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David Byrne (; born May 14, 1952) is an American musician, writer, visual artist, and filmmaker. He was a founding member, principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of the American new wave band Talking Heads.
Byrne has released solo recordings and worked with various media including film, photography, opera, fiction, and non-fiction. He has received an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, a Special Tony Award, and a Golden Globe Award, and he is an inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of Talking Heads.
Before high school, Byrne already knew how to play the guitar, accordion, and violin. He was rejected from his middle school's choir because they said he was "off-key and too withdrawn". From a young age, he had a strong interest in music. His parents say that he would constantly play his phonograph from age three and he learned how to play the harmonica at age five. His father used his electrical engineering skills to modify a reel-to-reel tape recorder so that Byrne could make multitrack recordings.
Byrne graduated from Lansdowne High School in southwest Baltimore County, Maryland. He attended the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Providence, Rhode Island, during the 1970–71 term and the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore during the 1971–72 term before dropping out.
In May 1976, Byrne quit his day job, and the three-piece band signed to Sire Records in November of that year. Byrne was the youngest member of the band. Multi-instrumentalist Jerry Harrison, previously of The Modern Lovers, joined the band in 1977. The band released eight studio albums to critical acclaim and commercial success. Four albums achieved gold status (exceeding 500,000 in sales) and two others were certified double-platinum (exceeding two million in sales). Talking Heads were pioneers of the new wave music scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s with popular and creative music videos in regular rotation on MTV.
In 1988 the band quietly went on hiatus during which Byrne launched a solo career and the other members pursued their own projects. Talking Heads reunited in 1991 to record the single "Sax and Violins" and officially split in December 1991.
In 2002, Talking Heads was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where they reunited to play four tracks: "Psycho Killer", "Burning Down the House", "Once In A Lifetime" and "Life During Wartime".
Rei Momo (1989) was the second solo album by Byrne (the first after leaving Talking Heads), and features mainly Afro-Cuban, Afro-Hispanic, and Brazilian song styles, including popular dances such as merengue music, son cubano, samba, mambo, cumbia, cha-cha-chá, bomba and charanga. His third solo album, Uh-Oh (1992), featured a brass section and was driven by tracks such as "Girls on My Mind" and "The Cowboy Mambo (Hey Lookit Me Now)". His fourth solo album, David Byrne (1994), was a more proper rock record, with Byrne playing most of the instruments, leaving percussion for session musicians. "Angels" and "Back in the Box" were the two main singles released from the album. The first one entered the US Modern Rock Tracks chart, reaching No. 24. For his fifth studio effort, the emotional Feelings (1997), Byrne employed a brass orchestra called Black Cat Orchestra. His sixth, Look into the Eyeball (2001), continued the same musical exploration of Feelings, but was compiled of more upbeat tracks, like those found on Uh-Oh.
Grown Backwards (2004), released by Nonesuch Records, used orchestral string arrangements, and includes two operatic as well as a rework of X-Press 2 collaboration "". 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. He also collaborated with Selena on her 1995 album Dreaming of You with "God's Child (Baila Conmigo)".
Byrne and Eno reunited for his eighth album Everything That Happens Will Happen Today (2008). He assembled a band to tour worldwide for the album for a six-month period from late 2008 through early 2009 on the Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno Tour.
In 2012, he released a collaborative album with American singer-songwriter St. Vincent called Love This Giant. The album featured both Byrne and St. Vincent on vocals and guitar, backed by a brass section. To promote the album, both artists travelled throughout North America, Europe, and Australia on the Love This Giant Tour in 2012 and 2013, with each performing pieces from their career in the album's distinctive brass band style alongside those composed for the album.
In January 2018, Byrne announced his first solo album in 14 years. American Utopia was released in March through Todo Mundo and Nonesuch Records. He also released the album's first single, "Everybody's Coming to My House", which he co-wrote with Eno. The subsequent tour – which showcased songs from American Utopia alongside highlights from his Talking Heads and solo career to date – was described by NME as being perhaps "the most ambitious and impressive live show of all time", blurring the lines "between gig and theatre, poetry and dance".
In June 2025, Byrne released a new lead single "Everybody Laughs" and announced his next solo album Who Is the Sky?, with all songs being arranged by Ghost Train Orchestra. The album is set to be released in September via Matador Records, with the Who Is the Sky? Tour starting the same month. The album will also feature St. Vincent, Hayley Williams, and Tom Skinner.
He was chiefly responsible for the stage design and choreography of the concert film Stop Making Sense (1984).
Byrne wrote the Dirty Dozen Brass Band-inspired score Music for "The Knee Plays", released in 1985, for Robert Wilson's vast five-act opera .
He wrote, directed, and starred in True Stories (1986), a musical collage of discordant Americana for which he also produced most of the film's music. He was impressed by the experimental theatre that he saw in New York City in the 1970s and collaborated with several of its best-known representatives. He worked with Robert Wilson on "The Knee Plays" and "The Forest", and invited Spalding Gray (of The Wooster Group) to act in True Stories, while Meredith Monk provided a portion of the film's soundtrack.
Byrne also provided a soundtrack for JoAnne Akalaitis' film Dead End Kids (1986), made after a Mabou Mines theatre production. Byrne's artistic outlook has a great deal in common with the work of these artists. (2025). 9780826441683, Continuum Books. ISBN 9780826441683 The same year he also added "Loco de Amor" with Celia Cruz to Jonathan Demme's film Something Wild (1986).
His work has been extensively used in film , most notably in collaboration with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Cong Su on Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor (1987), which won an Academy Award for Best Original Score.
Some of the music from Byrne's orchestral album The Forest was originally used in a Robert Wilson–directed theatre piece titled The Forest. The play premiered at the Theater der Freien Volksbühne, Berlin, in 1988. It received its New York premiere in December 1988 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). The Forestry Maxi-single contained dance and industrial remixes of pieces from The Forest by Jack Dangers, Rudy Tambala, and Anthony Capel. Byrne released his soundtrack album in 1991.
Byrne also directed the documentary Île Aiye (1989) and the concert film of his 1992 Latin-tinged tour titled Between the Teeth (1994).
In Spite of Wishing and Wanting is a soundscape Byrne produced in 1999 for Belgian choreographer Wim Vandekeybus's dance company Ultima Vez.
In 2003, Byrne guest starred as himself on a season 14 episode of The Simpsons. Released the same year, Lead Us Not into Temptation included tracks and musical experiments from his score to film Young Adam (2003).
In late 2005, Byrne and Fatboy Slim began work on Here Lies Love, a disco opera or song cycle about the life of Imelda Marcos, the controversial former First Lady of the Philippines. Some music from this piece was debuted at Adelaide Festival of Arts in Australia in February 2006 and the following year at Carnegie Hall on February 3, 2007.
In 2008, Byrne released – his soundtrack to season two of Big Love, which aired in 2007. These two albums constituted the first releases on his independent record label Todo Mundo. Byrne and Brian Eno provided the soundtrack for the film (2010).
In 2015, he organized Contemporary Color, two arena concerts in Brooklyn and Toronto, for which he brought in ten musical acts who teamed up with ten color guard groups. The concerts were made into a 2016 documentary film, directed by the Ross brothers, and produced by Byrne.
He collaborated with businesswoman Mala Gaonkar in 2016 to co-create NEUROSOCIETY, a guided immersive theater performance. THE MAKERS SERIES DAVID BYRNE AND MALA GAONKAR Stanford Arts. Access February 9, 2023.
In October 2019, his American Utopia opened at the Hudson Theatre on Broadway. Byrne appeared in comedian John Mulaney's children's musical comedy special John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch (2019), where he performed the song "Pay Attention!" His song "Tiny Apocalypse" was also featured as the special's end credits song.
On February 29, 2020, after a 30-year absence, Byrne performed as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live with John Mulaney as host. Byrne performed "Once in a Lifetime" and "Toe Jam" with the cast of the Broadway show American Utopia and appears in the "Airport Sushi" sketch singing a parody of "Road to Nowhere". This was Byrne's third appearance on Saturday Night Live. He previously served as the musical guest as part of Talking Heads in 1979, and as a solo musical guest in 1989.
In 2022, Byrne again collaborated with Mala Gaonkar on another immersive theater production based on his life, "Theater of the Mind" Invites Audiences to Revisit—and Rethink—Their Past The New Yorker. Access February 9, 2023. "Theater of the Mind" Take a Trip Through David Byrne's Mind Smithsonian Magazine. Access February 9, 2023. transforming a 15,000 square-foot warehouse in Denver, Colorado.
On March 24, 1992, he performed with Richard Thompson at St. Ann & The Holy Trinity in Brooklyn Heights, New York. The concert was recorded and released as An Acoustic Evening. Byrne worked with Latin superstar Selena in March 1995; writing, producing and singing a bilingual duet titled "God's Child (Baila Conmigo)". This became the last song Selena recorded before she was murdered on March 31, 1995. The song was included on the singer's posthumous album Dreaming of You.
In 1997, Byrne was the host of Sessions at West 54th during its second of three seasons and collaborated with members of Devo and Morcheeba to record the album Feelings. In 2001, a version of Byrne's single "Like Humans Do", edited to remove its marijuana reference, was selected by Microsoft as the sample music for Windows XP to demonstrate Windows Media Player. David Byrne to Provide Promotional Music for Windows XP: "Like Humans Do" to Give Music Fans a Taste of the Digital Music Experience in Windows XP . Retrieved January 11, 2010. You May Find Yourself On Windows XP Forbes.com by Davide Dukcevich, August 21, 2001. Retrieved January 11, 2010.
In 2002, Byrne co-wrote and provided vocals for "Lazy" by the English house duo X-Press 2, which reached No. 2 in the United Kingdom and number one on the US Dance Chart. Byrne released an orchestral version on his 2004 album Grown Backwards.
In September 2004, Byrne co-authored a CD collection and performed with Gilberto Gil at a benefit concert promoting the Creative Commons license. In 2006, his singing was featured on "The Heart's a Lonely Hunter" on The Cosmic Game by Thievery Corporation. In 2007, he provided a cover of the Fiery Furnaces' song "Ex-Guru" for a compilation to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the founding of Thrill Jockey, a Chicago-based record label.
In April 2008, Byrne took part in the Paul Simon retrospective concert series at BAM performing "You Can Call Me Al" and "I Know What I Know" from Simon's Graceland album., NME. Retrieved January 11, 2010. Later that year, Byrne and his production team turned the Battery Maritime Building, a 99-year-old ferry terminal in Manhattan, into a playable musical instrument. The structure was connected electronically to a pipe organ and made playable for a piece called "Playing the Building". This project was previously installed in Stockholm in 2005, and later at the London Roundhouse in 2009. Byrne says that the point of the project was to allow people to experience art first hand, by creating music with the organ, rather than simply looking at it. Also in 2008, he collaborated with the Brighton Port Authority, composing the music and singing the lyrics for "Toe Jam".
Byrne is featured on the tracks "Money" and "The People Tree", on N.A.S.A.'s 2009 album The Spirit of Apollo. In 2009, he also appeared on HIV/AIDS charity album Dark Was the Night for Red Hot Organization. He collaborated with Dirty Projectors on the song "Knotty Pine". In the same year, Byrne performed at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. He also was a signator of a letter protesting the decision of the Toronto International Film Festival to choose Tel Aviv as the subject of its inaugural City-to-City Spotlight strand. Toronto film festival hit by protest over Tel Aviv strand by Ben Walters, 7 September 2009. Retrieved January 11, 2010.
In May 2011, Byrne contributed backing vocals to the Arcade Fire track "Speaking in Tongues" which appeared on the deluxe edition of their 2010 album The Suburbs.
Jherek Bischoff's 2012 album Composed features Byrne on the track "Eyes". The same year, he also released a show recorded with Caetano Veloso in 2004 at New York City's Carnegie Hall ( Live at Carnegie Hall).
In March 2013, he debuted a fully staged production of his 2010 concept album Here Lies Love at New York's Public Theater, directed by Tony Award-nominee Alex Timbers following its premiere at MoCA earlier in the year. That same month, he and Sakamoto released a re-recording of their 1994 collaboration "Psychedelic Afternoon" to raise money and awareness for children impacted by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.
In May 2014, Byrne announced his involvement with Anna Calvi's EP, Strange Weather, collaborating with her on two songs: a cover of Keren Ann's "Strange Weather" and Connan Mockasin's "I'm the Man, That Will Find You".
In August 2016, he was featured on "Snoopies" on the Kickstarter-funded album, And the Anonymous Nobody... by De La Soul.
In 2022, he co-wrote and provided vocals on the song "This Is a Life" for the original soundtrack to the 2022 film Everything Everywhere All at Once, alongside the film's composers Son Lux and American singer Mitski. Byrne performed the song with Son Lux at the 95th Academy Awards, with Stephanie Hsu providing vocals in place of Mitski.
On July 20, 2023, the stage version of Here Lies Love made its Broadway debut. In the leadup to the premiere, Broadway's musicians' union criticized the show for planning to use a pre-recorded soundtrack and no live musicians. Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians criticized this choice as "A direct attack on Broadway Audiences — and live music." Statements from the creative team claiming that the decision was inspired by karaoke and that the show "does not believe in artistic gate-keepers" attracted further criticism from union members, who accused Byrne of "denigrating" and "tossing aside" live musicians and likened his remarks to union busting. Following this, the creative team for Here Lies Love announced that the show would employ twelve live musicians, including three actor-musicians.
On April 19, 2024, Byrne released a cover of Paramore's Talking Heads-inspired 2017 song "Hard Times". This came after Paramore themselves contributed a cover of "Burning Down the House" to the Talking Heads tribute album earlier that year. Both covers were released as A-side and B-side respectively on a limited edition twelve-inch single for Record Store Day 2024, for which Paramore were ambassadors.
In 2005, he initiated his own internet radio station, Radio David Byrne. Each month, Byrne posts a playlist of music he likes, linked by themes or genres. Byrne's playlists have included African popular music, Classic country, vox humana, classical opera and from Italian movies.
He serves on the board of directors of SoundExchange, an organization designated by the United States Congress to collect and distribute digital performance royalties for sound recordings.
In 2006, Byrne released Arboretum, a sketchbook facsimile of his Tree Drawings, published by McSweeney's. Byrne is a visual artist whose work has been shown in contemporary art galleries and museums around since the 1990s. Represented by the Pace/MacGill Gallery in New York. In 2010 his original artwork was in the exhibition The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Visual art listing at Byrne's website. Retrieved June 11, 2010.
He lives in New York City. His father, Thomas, died in October 2013. His mother, Emma, died in June 2014.
Byrne describes himself as on the autism spectrum, but has not been professionally diagnosed. In a 2020 interview on Amy Schumer's podcast 3 Girls, 1 Keith, he said that he felt that his condition was a superpower as it allows him to hyperfocus on his creative pursuits. In 2012, he said that he felt that music was his way of communicating when he could not do it face to face because of his autism.
In 2008, Byrne designed a series of bicycle parking racks in the form of image outlines corresponding to the areas in which they were located, such as a dollar sign for Wall Street and an electric guitar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Byrne worked with a manufacturer who constructed the racks in exchange for the right to sell them later as art. The racks remained on the streets for about a year.
Two bike racks constructed from the Byrne Bike Rack Alphabet, a system of modular letter segments that can be combined to form various words, remain installed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
He arrived at the 2023 Met Gala on a Budnitz single speed bike.
| 1981 | The Catherine Wheel
| 104 | — | Music for the 1981 Twyla Tharp dance production The Catherine Wheel. |
| 1985 | Music for "The Knee Plays"
| 141 | — | Music for Philip Glass and Robert Wilson's play . Re-released as The Knee Plays in 2007. |
| 1986 | Sounds from True Stories
| — | — | Soundtrack to the film True Stories. |
| 1987 | The Last Emperor
| 152 | — | Score to the film The Last Emperor, composed with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Cong Su. |
| 1991 | The Forest
| — | — | Music for the 1988 Robert Wilson theatre piece The Forest. |
| 1999 | Your Action World
| — | — | Music for Byrne's art presentation of Your Action World. |
| 1999 | In Spite of Wishing and Wanting
| — | — | Music for the Ultima Vez dance production In Spite of Wishing and Wanting. |
| 2003 | E.E.E.I. (Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information)
| — | — | Music for Byrne's speaking tour and PowerPoint presentation. |
| 2003 | Lead Us Not into Temptation
| — | — | Soundtrack to the film Young Adam. |
| 2008 | — | — | Soundtrack to the second season of Big Love. | |
| 2010 | Here Lies Love
| 96 | 76 | With Fatboy Slim. A disco song cycle occasionally given staged performances. |
| 2019 | American Utopia on Broadway Original Cast Recording
| — | — | Original cast recording of the Broadway production of American Utopia. |
| Concert film from Talking Heads tour; also composer |
| VHS release; also composer |
| Concert documentary |
Other film and television
| Episode: "Cicely Tyson/Talking Heads" |
| Feature film; also director, writer, composer |
| Feature film; composer |
| Feature film; composer |
| Documentary; interviewed subject |
| Documentary; composer |
| Episode: "Woody Harrelson/David Byrne" |
| Episode: "Fire Drill" |
| Feature film; composer |
| Episodes: "Dude, Where's My Ranch?", "How I Wet Your Mother" |
| 12 episodes; composer |
| Feature film |
| Feature film; composer |
| Children's musical comedy special |
| Episode: "John Mulaney/David Byrne" |
| (S01:E05) "The Rat" |
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