Credit: Jody RogacDavid Byrne will release a new solo album titled American Utopia on March 9, which he’ll support with a huge tour, but he says he has no interest in reuniting with his old group, Talking Heads.
In a new Rolling Stone interview, David explains that his aversion to a reunion with his former band mates has a lot to do with not wanting to take away focus from the new music he’s creating.
“I see what happens with other people when they do their reunions — and then it turns into a second reunion and a third reunion,” Byrne maintains. “With…a lot of [reunions], it just seems like you don’t have anything new to say, and you go, ‘OK, this is just some kind of nostalgia exercise.’ And I’m not interested in that.”
Regarding American Utopia, Rolling Stone points out that the album features a lot of accessible pop sounds, while Byrne points out that the songs also carry some lyrical weight.
“I’m comfortable with [the music being pop-oriented] partly because the lyrics are so very, very far away from what you would hear in a normal pop song,” he notes. “I mean, with a lot of artists I just go, ‘You’ve gotta write about something other than your boyfriend and your girlfriend!…You’re not 18 anymore — you can do this!”
Meanwhile, Byrne says his tour in support of the album will be quite elaborate, with a large group of choreographed musicians joining him onstage, including “six drummers and percussionists.” He adds, “The human beings become the set.”
David recently joined the lineup of the 2018 Sasquatch Festival, taking place May 25-27 in George, Washington. Check out his full tour schedule at DavidByrne.com.
Copyright © 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
