David Byrne is EVERYWHERE

I've spent most of my life as a casual David Byrne fan, and by that I mean, a casual Talking Heads fan. I knew the hits, I knew the Simpsons references, I knew he was a legend, but my knowledge of him didn't go too far beyond that.

This started to change in college. My roommate Phil, (podcast music composer, among other things) was a huge fan and introduced me to Stop Making Sense, and the Byrne directed, True Stories. I started listening to the Talking Heads albums and his solo albums with Brian Eno, but his music wasn't part of my regular rotation. This started to change a few years after college. When I started working with my friend Nicole (not co-host, Nicole), she would tell me stories about how her kid's favorite song was "Psycho Killer" and how cute it was for to watch her 5 year old sing the chorus of the song complete with the "fa fa fa"s.

This was also around the time the he released, Love This Giant, his collaborative album with St. Vincent, which brought Byrne to a lot of festivals, and brought his music to a younger crowd in general. Little did I know that this was just the beginning of a huge resurgence for David Byrne's career in the mainstream.

I attended one of these festivals, Bonnaroo, in 2013. I missed the Byrne / St. Vincent set, but I heard them playing "Burning Down the House" while walking to one of the other stages. They sounded great from afar, like they were having a huge party and I wasn't invited, because for some reason, I wanted to catch A$AP Rocky instead.

Byrne wouldn't return until 2018, with the release of American Utopia. I planned to buy tickets for this tour, but then I got an invitation for my cousin's wedding which was set for the same day as the LA show. Obviously, I went to my cousin's wedding. I hoped that the American Utopia tour would come back to LA, but it never did, because Byrne took the show to Broadway.

My first daughter was born in 2019, so I spent the year learning how to parent. I remember listening to a lot of music with her, while carrying her around our living room. My daughter immediately seemed to enjoy anything upbeat, and I would try to bounce her to the beat of whatever song we were listening to. Perhaps, from remembering my conversations with my old co-worker Nicole, we started listening to a lot of Talking Heads. It wasn't a predetermined goal, but the rhythmic and and upbeat songs of David Byrne were a perfect fit.

With the success of his Broadway show, Byrne started popping up on all the late night shows. He would also release an American Utopia Original Broadway Cast Recording album in 2019, and a Spike Lee directed the American Utopia concert film companion piece would come out on HBO in September of 2020. He did SNL and pretty much every variety show imaginable during his Broadway run, all the way until the end in 2022. It gave me plenty of content to cycle through with my daughter.

When the run ended, I thought that would be the last we would see of David Byrne until his next album. Not only was I wrong, I would've never predicted where we would see him next.

On New Years Eve of 2022, with her baby sister asleep, we let my daughter stay up to ring in the new year with us, or at least with the people on the East Coast. We flipped through the different shows before landing on the Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton New Years Eve Celebration. Sia was introduced to perform and midway through her performance, David Byrne magically appeared on stage with Sia and my daughter yelled "it's David Byrne!" I didn't believe it at first, but she was right. Somehow, we flipped to the channel at this exact moment and felt like we were in a fever dream.

A couple of months later, Byrne was back on stage in front of millions on network TV. This time, he was performing "This is a Life" from Everything Everywhere All at Once, his song nominated for Best Original Song at the 2023 Oscars. While the song wasn't a huge commercial hit, it was Byrne's first Oscar nomination in 35 years and it allowed him to grace the Oscars stage with hot dog fingers. His duet partner on the studio version, Mitski, decided to not attend the performance so Byrne performed it with 2023 Best Supporting Actress nominee, Stephanie Hsu.

The Oscars performance seemed like a nice finale to an impressive 5 year run for Byrne. Of course, then it was announced that A24 Film was releasing the Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense concert film in theaters during the summer of 2023. I took my daughter to see it, but it ended up being too loud in the theater for her.

Then A24 announced the Blu Ray of the concert film with a companion album of covers from current artists in 2024.

So it seemed like that would be the last we would hear of Byrne until the announcement of his new album, Who is the Sky, right? There was no longer any reason to put him on a huge network television event, right?

Enter the SNL 50 Homecoming Concert! Not only did Byrne link up with past (and present) collaborator, St. Vincent, he came out to duet with Swedish pop star, Robyn!

While Robyn probably isn't a household name with for the Zoomer crowd, it's still another pop crossover moment for Byrne. For the Zoomers, he checked that box by being brought out by Olivia Rodrigo last month at Governor's Ball, to perform "Burning Down the House".

In my daughter's mind, David Byrne just galivants around the world, performing with pop stars whenever he feels like it. He's a successful Broadway star, a legend on IMAX screens, and he's on TV all the time.

My daughter and I will be catching David Byrne live together for the first time in November. While it won't be the same as catching American Utopia, we've been promised an exciting show. I'm sure my daughter's taste in music will change over time, but I'm planning to cherish this time where she actually wants to hang out with her dad and her response to the Taylor Swift Eras Tour trailer was "Is David Byrne in this?"