The “insane” movie David Byrne was blown away by
David Byrne is most well-known for his musical output, both as part of the pioneering new wave outfit Talking Heads and as a solo artist, but he has also expanded his creativity outside of the sonic sphere. In between records and tours, Byrne has tried his hand at everything from writing to visual arts to theatre, somehow mastering all of them.
In 1986, Byrne embarked upon one of his shortest-lived creative endeavours when he made his filmmaking debut with True Stories. The satiric and surreal story of suburban America was to be Byrne’s only directorial outing, but his love affair with cinema continued. He went on to soundtrack The Last Emperor with Ryuichi Sakamoto, for which he won ‘Best Original Score’ at the Academy Awards.
Byrne’s most recent venture into film came in the form of a collaboration with Son Lux and Mitski on ‘This Is a Life’. The track was written for Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s Everything Everywhere All At Once, a film which blew Byrne away from first watch.
The Talking Heads frontman explained how he joined the project in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, explaining that he knew Son Lux and their manager through Sufjan Stevens. Michael, Son Lux’s manager, reached out to Byrne and asked him if he wanted to feature on the score as part of a duet with Mitski, to which Byrne recalls saying yes “immediately”.
Though Byrne was a fan of their previous work, which includes Swiss Army Man, the Daniels “felt obliged to convince” him to come onto the project. After he watched the rough cut of Everything Everywhere All At Once, Byrne recalls being “blown away, even though it didn’t have lots of the effects and this and that yet.”
He shared, “I just thought, ‘Oh my God, this is really insane. It’s wonderful.”
Everything Everywhere All at Once certainly was equal parts insane and wonderful – bringing together serious discussions of identity and isolation with absurdist imagery of hot dog fingers and googly eyes. A blockbuster full of heart, it went on to secure seven Academy Awards, though Byrne’s contribution narrowly missed out on victory.
Though ‘This Is a Life’ was limited to a nomination at the Oscars, the track was the perfect sonic reflection of the meaning behind the film. Byrne explained how the track came about, sharing: “We all talked, and I said, ‘I think rather than doing a really crazy song after sitting through that, you want to pinpoint that the movie actually has a lot of heart. It’s about compassion and forgiveness and this family reuniting, and that’s kind of the emotional core of it.’ So it does feel like we’re leaving all the bagels and hot dog fingers and everything behind for a minute.”
The duet only added to the wonder Byrne felt watching the first cut of the film, cutting through the insanity of the visual effects to get to the film’s emotional core.
