Remain In Light: After 50 Years, David Byrne Is Still Reinventing The Wheel

It’s mid-2025, and we’re still somehow talking about David Byrne. The prominent character flexed his musical chops over the weekend, lighting up headlines with an unexpected cameo at pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo‘s Gov Ball festival performance in his home turf of New York.

Ditching his usual suiting for a pair of firehouse-red overalls and performing the Talking Heads hit Burning Down The House, it would mark one of multiple times Byrne has lit up headlines and phone pings for the past month.

While the old guard met the new (Byrne aged 73; Rodrigo a mere 22) that previous Saturday in New York, it’s also happening online: Actress Saoirse Ronan headed the posthumous music video for Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer, released 5th June and marking 34 years since the four-piece’s split and nearly five decades since the bassline-thumping hit was concocted.

Something was in the water, with Byrne sealing the deal on his first solo tour since the pre-COVID days. Who Is The Sky? marks Byrne’s 11th solo album and is minted for release this September. The solo album announcement marks 50 years since a college-aged Byrne first joined the revolutionary new wave band Talking Heads, so, in true Byrnian fashion:

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Talking Heads, CBGB, & The New Wave Boom

Byrne’s most enduring legacy to this day is his time as frontman of Talking Heads, a new wave four-piece that cut their teeth as CBGB regulars alongside The Ramones, Blondie, Television, Patti Smith, and many more in 1970s New York. Despite their preppy roots, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison and Tina Weymouth’s tight rhythms and Byrne’s “off-key and too withdrawn” vocals saw them gain a following amidst the post-punk CBGB crowd, leading to a series of era-defining records.

Much as Byrne remains in his solo work today, Talking Heads could never be defined by a narrow-cut influence. Black artists were integral to the inspiration, and funk & P-funk pioneers such as James Brown and Parliament were instrumental to what can be heard on early albums like 77 and More Songs About Buildings And Food.

Leaning into more niche predecessors, the band’s strongest influence became African music for its strong percussive elements and call-and-response patterns. Remain In Light standout Once In A Lifetime would combine these elements with America’s church culture, copying the cadence of preachers while singing.

The 1983 album Speaking In Tongues drove the band well into the synth-sound of the 80s, while also heavily incorporating polyrhythms. The group would also play about with language and lyricism, incorporating French in the track Psycho Killer and the Dadaist nonsensical lyricism of a Hugo Ball poem on I Zimbra.

The Age of American Utopia

While Talking Heads has set the cultural precedent well into the 21st century, the band only lasted 16 years. After the split in 1991, Byrne fully embraced a solo career, an endeavour he had allegedly been itching to delve further into at the detriment of Talking Heads, according to bandmate Chris Frantz in his autobiography Remain In Love.

Byrne had released two solo albums prior to the band split and would go on to release several more from the 90s into the 2010s. His solo work went largely unrecognised by the public for many years, straying from Western commercial tastes into the hyper-niche of afro-Cuban, ambient, operatic, and avant-garde sounds.

It wasn’t until 2018’s American Utopia that a broader audience was back onboard, following Byrne through a record that would evolve into a triple-threat musical and subsequent Spike Lee-directed film. Bringing back the grey suiting reminiscent of Byrne’s ‘big suit’ of the Stop Making Sense days, American Utopia’s live shows contained a 12-piece accompanying band, who also sang and danced simultaneously.

The timing was right on this one for Byrne, placing the blemishes of Trump-era America under the spotlight. American Utopia came at the precipice of COVID, the murder of George Floyd, and far more shadowing of the US timeline.

The Art of Collaboration

For decades, David Byrne has been described as having an observant and socially cautious nature, a characterisation that has been lambasted by ex-bandmates Frantz and Weymouth in retrospect. Despite this, Byrne does not shy away from the opportunity to connect in the name of music. Ambient producer and neighbour of many musicians, Brian Eno has been a part of Byrne’s journey since the Talking Heads days, the two having mutually encouraged each other over the years to delve into experimental sounds.

“He is a genuine eccentric,” Eno has said about Byrne, recalling stories of their past escapades (including being mugged while together). Byrne has also become a proud collaborator, having worked on songs with Fatboy Slim, De La Soul, Anna Calvi, and Arcade Fire. The tables turned in 2024 when some of modern music’s biggest names combined to form a cover compilation of Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense live album, with Lorde, Paramore, Kevin Abstract, and Miley Cyrus as just a few of the 16 featured artists.

With all this in mind, the only thing mind-boggling about David Byrne stepping out on the Gov Ball’s main stage with Olivia Rodrigo is age. He celebrated turning 73 earlier this year, but he’s still in the loop as ever, constantly praising and collaborating with the next generations to cut their teeth. Young female and non-binary artists are especially recognised by the stalwart, including longtime professional friend St Vincent, Mitski, and Australian artist Montaigne.

A bold writer at Pitchfork commented on Byrne’s collaborative nature, saying that he’d work with anyone for a bag of Doritos. "I would probably choose something other than Doritos,” Byrne responded.

Beyond Music

In recent years, the online world has caught onto the trend of referring to rapper Snoop Dogg as the purveyor of ‘side quests’ for his achievements outside of the music realm; however, all signs indicate that David Byrne could be granted a similar virtual accolade.

Byrne has worn many a hat, recognised under the titles of singer, composer, director, author, designer, record label founder, radio station owner, TED Talker, the list goes on.

His standout 2012 book How Music Works solidified him as a true black belt at his craft, detailing everything from the ecological and architectural science of sound, a running history of technological music advances in recording gear and music players, detailed explanations behind the business and finance side of the music industry, as well as how to keep a music scene alive and thriving, a chapter that the current struggling music landscape could take a page from.

Outside of music, Byrne released the 2009 book Bicycle Diaries about his cycling journeys across the world and the 2014 follow-up New York Bike Style with Sam Polcer and has also designed several funky-looking public bike racks for New York’s cyclists using his Bauhaus-disciplined knowledge from college years. He also runs a media project called Reasons To Be Cheerful, compiling positive news stories from around the world.

Among his many professional hats, Byrne is also an immigrant, a protester, and self-identifies on the Autism Spectrum. He avidly speaks out on various political issues to this day, incorporating these themes into his work.

Taking after his protest-driven mother, Byrne has participated in anti-Vietnam marches and continues this streak by rallying against the climate crisis, arts funding cuts, and Israel’s alleged war crimes in the current era.

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A multi-dimensional character, there is no such thing as ‘inside the box’ for David Byrne. Whether it be genre, discipline, or even his age, Byrne proves time and time again that societal markers don’t need to be followed. You can be a member of Talking Heads, you can design bike racks, and you can perform a dance routine with a Gen Z popstar at 73.

Let’s just hope he brings some of those moves on tour.