David Byrne interview

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on December 24th, 2013

Salon’s David Daley interviews David Byrne on the occasion of the release of Byrne’s book, “How Music Works.” Byrne is always interesting. (So interesting, in fact, that The Female Half was moved to wirelessly purchase the electronic version of Byrne’s book for The Male Half!)

The interview is worth reading for the ideas it contains about music, the creative process, the culture of “free” and other matters. And some of it even relates to standup. To wit:

In the book you have one chapter dedicated to how you can create a scene, on the things you need for something like CBGB to happen. One is that clubs ought to let musicians and artists in free when they’re not performing. Why is that important?

Well, to be more specific, artists who have played there on other nights, not just anybody who shows up. I have a guitar, let me in! It makes a community. The musicians take advantage of that, they hang out, and the audience sees the other musicians that they might have seen the other night. And the musicians talk amongst one another, which they don’t always do. They wouldn’t just call one another up and say, “Hey, what are you doing? Let’s go out and have a drink.” But if they both are at the same bar because they’re welcome there, then they’ll fall into conversation. Then a little kind of community starts to happen.

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