David Byrne has revealed he is considering making another concert movie.
The former Talking Heads frontman is currently touring North America on his ‘Who Is The Sky?’ tour, named for his recent album of the same name.
He kicked off the run of dates by playing the Talking Heads’ classic ‘Psycho Killer’ for the first time in 19 years, while Hayley Williams joined him in New York City to play Paramore’s ‘Hard Times’ as well as their recent collaboration, ‘What Is The Reason For It?’ from ‘Who Is The Sky?’.
In a recent interview with Vulture, Byrne was asked if he was considering adapting his new show for Broadway and hiring a noted director to film it, as he did with Spike Lee for 2020’s American Utopia. “I’m thinking about that, so we’ll see what happens there,” he replied. “Because, yes, it’s a very extensive tour and it’s not going to last forever.”
Discussing the idea of adapting the show for the stage, he said: “Taking the show to Broadway and adjusting it accordingly to what I imagined would be a ‘Broadway audience’ — that wasn’t going to be up and dancing from the second song or something like that — was a challenge.
“A Broadway audience wants to be gently told or explained, This is what’s happening. This is what we’re doing. This is what it’s about before you get up and dance. It also becomes an opportunity for us to talk more. I want to start a little more gradually to introduce all the elements.”
Byrne has been involved in several groundbreaking concert movies, both with his former band and solo. 1984’s Stop Making Sense was filmed by Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme, who filmed Talking Heads during four nights at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles. Capturing the band at the peak of their creativity, the combination of Byrne’s staging and Demme’s cinematic artistry led it to be considered one of the greatest concert movies ever made. A24 released a 4K restoration of the film last year.
The artist would also make Roar, Rise, Roar, a film chronicling the ‘Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno Tour’ conducted by Byrne in 2008–2009. The film would debut at South By Southwest in 2010 and receive strong reviews.
In 2020, Byrne worked with Spike Lee on American Utopia, capturing the Broadway production of the show of the same name, where the singer is joined on stage by 11 musicians in a choreographed performance that NME’s five-star review described as “one of the best movies you’ll see this year.”
Speaking to NME at the time of the film’s release, Byrne said of the movie: “As the show was conceptually coming together, I realised that once we had a completely empty stage the rulebook has now been thrown out. Now we can go anywhere and do anything. This is completely liberating. It means that people like drummers, for example, who are usually relegated to the back shadows, can now come to the front – all those kinds of things – which changes the whole dynamic.”
Released in September, ‘Who Is The Sky?’ featured contributions from Ghost Train Orchestra, as well as guest appearances by St. Vincent, Hayley Williams, and The Smile’s Tom Skinner.
In August, David Byrne dashed hopes of a Talking Heads reunion. “On a practical level, trying to recreate the feeling that people had when they were in their early 20s? The time that they first heard that music? That’s a fool’s errand.” He told The Times. “And besides, I’m really enjoying what I’m doing.”
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