David Byrne (born May 14, 1952) is a Scottish-American musician and artist best known as a founding member and principal songwriter of the new wave band Talking Heads, which was active between 1974 and 1991. Since then, Byrne has released his own solo projects on record, and worked in a variety of media, including film, photography, opera, and Internet-based projects. He has received Grammy, Oscar, and Golden Globe awards for his achievements.
Early years
Byrne was born in Dumbarton, Scotland. Two years later, his parents moved to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and then to Arbutus, Maryland, when he was 8 or 9 years old. His father worked as an electronics engineer. Before high school, David Byrne already knew how to play the guitar, accordion, and violin. He was rejected from his middle school’s choir because they claimed he was “off-key and too withdrawn”. He has a younger sister named Celia, and his parents’ names are Emma and Tom Byrne. From a young age, Byrne 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. He graduated from Lansdowne High School in southwest Baltimore County. Byrne started his musical career in a high school duo named Bizadi with Mark Kehoe. Their repertoire consisted mostly of songs such as "April Showers", "96 Tears", "Dancing On The Ceiling", and Frank Sinatra songs. Byrne then attended the Rhode Island School of Design for one year before dropping out and forming a band called "The Artistics" with fellow RISD student Chris Frantz. The band dissolved within a year, and the two moved to New York together with Frantz's girlfriend Tina Weymouth. Unable to find a bass player in New York, Frantz and Byrne persuaded Weymouth to start playing bass guitar, and together with Jerry Harrison they formed the group Talking Heads which had its first gig in 1975.
During his time in the band, Byrne took on outside projects, collaborating with Brian Eno in 1981 on the album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts , which attracted considerable critical acclaim and featured a groundbreaking use of sampling.
While working on the film True Stories , Byrne met costume designer Adelle Lutz whom he married in 1987. They have a daughter, Malu Abeni Valentine Byrne, born in 1989. Byrne and Lutz divorced in 2004. Byrne currently lives in New York City.
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. In Spite of Wishing and Wanting is a soundscape David Byrne produced for the Belgian dance company Ultima Vez.
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. In 2004, Lead Us Not Into Temptation (music from the film "Young Adam") included tracks and musical experiments from his score to Young Adam. Byrne also wrote, directed, and starred in True Stories , a musical collage of quirky Americana released in 1986. He wrote and produced most of the music in the movie as well. Byrne also directed the documentary Île Aiye and the concert film of his 1992 Latin-tinged tour titled Between the Teeth . He was chiefly responsible for the stage design and choreography of Stop Making Sense in 1984. Byrne added Loco de Mor (Crazy for Love) with Celia Cruz to Jonathan Demme's 1986 film Something Wild.
Byrne wrote the Dirty Dozen Brass Band-inspired score for Robert Wilson's Opera The Knee Plays from The CIVIL warS . Some of the music from Byrne's orchestral album The Forest was originally used in a Wilson-directed theatre piece with the same name. The Forest premiered at the Theater der Freien Volksbühne, Berlin in 1988. It received its New York premiere in December 1988 at BAM, the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The Forestry Maxi-single contained dance and industrial remixes of pieces from The Forest by Jack Dangers, Rudy Tambala, and Anthony Capel.
Byrne also appeared as a guest vocalist/guitarist for 10,000 Maniacs during their MTV Unplugged concert, though the songs in which he is featured were cut from its album. One of them, "Let the Mystery Be", appeared as the fourth track on 10,000 Maniacs' CD single "Few and Far Between".
Byrne also worked with "Queen of Tex-Mex", Tejano superstar Selena, writing, producing and singing a song ("God's Child (Baila Conmigo)"), included on Selena's last album, "Dreaming of You", before her untimely death.
Byrne was the host of Sessions at West 54th during its second of three seasons.
Byrne also collaborated with members of Devo and Morcheeba to record an album called Feelings in 1997.
Luaka Bop
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, Los Amigos Invisibles, King Chango among others.
Byrne is also a visual artist, and has shown his work in contemporary art galleries and museums around the world since the 1990s. He has also created a number of public art installations, many of them anonymous. He is represented by Pace/MacGill Gallery, NYC. In 2008 he designed nine bike racks around Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Cycling
Byrne is also known for his activism in support of increased cycling, and for having used a bike as his main means of transport for most of his life, especially cycling around New York, where he has designed innovative bicycle parking racks, as image outlines. He says that he cycled when he was in high school and was able to get back into the sport in the late 1970s. He likes the freedom and exhilarating feeling cycling gives him. He has written widely on cycling, including a 2009 book, Bicycle Diaries . In August 2009, he auctioned his Montague folding bike in order to raise money for the London Cycling Campaign.
In 2008, The New York City Department of Transportation asked Byrne if he would help judge a competition for bike rack designs in the city and he eagerly accepted. Enthusiastic about the competition, Byrne sent in some designs of his own for bike racks that would correspond with the area they were located. For example a dollar sign for Wall Street and an electric guitar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The Department of Transportation loved the designs and said that they would allow him to put them up, if he could find someone to make them. Sure enough, Byrne found a place that would make the racks in exchange for the chance to sell them later as pieces of art. The racks ended up staying on the streets for about a year.
Recent musical activity
In 2001 a censored version of Byrne's single "Like Humans Do" was selected by Microsoft as the sample music for Windows XP to demonstrate Windows Media Player (not included in SP2 installs). The next year, he provided vocals for a track, "Lazy" by X-Press 2, which reached number 2 in the United Kingdom and number 1 on the U.S. Dance Charts. David said in an interview in BBC Four Sessions's coverage of his Union Chapel performance that Lazy was number 1 in Syria.
In April 2003, Byrne appeared as himself in an episode of The Simpsons , "Dude, Where's My Ranch?".
In late 2003, Byrne released a book with a companion DVD called Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information (ISBN 3-88243-907-6). The work included artwork composed entirely in Microsoft PowerPoint. It includes one image that depicts, according to Byrne, "Dan Rather's profile. Expanded to the nth degree. Taken to infinity. Overlaid on the back of Patrick Stewart's head."
Byrne's latest solo album, Grown Backwards , was released on March 16, 2004 by Nonesuch. This album used orchestral string arrangements, and 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. The following year, his singing was featured on "The Heart's a Lonely Hunter" on The Cosmic Game by Thievery Corporation.
In 2005, Byrne 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; Rednecks, Racists, & Reactionaries: Country Classics; Vox Humana; Classical Opera; Italian Movie Music. Byrne also posts personal comments on the music and, occasionally, on the state of the recorded music industry. In July 2007, Byrne posted the following comment:
There was another piece in the Times today about yet another 20 percent drop in CD sales. (Are they running the same news piece every 4 months?) Jeez guys, the writing's on the wall. How long do the record execs think they'll have those offices and nice parking spaces? (Well, more than half of all record A&R and other execs are gone already, so there should be plenty of parking space). They, the big 4 or 5, should give the catalogues back to the artists or their heirs as a gesture before they close t
Dero Bike Rack Co. [ Ceiling Rack - Garage Bike Storage ]
Ceiling Rack product information. Easy ceiling mounted bike hanger - perfect for organizing your garage.
Floor to ceiling bike rack garage storage
gravity stand, rack, bike holder, heavy object holder, garage organization, organization, sports equipment, holder, storage, bike storage, large item storage, large items,storage ...
Bike Storage Racks, Bike Stands, Bicycle Hangers for Garage & Home
Click picture for purchase details: TE790041 Ceiling-Mount Bike Rack / Shelf System Kit Holds 1 bike Additional bike hooks and baskets available
Dero Bike Rack Co. [ Ceiling Rack : Bike Racks for Garage ]
Ceiling Rack product information. Easy ceiling mounted bike hanger - perfect for organizing your garage.
Amazon.com: Gear Up Floor To Ceiling Oak Bike Rack: Sports & Outdoors
Up to 40% Off Gift Ideas in Sports & Outdoors Visit the Sports & Outdoors Gift Ideas store to find great deals on hundreds of this season's top products in categories like fitness ...
Oak Floor-to-Ceiling Bike Rack - Indoor Home & Garage Bike Storage ...
Save money on the Oak Floor-to-Ceiling Bike Rack at BikeRackShops.com!
Ceiling Bike Lift - No Bike Rack? Store Your Bike on the Ceiling ...
A convenient and space-efficient way to store your bike; Supports bikes weighing up to 50 lbs. Solid steel construction with a lifetime manufacturer warranty
Amazon.com: New Garage Bike Rack Ceiling Mounted Bicycle Hoist Lift ...
Amazon.com: New Garage Bike Rack Ceiling Mounted Bicycle Hoist Lift: Home Improvement
Bike Rack - Classic Floor-to-Ceiling in Silver by Sports Solutions
Collections; Aprons and Gloves; Bag Holders; Baking & Serveware; Barbeque Accessories ; Baskets, Bins, Boxes; Cabinet & Shelf Organizers; Canning Supplies; Carts, Racks and ...
Racor PBH1R Ceiling Mount Bike Lift - Racor Home Storage Racks
Always thought your ceiling would be a great place to store your bike but didn't want to hassle with ladders and chairs every time you wanted to go for a ride? Introducing the ...