Author

David Byrne

47 quotations

About David Byrne

David Byrne is an American musician, writer, visual artist, and filmmaker. He was a founding member and the principal songwriter, lead vocalist, and guitarist of the rock band Talking Heads.

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Topics: Music Car Home Business Trust Attitude
To some extent I happily don't know what I'm doing. I feel that it's an artist's responsibility to trust that.
I've rarely kept my distance from kind of - I don't know if we can call it politics, but kind of, civic engagement and that kind of thing, except I tended to think, 'Well, do it yourself before you s…
There's something about music that encourages people to want to know more about the person that made it, and where it was recorded, what year it was done, what they were listening to, and all this ki…
It seems almost backwards to me that my music seems the more emotional outlet, and the art stuff seems more about ideas.
Ninety percent of all music is always crap, and when too many people decide they're going to have guitar bands, then ninety percent of them are going to be crap. It's just a given law.
If anything, a lot of electronic music is music that no one listens to at home, hardly. It's really only to be heard when everyone's out enjoying it.
So there's no guarantee if you like the music you will empathize with the culture and the people who made it. It doesn't necessarily happen. I think it can, but it doesn't necessarily happen. Which i…

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The imminent demise of the large record companies as gatekeepers of the world's popular music is a good thing, for the most part.
Why not invest in the future of music, instead of building fortresses to preserve its past?
I'm not suggesting people abandon musical instruments and start playing their cars and apartments, but I do think the reign of music as a commodity made only by professionals might be winding down.
People are already finding ways to make their music and play it in front of people and have a life in music, I guess, and I think that's pretty much all you can ask.
I've noticed a lot of younger artists have less fear of doing different sorts of things, whether it's various types of music, or gallery artists moving between video and sculpture and drawing.
You create a community with music, not just at concerts but by talking about it with your friends.
It didn't even occur to me that I'm the last person in the world who should play salsa or Brazilian music.
I try to devote my afternoons to making music in my home studio, but it's a lot more fun hanging out with musicians and friends, and trying subtly to influence a band than making your own stuff.
With music, you often don't have to translate it. It just affects you, and you don't know why.