David Byrne Biography

Legendary musician David Byrne was born in 1952 in Dumbarton, Scotland. Long before David Byrne rose to fame as the front man for the new wave group Talking Heads, he grew up in the United States, settling in Maryland with his family when he was about ten years old. From his elementary school years, Byrne exhibited a love of music and an interest in a variety of instruments, learning to play the violin, accordion, and guitar. Although often shy and reserved, David started his first band when he was in high school, and after briefly attending the Maryland Institute College of Art following graduation, he dropped out to pursue a career as a musician full-time.

Byrne and fellow musicians Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth formed Talking Heads in 1975, and the trio quickly garnered the attention of Sire Records. The band gave the 1980’s much of its classic and iconic music, such as: “Psycho Killer,” “Take Me to the River,” “ Once in a Lifetime,” “Burning Down the House,” “Road to Nowhere,” “And she Was,” “Wild Wild Life,” and “(Nothing But) Flowers.”

Just prior to Talking Heads disbanding in the late 1980’s, David Byrne launched a solo career, starting with the album Rei Momo. Byrne has since continued to record and perform as a solo artist, with the additional albums: Uh-Oh (1992), David Byrne (1994), Feelings (1997), Look into the Eyeball (2001), Grown Backwards (2004), and Love This Giant (2012.) He also began doing soundtrack work around the same time, recording music for such high-profile films as The Last Emperor (1987), Married to the Mob (1988), The Forest (1991), Lead Us Not into Temptation (2003), and Here Lies Love (2010), to name a few.

In recent years, David Byrne has also published a number of books, including Dave Byrne Asks you: What Is It (2002), How Music Works (2012), and Bicycle Diaries (2009), which explores his life-long love of cycling. His internet radio station, Radio David Byrne continues to feature playlists of Byrne’s favorite music, and in 2006, he published a sketchbook of his own original drawings.