BORN: May 14, 1952, Dumbarton, Scotland
David Byrne was born in Dumbarton, Scotland, on 14 May 1952. When he was 2 years old, his parents moved to Canada at the expense of a company that was recruiting engineers and semi-scientists from Europe. When David was 8 or 9 years old, his parents moved again, this time to the suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland.
In September 1970, David went straight from High School to the Rhode Island School Of Design. It was here that he met Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth who were also enrolled as Freshmen. David was not very impressed by art school: "I think art school is a real racket, especially in this country. You run into a couple of good teachers and some interesting students but for the amount of money you spend, it's not worth it".
At Rhode Island School Of Design, David studied a functional design programme known as the Bauhaus Theory course. He also took a conceptual art course. The staff were not sure about David, particularly when he put on a performance in which he had his hair and beard shaved off onstage to a piano accordion accompaniment and a showgirl displaying cue cards written in Russian. The professors at RISD were less charmed, however, and David found himself out on the street. He had been at the RISD for one year.
After that he travelled around the United States. Back in Baltimore David met a guy called Marc Kehoe and together they formed a duo called Bizadi - and apt name since David played violin, ukelele and sang and Marc Kehoe sang and played the accordion. Bizadi lasted from February 1971 until March 1972, during this year they played at the art school, a theatre and the Baltimore Playboy Club, before moving to San Francisco where they busked on the streets and sometimes got jobs in restaurants. Their repertoire consisted mainly of old standards such as 'The Glory Of Love', 'April Showers' and the Frank Sinatra songbook. They also performed Questionmark and the Mysterians' '96 Tears', which Byrne also sung as a duet with Richard Thompson during their 1992 acoustic tour in the states. When spring came around, Marc Kehoe went off to make underground movies and David decided to move back to Providence, Rhode Island to see his friends Chris and Tina.
David was leadsinger and guitar player of Talking Heads. He also (co-) wrote most of the Talking Heads music and lyrics. Since 1981 he has been doing solo projects, which eventually resulted in the split of Talking Heads in 1991.
