by bicycle and sets up for the better conditions cycling one. In September 2009 his book Bicycle Diaries was published , in which he describes his experiences as a cyclist in various cities around the world such as Berlin , Buenos Aires , Manila and Sydney .

In 2010, Byrne published a pop opera with Fatboy Slim , with which he set a musical memorial to the former Filipino first wife Imelda Marcos . There are 23 guest singers, including Tori Amos and Cyndi Lauper . In the same year he worked with Will Oldham on the soundtrack for the film Cheyenne - This Must Be the Place in which he also has a guest appearance.

In 2011 he was appointed to the competition jury of the 68th Venice International Film Festival .

Besides being a musician, Byrne also works as a conceptually motivated photographer and artist. He has published several art books and writes columns for the New York Times .

In addition to his preference for compositional collaborations with other musicians on his album projects, he occasionally promotes less prominent visual artists by personally awarding the artwork. For example, on his album American Utopia , released in 2018, eight tracks are based on compositions by Brian Eno and two tracks on templates by keyboardist Daniel Lopatin , according to the CD information insert . The paintings used for the image design of the album come from the New York painter Purvis Young .

Discography

For publications with Talking Heads see here .

Studio albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1981 My Life in the Bush of Ghosts - - - UK29 (8 weeks)
UK 		US44 (13 weeks)
US
with Brian Eno
1989 Rei Momo - - - UK52 (2 weeks)
UK 		US71 (18 weeks)
US
1992 Uh-oh - - - UK26 (5 weeks)
UK 		US125 (6 weeks)
US
1994 David Byrne - - - UK43 (3 weeks)
UK 		US139 (6 weeks)
US
“Byrne” is written mirrored, hence Davidenryb sometimes
1997 Feelings - - - UK91 (1 week)
UK 		US155 (1 week)
US
2001 Look into the eyeball - - - UK58 (1 week)
UK 		US120 (4 weeks)
US
2004 Grown backwards - - - UK88 (1 week)
UK 		US178 (1 week)
US
2008 Everything That Happens Will Happen Today - - - - US174 (2 weeks)
US
with Brian Eno
2010 Here read love - - - UK76 (1 week)
UK 		US96 (2 weeks)
US
2012 Love This Giant - AT70 (1 week)
AT 		- UK40 (1 week)
UK 		US23 (5 weeks)
US
2018 American utopia DE31 (1 week)
DE 		AT22 (2 weeks)
AT 		CH21 (1 week)
CH 		UK16 (1 week)
UK 		US3 (2 weeks)
US
Todomundo / Nonesuch Records

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

Live albums

  • 2009: Everything That Happens Will Happen on This Tour - David Byrne on Tour: Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno (with Brian Eno)
  • 2012: Live at Carnegie Hall (with Caetano Veloso )
  • 2018: ... The Best Live Show Of All Time

Remix albums

  • 1998: The Visible Man (contains Feelings remixes)

Stage and film music

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
US US
1981 The Catherine Wheel US104 (12 weeks)
US
Music for the ballet of the same name by Twyla Tharp
1985 Music for "The Knee Plays" US141 (6 weeks)
US
Music for Robert Wilson's opera The Knee Plays
1988 The Last Emperor OST US152 (10 weeks)
US

Further stage and film music

  • 1986: True Stories, soundtrack
  • 1991: Music for Robert Wilson's opera The Forest
  • 1999: In Spite of Wishing and Wanting (ballet music for the dance group Ultima Vez )
  • 2003: Lead Us Not into Tempation, soundtrack to Young Adam
  • 2008: Big Love: Hymnal, Soundtrack
  • 2011: Score for Cheyenne - This Must Be the Place , with Will Oldham

Guest Posts

year Title
album 		Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements
(Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
UK UK
2002 Lazy UK2 (13 weeks)
UK
X-Press feat. David Byrne

Video albums

  • 1993: Between the Teeth (VHS)
  • 2001: David Byrne Live at Union Chapel (DVD)
  • 2007: Live from Austin, Texas (DVD)

Filmography

  • 1986: True Stories , screenplay, director, actor, soundtrack (Talking Heads)

Books

  • True Stories (1986)
  • Strange Ritual: Pictures and Words (1995)
  • Your Action World (1998)
  • The New Sins (2001)
  • Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information (2003)
  • Arboretum (2006)
  • Bicycle Diaries (2009; German translation by Brigitte Jakobeit: Bicycle Diaries: Ein Fahrrad, nine Metropolen. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2012, ISBN 978-3-10-004416-7 )
  • How Music Works (2012; German translation by Achim Stanislawski: How music works. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2019, ISBN 978-3-10-397417-1 )

Awards

Awards

Nominations

literature

Web links

Commons : David Byrne  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nothin 'Could Be Fine-Ah Than To Be In Carolina . davidbyrne.com; accessed on August 27, 2017
  2. ↑ "I was a peculiar young man, [...] borderline Asperger's, I would guess." Will Hermes: Indie Rock's Patron Saint Inspires a New Flock . nytimes.com , January 14, 2007, accessed November 2, 2019.
  3. ^ Tonspion.de , accessed on February 19, 2010
  4. ↑ see album CD insert American Utopia
  5. ↑ a b c Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US US soundtracks
personal data
SURNAME Byrne, David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British-American musician (vocals and guitar) of Scottish descent
DATE OF BIRTH May 14, 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Dumbarton , Scotland