David Byrne on the secret to musical performance
David Byrne infuses every one of his creative endeavours with life. Between his pioneering work in new wave with Talking Heads and his ventures into Broadway with the philosophical American Utopia, the beauty of his art has consistently come from its, albeit strange, unrelenting humanity. This is a principle Byrne has also applied to his live performance, perhaps most notably in the iconic 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense.
Stop Making Sense is widely regarded as the ultimate concert film. Its legacy is so lasting, in fact, that it recently earned a 4K restoration with A24, followed by another theatrical release. Beginning with the tentative toe-tapping frontman declaring, “Hi, I’ve got a tape I want to play”, Byrne immediately infuses his performance with all of his own anxious excitement.
It’s an honest and human quality that persists throughout the remainder of the concert film, featuring the big suits, the crazy dance moves and an appearance from the Tom Tom Club. In the way Byrne sings, flails his limbs around, and interacts with those around him, you can feel his enthusiasm for music and performance, and it is contagious.
Byrne explained his understanding of performance, which led to his awkwardly charming onstage presence, in How Music Works, stating, “In musical performances, one can sense that the person on stage is having a good time even if they’re singing a song about breaking up or being in a bad way.” In that honesty, audiences are able to further connect with the artists and feel those same emotions.
For an actor, Byrne notes, this would be “anathema; it would destroy the illusion, but with singing, one can have it both ways.” Rather than performing an emotion or an experience, musicians are allowed the space to simply feel it, albeit under the watchful eye of a crowd. Though nerve-wracking, that onstage honesty can only serve the performance.
“As a singer, you can be transparent and reveal yourself on stage, in that moment,” Byrne continues, “and at the same time be the person whose story is being told in the song. Not too many kinds of performance allow that.”
This is an art Byrne has mastered. In his oblique, jarring dance moves and his intermittent quirky addressing of the audience – “Does anybody have any questions?” – the frontman reveals just enough of himself to give further life to the music and endear himself to audiences. Even in his works, which might seem to require acting, on Broadway or in his singular directorial effort True Stories, Byrne infuses his performance with that honesty.
