“The mind is a soft boiled potato,” sings David Byrne on his new album. As the lyric suggests, Byrne’s own brain is often powered by sideways tangents. It would be a mistake to pigeonhole David Byrne. Best known as lead singer and principal songwriter of Talking Heads, the 66-year-old resists categorization—with pleasure. He is an Oscar-winning film composer, a collaborator with Robert Wilson and Fatboy Slim, a bike-rack designer, and, more recently, creator of a virtual reality piece inspired by neuroscience research. In his spare time, he curates the website Reasons to Be Cheerful, a repository for positive things happening around the world that can be reproduced elsewhere. In March, he released American Utopia, his first solo album in 14 years. It has since taken him on a massive international tour, during which he is surely discovering more ideas to fuel his optimism. Before he embarked, Byrne sat down in New York City to discuss a heady array of topics, from This story is from Kinfolk Issue Twenty-Eight Buy Now Related Stories Music Issue 43 Cat Power Musician Chan Marshall opens the door to a different dimension. Music Issue 42 Fatima Al Qadiri The shape shifting star of contemporary electronica. Arts & Culture Films Music Issue 42 Peer Review Iranian artist and filmmaker Shirin Neshat pays homage to the iconic Egyptian singer Oum Kulthum. Music Issue 41 Jon Batiste The band leader on his genre-busting year. Music Issue 39 Erika de Casier In conversation with a romantic soul. Music Issue 38 Rina Sawayama In London, Stephanie Phillips takes a tour around the sweet, strange galaxy of glitter pop sensation Rina Sawayama.
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