Singing is a trick to get people to listen to music for longer than they would ordinarily. David Byrne More Quotes by David Byrne More Quotes From David Byrne I should watch network television, or daytime television, because I'm not sure who all these people are who keep getting referred to in blogs and newspapers. I better get myself culturally attuned. David Byrne not-surepeople I still feel like if I can get a song to work with, say, a basic beat, a rhythm, some chord changes, and a melody, a vocal melody - if it works with that, then I feel it's written and there's something there. So I intentionally don't get involved with arranging stuff or fussing over the sounds and the edits and the beats too much, at least not in the beginning, because I feel like then you can fool yourself that you've got something there, when you might not. David Byrne rhythmfoolsong In a certain way, you get some new tools to work with, but I don't know if it ultimately makes the creative process any easier. David Byrne creative-processcreative It's more about the stuff you think about when you're getting from place to place on a bicycle than it is about actually riding the bicycle. David Byrne ridingstuffthinking Sometimes the European and North American public like some things to be exotic and kept at arm's length. They don't want sometimes to know that foreign artists are doing something that's at least as relevant as what's being done here. David Byrne exoticdoneartist A lot of cities are making a real effort, neighborhood by neighborhood, to make themselves into a place where life can be pretty good. David Byrne effortrealcities I'm just wearing regular street clothes. Pretty much all the time. In the summertime, or when it gets warm out, shorts and sandals or something like that. Stuff that I don't mind getting a little sweaty. David Byrne summertimeclothesmind If I'm feeling that I have an angle or something to say or something where in a way I'm having a conversation with myself, that's immensely pleasurable. David Byrne anglefeelingsway There are a lot of people that don't scour websites regularly or read music reviews. They need whatever, the other kinds of stuff, whether it's an appearance on Lettterman or posters or ads. They need to kind of be hit more in the face and be told that there's something new out there. David Byrne stuffpeopleneeds Music is relegated to an underground, relatively obscure group of listeners. It's partly because of the nature of the medium. With a piece of visual art, you can look at something ugly, brutal and in your face, but it's kind of - there it is. It doesn't take you over in the same way that putting on the music at a certain volume does. David Byrne groupsdoeart People are renovating places and opening ambitious new venues. That's one thing that music does. It gets people out of their houses, and gets them hanging out together. David Byrne ambitioushousepeople I'm really curious how the private listening - iPods, people listening on their phones - how that might eventual effect music. There'll be a whole genre of music that really works on a kind of one to one headphone or earbud level but doesn't really work when you play it in a room. David Byrne ipodsphonesplay I still feel like if I can get a song to work with, say, a basic beat, a rhythm, some chord changes, and a melody, a vocal melody - if it works with that, then I feel it's written and there's something there. David Byrne chordsbeatssong My opinion is that somebody certainly has the right to do cartoons that make fun of somebody else's religion. But to reprint them just to provoke a fight and just to provoke it like thumbing your nose at someone else and going, "What are you gonna do about it?" David Byrne fightingcartoonfun There's a great temptation to clean everything up and make everything more perfect. You have to know when to stop and stop doing it, or you might end up with something that sounds metronomic. David Byrne temptationperfectsound I think it's really hard to make songs that pursue an agenda. You can kind of do it a little bit through a character, so the character gives voice to something or their story, the story of the character tells you something, but, for me anyway, it's really hard to write directly about politics. David Byrne writingsongcharacter My personal feeling is that human beings have this incredible capacity for denial. David Byrne denialincrediblesfeelings I think that if they want people to listen to ten or twelve songs, they have to give the listener a reason to listen to ten or twelve songs or to buy ten or twelve and listen to the whole thing instead of just pulling one or two for their iPod or their computer. David Byrne songtwothinking Always be skeptical about simplicity. David Byrne skepticalsimplicity I'd been keeping tour diaries, and especially when I go somewhere where I felt the experience might be interesting, like Eastern Europe or South America or whatever, where the whole perception of what I was doing there and stuff that I was seeing and music I was hearing, I could put all that into a diary. David Byrne europeamericainteresting
