QUESTIONS BY JODY DENBERG:

Q David we feel really lucky in Austin this year because - you were here in March for South by Southwest. And there was a show at the Backyard in August. And you were here last night taping an Austin City Limits. We feel a connection with our city and David Byrne.
A I've also been touring with the members of [Austin's string section] Tosca…and some other players, too, to augment them. And it's just been great. We met when we did South by Southwest. And later on, we just hooked up and they became kind of part of the band for some of our tours.

Q Had you ever thought of playing with strings before?
A I tried it with a string quartet a while ago, just to put my toe in the water to see if it would work. And it worked, but I realized I needed…mmm….a little bit more than a quartet to do what I was doing -- what I wanted to do, to get the sound I was after. And I thought, well, if I can afford it, I'm going to give it a shot.

Q And you had a vision for "Look Into the Eyeball" with the strings. Working with Thom Bell, who did the classic Philadelphia arrangements for people like the O Jays. What were you…What were you thinking (laugh) when you wanted to put strings on your record?
A I had heard people use strings in, I guess, a slightly atypical, really, I thought, really interesting ways over the years, whether it was Thom Bell and kind of the Philly soul stuff, which was really beautifully done stuff. Very high quality and yet they were all successful pop songs. Recent stuff by Bjork, there's a Brazilian guy Caetano Veloso who did stuff with strings and Brazilian percussion. Theme from Shaft. All kinds of stuff is very string heavy but also very groove oriented. And I thought, well, there's a precedent for this and maybe I can kind of do something like that in my own way.

Q Actually, now that you're talking about that, I'm directed towards the song, I think it's Neighborhood? Is that the --
A That's the Thom Bell one.

Q Yeah. Should we play that one?
A Sure. Sure.
("Neighborhood" is played from the CD)

Q Neighborhood. That's David Byrne, his latest album, "Look Into the Eyeball". And that was one of the songs with Thom Bell doing the arrangement.
A Yeah. Thom Bell, who had done a lot of stuff for the O Jays and Spinners. He wrote a lot of those songs too. Not all of them, but he's a writer as well. And kind of like, I guess, in a way like Burt Bacarach. He wrote really odd things. If you analyze some of those songs, you'll be going along, there will be 4/4 measures, everything's going along. Then all of a sudden, there will be like a 3/4 measure or a 5/4 measure, because that's how it -- and, of course, the groove was important so it never felt like it was disjointed or you hit a bump in the road. It just went right on by. But there will be these things that, if you sit down and try and play it on guitar, which I would do, I'll get the songbooks and try and see how they wrote their songs, you find out there's some pretty serious stuff going on there.

Q Well, imagine someone subverting a pop song with odd structures, Mr. David Byrne.
A Yeah! (laughter)

Q You know, I associate you with New York and that song Neighborhood, to me, because I'm a New Yorker. It has a New York vibe. But I found out that you were born in Scotland. Did you live there growing up or --
A I only lived in Scotland for a couple of years and then my family moved to Canada and eventually to Baltimore. I grew up in Baltimore in a little kind of suburban town on the edge of the city. And I moved to New York, I guess, in the mid '70s, I guess it was. And this song was written while I was living on Barrow Street for a while. And well, I had to leave. My lease ran out and they doubled the rent. And I just said, "I am not going to stand for this. I love it here, but I am not going to stand for this."

Q You mention living in Baltimore. You went to school in Rhode Island and Maryland. One was a design school, another a college of art?
A Yeah.

Q So now, these days, your artistic interests are so diverse, when you were going to those schools -- I mean, when I went to school, I had a hope of what I might do when I got out. Did you have a clue of how you would be able to -- or how you would want to express yourself in so many ways when you were in school?
A Well, at that time, I loved the sense of freedom that a lot of visual art promised. It seemed like -- well, you could kind of do anything. And it looked like it was a lot of fun and exciting and kind of subversive. It felt like music, in a way. I was playing music at the same time, but I didn't have any hope, really, of a serious musical career. I just thought for that you have to -- I don't know. Just odds were just so far against me, that I just thought, I'm going to play this for fun because I love it, but I'm not going to take it seriously as a career choice. But, well, I guess we took a chance and played in front of an audience at a club and they liked it. And so that was it. The snowball started rolling.

Q Well, I mean, music brought David Byrne to our attention, yourself and your band, Talking Heads. You affected popular culture. You affected our perceptions. But now you work from a much broader context: Art shows, books, photography, choreography. I guess, do the experts in all those fields view you as a dilettante because your first appearance to them was musical?
A Surprisingly, people are really generous about you intruding in their field. They're really generous. And for the most part, I find that they, they like intruders into their field. The critics don't always like it, but whether it's writers or whoever else, they like it because they -- it shows that somebody's paying attention to the stuff that they do, too, if you're kind of working parallel to something that other people are doing.

Q Well, when you worked with Talking Heads, you had a broad media base. You know, you were -- it was a popular culture thing. And now the things that you do aren't quite pop culture because they're, you know, photography or choreography or art shows. They have a smaller appeal. Were you motivated to appeal to a lot of people or what does motivate you as someone who creates art?
A I think it was purely an accident. I wasn't motivated by -- I realized that working within the form -- and I still do -- of pop songs, that occasionally you get something that connects with a large audience, if you're lucky, if all the various factors kind of fall in your favor. But I found that, for myself, I can't plan it. Other people can. I mean, there's other people that can write -- know how to write a hit. And I don't think I can do that. But I know that every once in a while, the stars line up and some song that I wrote appeals to a lot of people. But I never thought I could plan it. So I just thought, well, occasionally, it's going to happen and other times it's not going to happen. And I kind of figure something similar might happen with some of the other things I do. I figure -- I approach it the same way, so who knows, at some point, some little book I do that's done for a small audience of friends or a small community, it might connect to a larger audience at some point.

Q But the motivation is not the size of the connection. It's probably the connection itself?
A Yes, exactly.

Q There's a couple of songs on your latest album, Look Into the Eyeball, The Revolution and The Great Intoxication that deal with music and the like. I was going to play The Great Intoxication. Is there anything we should say beforehand or should --
A There's a little story. It was -- well, musically, it's one thing. But that's hard to describe. It was written about a guy I know who was having an affair with a woman. And it was just -- he's a big music fan. You know, collects records, hordes his records, makes sure, you know, if it's something he's interested in he's the first person out to get it. And he hears it before anyone else. All that kind of stuff. And so I just -- and I loved watching him fall in love and then eventually after not too long, it fell apart again. But it was just a beautiful thing to watch. And so this was -- they don't know about it. But this was, in a way, written to her, telling her about him, because I knew him better than I knew her.
("The Great Intoxication" is played from the CD)

Q It's good to have you here!
A Thank you.

Q This is exciting!
A This was -- I was thinking of biking out here. I usually bring a bicycle around when I'm touring. But this was a little bit too far to come.

Q You visited with us once before and you did bring your bicycle. We were in a different building at the time.
A Yeah.

Q We were like on the 7th Floor or something.
A I thought you were there, so I thought, hey, they're not there. Where did they go?

Q I have a book here that is your latest book. It's called "The New Sins". And in looking it over, my feeling was it was the kind of book you could just open to a certain page. It wasn't one that you had to read all the way through.
A Yeah, there's no narrative and the arguments and rants don't -- you can pick them up anywhere. It was a project that was originally done for an arts fair in Spain, in a city in Spain. And they asked me to do something and I came up -- back with the idea of doing a book. And I said to them, okay, now, I want you to do a book and put it in the hotel drawers of the hotels of the people that are going to come visit your art fair. So they just discover it. And then if -- like the other book -- they can take it home if they want. And like the other book, it doesn't have my name on the cover. The author's name is not on the cover.

Q The other book being "The Bible". And this book --
A Yeah (laughs). I should call it the other book!

Q And it's called "The New Sins", so hey, the new sins, I'll check this out. And you know, I open it up. I just opened it at random. And it says, "The New Sins. Charity. Charity is the voluntary giving of one's wealth or labor to another in need. One wonders how this institution came about." And then, you know, I could read from here forever. And you probably could, too. Do you do readings with this?
A I did some -- I've been doing some readings. I did one at, it's called Book People. I do it as a -- because of the nature of the book, because it's kind of a presentation or a rant or whatever. I do it like a sales presentation. I use this software called PowerPoint, which I'm sure all of the marketing and sales people out there will be familiar with, which has little images and arrows and bullets and all the highlights. So I have that and then I read from various parts of it at the same time that the images are popping up. So I try and imitate kind of a sales presentation. I'm not sure how much it works.

QI found the book a lot of fun. I mean, it comes off as, ooh, this is a bible of some sort. And then it says on the cover, "Translated out of the original tongues with the former translations diligently compared and revised."
A That's a paraphrase of what it says in the other book. I just thought, that is the weirdest language I've ever heard. And I've just got to have a little bit of it.

Q Well, I really enjoyed this book and I recommend it to folks. It's called "The New Sins". And I know you're doing something at the Sydney Festival in January. I tried to look up on the website. Is it connected with the book or is that something --
A It is. I'm doing some concerts, which is really great. I haven't been to Australia for a while. But they're also doing -- they're putting -- they have like bus shelter-like boxes. Those kind of things which usually have ads in them. But they're doing a series of them with these Sins in them, with the picture and then my description of the different sins. And they're placing those around the harbor. That should be very, very nice.

Q Well, it's a very, dare I say, human book. Of course, sinning is human. And the other book is a little bit -- this book is closer to me than the other book. And that's not to dis the other book, I just have trouble reading it and relating to it. Whereas this one is in my terms and language. The book is called "The New Sins". And as I said, a very human book. And the name of your new album is "Look Into the Eyeball". And the song that we focused on the most, Like Humans Do. Why "Look Into the Eyeball"?
A Oh, it was a way of saying something romantic, like look into my eyes or whatever. But I thought, this is a way of saying it as a mathematician's proposal of love or something like that. And I thought, I like that it's saying something romantic but saying it in a kind of a twisted way.

Q I was thinking perhaps that…people, you know, your on-stage presence and just "David Byrne", then maybe they thought you were an alien or something because you have such a unique perspective. And I found "Look Into the Eyeball" to be, "Hey, I'm like you. I'm human." This is me projecting. And then the song, Like Humans Do. Is there a connection?
A You've set me up for an intro for this song, I see! O.K., here it is: Yeah, it's -- the song is basically, yeah, an appreciation, a love letter to human beings -- from another human being. Yeah.
("Like Humans Do" is played from the CD)

Q Breathing in and breathing out with us this afternoon, David Byrne, 107.1 KGSR. The album "Look Into the Eyeball": Like Humans Do. And David is here with us. Ultimately human, he would have ridden his bike, but we live way too far north for that. Some people don't know that you're a big roots music fan. You've sung with Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Lucinda. Heard you do a version of an Iris Dement song once with Natalie Merchant.
A Oh, yeah, she came and saw us in Kansas City. It was really nice to meet her.

Q So your musical tastes are, fair to say, all over the map?
A Pretty -- yeah, pretty far.

Q All over the map. Okay. So that brings me from map to a quote that I saw on your website that was taken out of the New York Times that said, "I hate world music" - David Byrne. And I'm going, well, where does this come from, the guy who's been running Luaka Bop label for ten years. What was that quote about?
A It was really about, I have problems with the term "world music," because it implies that the rest of it isn't from this world. Some of it isn't, but we know that all of it is. So it was kind of a rant about that that I've written. And I wanted to have a nice provocative title for it, especially coming from me, where a lot of people associate me with music from different parts of the world. So I thought that would be a nice confusing title.

Q Yeah, it got my attention. And Luaka Bop is your label. I think you recently celebrated your tenth anniversary?
A Yeah.

Q And the first releases on there were compilations of Brazilian musicand Cuban music. But these days, people who are not from this world, they're from America, Jim White and the man behind Geggy Tah are on your label. Is that hard for you? Do you find yourself put into the position of being a businessman and a marketing man as the overseer of Luaka Bop?
A It's -- it's hard in that I tend to deal with the artists from their own point of view, from the point of view of another artist. And yet, I kind of have to sometimes tell them: "listen, if you want -- here's the nuts and bolts. If you want to survive, here's some little things I've learned. And you can be idealistic, and that's great, but you also have to take care of your business stuff." And that part is -- well, I feel like a school teacher when I'm doing that. But the rest of it is great. It's sitting around listening to music with friends. And you couldn't ask for anything better.

Q You've exposed me to songs that I would never have heard. Umbabaraumba. That song is on one of your first collections. I don't even remember -- is that --
A Jorge Ben. Great song. I think that the New York group, Cibo Matto, they sampled that song at one point.

Q They did?
A Yeah. They may have had to remove the sample, but they --

Q And then there was an album within the last year by Susana Baca was just one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard.
A Oh, great.

Q Just stunning. So this is another avenue of expression for you. And there's so many that we talked about during our conversation: books, photography, you have art shows, and of course, making music. How do you find the time to do all of this stuff?
A Well, I figure what I do for work is what other people do in their time off. People listen to music and whatever, take photos -- after work. Well, I do it the whole day. And if I'm lucky, I get a little bit of money to allow me to keep doing it.

Q So you almost -- you're not -- I couldn't call you a workaholic. You're a lifeaholic.
A Yeah. I don't -- I don't think -- most of the time I don't think of it as work.

Q Well, the best artists and even friends of mine who are not quote-unquote "artists" are the people who live life as art. I mean, that aesthetic is beautiful. And so there's no division between now I'm painting, I'm painting again or just making --
A I do have to tell the IRS that it really is work, though.

Q That is a little bit of the difference. How about having a family? How has that affected your artistic life?
A Scared me, actually, because I thought, "oh, I don't want to write songs about how wonderful it is to have a family and just write happy songs." One or two happy songs are all right, but a whole record of happy songs, it's like Barney the Dinosaur or something.

Q Well, but family has its own tensions and dissentions anyway…
A It certainly does. That's another kind of record, I guess (laughter) …

Q We've been talking with David Byrne. He's playing at La Zona Rosa tonight. His fourth concert appearance here in Austin this year, and we feel very blessed. You make your home in New York City. Were you there on September 11th?
A Yeah. One of the guys in the office came in the door in the morning and said, "Plane just hit the Trade Center." So we walk out on the street to the corner. Yeah. Everybody was out on the street. And then we were just kind of shell-shocked for quite a while after that.

Q So your offices are in -- on the lower end of Manhattan?
A Yeah.

David Byrne with KGSR's Music Director Susan Castle

Q Do you live on the lower end or do you live uptown a little bit?
A I live downtown as well. We were lucky in that -- well, no one real close to us was in the Trade Centers. And we were also lucky that our -- where we work, it was far enough away that we could continue doing what we do. Whereas, a family that's friends of mine live real close. Well, they still do. They moved back in. But for like a month, they had to leave their home. There was dust and debris all over the place so they had -- they moved in with us with their kids and their cats and all that stuff.

Q It seems to me that it's almost inevitable that the events of 9/11 -- and I don't think it's a mistake that that happened on 9/11. But that it would seep into the art of artists. Do you find that at all or have you been -- well, you're always creating. So have you found it seeping in?
A Not yet. I'm not -- I'm sure it will. I have to realize -- or been realizing that in other wars, throughout, you know, recent ones, art took, changed dramatically during those periods. People who maybe grew up making art or thinking they were going to be creative in one kind of way, when they looked at the kind of events that were happening around the world, they realized that they couldn't operate under those suppositions and they had to completely re-orient themselves and make a different kind of work.

Q For some folks, it has been a reminder of mortality and a bit of an awakening. And for other people who have had their eyes wide open, we'll see how it affects their art and their lives. David Byrne has been our guest this afternoon. Again, thanks. Nice to meet you.
A Thank you. You, too.

Q And a fine record, "Look Into the Eyeball". And then, is this the end of the tour or do you get to go home?
A Yeah, we all have a little time off. And then we're off to Australia and Japan.

Q Well, have safe travels and have fun. And I think this might fall under the banner of one of the happy songs. But maybe the title's misleading. Everyone's in Love With You?
A Yeah, it's kind of happy, although it's complaining about (laughs) being ignored! If I have a second. This song -- I wrote another version of this song. Same song. Exact same music, but completely different words called Everybody Thinks I'm You, which was about mistaken identity. About an ordinary person always being mistaken for a celebrity. And eventually, that person just taking the place of the celebrity, being able to kind of walk down the red carpet or whatever, and just realizing that they're a total fake, but everybody believes it.

Q And then it morphed into Everyone's in Love With You.
A Uh-huh.

Q David Byrne. See you soon.
("Everyone's In Love With You" is played from the CD)
(End of interview.)