Known primarily as the front man for the band Talking Heads, Byrne also works in the visual arts and theater.
Former member of Talking Heads , which broke up in 1991.
Has never taken out US citizenship although he has lived in the U.S. since he was a child.
Born in Scotland, but was raised in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Ex-brother-in-law of the late Tina Chow , a fashion icon of the 1980s, and Michael Chow.
Father, with Adelle Lutz , of daughter Malu Valentine (born in 1989).
Uncle of actress China Chow and Maximillian Chow.
Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 as a member of the Talking Heads.
Translated into English, the title of his 1989 album "Rei Momo" means "King of Carnival."
Attended Lansdowne High School in Baltimore, Maryland
Attended the Rhode Island School of Design in 1970, where he met fellow Talking Heads members, Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz , who became a couple in 1973. He transferred to the Maryland Institute of Art in 1971 and travelled in a band called Bizadi through 1972. He then dropped out of college for good. He returned to Providence in 1973 and formed a band called The Artistics with Frantz but they broke up in 1974 when Byrne moved to New York. He remained friends with Frantz and Weymouth who moved to New York in September 1974. Unable to find a willing bass player for their forming band, Frantz persuaded Weymouth to learn the bass guitar under the tutelage of David. They began rehearsing in January 1975 and had their first gig as Talking Heads in June that year at punk club CBGB.
The Talking Heads trademark song, "Psycho Killer", was inspired by a phrase used by his art school friend, Barbara Conway. She used the phrase, "psycho killer", to describe things she thought were cool. Conway was murdered by a female stalker in the 1980s.
Attended the Rhode Island School of Design at the same time as director Gus Van Sant.
His sister, Celia, is an epidemiologist specializing in breast cancer.
When he was two years old, his parents moved the family to Hamilton, Ontario. Byrne lived in that area until he was 8 or 9 and then moved to Maryland, where he stayed until college.
He is left handed but plays guitar right handed.
Byrne was in a relationship with photographer and artist Andrea Kovacs from 1974 to 1976 and dancer Mary Clarke from 1976 to 1978. They were both graduates of the Rhode Island School of Design.
Member of the Equity Stunt Register (Ireland)
Complete freedom is as much curse as boon; freedom within strict and well-defined confines is, to me, ideal.
I like a good story and I also like staring at the sea-- do I have to choose between the two?,You might say that the universe plays the blues.
The online music magazine Pitchfork once wrote that I would collaborate with anyone for a bag of Doritos.
Music eats its young and gives birth to a new hybrid creature.
According to the science writer Philip Ball, when it was pointed out to musicologist Deryck Cookethat Slavic and much Spanish music use minor keys for happy music, he claimed that their liveswere so hard that they didn’t really know what happiness was anyway.
It was a uniform that signified that one was a kind of downtown aesthete; not necessarily nihilistic, but a monk in the bohemian order.
There are two conversations going on at the same time: the story and a conversation about how the story is being told.
The radio was shouting at you, pleading with you, and seducing you.
Simplicity is a kind of transparency in which subtle nuances can have outsize effects.
I also realized that there were lots of unacknowledged theater forms going on all around. Our lives are filled with performances that have been so woven into our daily routine that the artificial and performative aspect has slipped into invisibility.
I like to combine the dramatic emotional warmth of strings with the grooves and body business of drums and bass.
Punk was defined by an attitude rather than a musical style.
With pop music, the format dictates the form to a big degree. Just think of the pop single. It has endured as a form even in the download age because bands conform to a strict format, and work, often very productively, within the parameters.
My favorite time of day is to get up and eat leftovers from dinner, especially spicy food.
Real beauty knocks you a little bit off kilter.
You can know or not know how a car runs and still enjoy riding in a car.
I never listen to the radio unless I rent a car.
Why not invest in the future of music, instead of building fortresses to preserve its past?.
