A Few Questions for David Byrne
Whether considering his groundbreaking work with the Talking Heads, his eclectic solo career, or even his really big suit, ya gotta love David Byrne. The guy's no slouch when it comes to the Web, either.
His site, DavidByrne.com, is chock full of goodies, including CD tracks, performances, a faithfully updated journal, and his own Internet radio station, on which he features a monthly selection of his latest musical passions. He and fellow musician Brian Eno have also made a couple of tracks available online for re-editing, mixing, and sampling from their seminal "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" LP. We wrote about Radio DavidByrne.com back in 2005. Recently, we caught up with the musical maverick over email to ask a few questions about the state of songs online:
Hey David, how long have you been using the Internet?
Wow, it's hard to remember. Early-to-mid nineties maybe? Dial up for years—I would go and make a cup of coffee while a single webpage loaded. I remember an art website called Spleen by a guy named Piotyr something or other. It made it obvious that there were possibilities out there.
How do you feel about the whole file sharing issue?
Every serious study (shows) that file sharing has NOT cut into CD sales. Really. That doesn't eliminate any moral or ethical questions, but it means the industry might look elsewhere for a scapegoat. People need to get out more and listen to and experience music, though. That's my only worry—that folks could become more isolated. But I'm optimistic that it's in our nature to socialize.
If it's not file sharing that's cut into CD sales, then what is it?
Lots of theories on that one. DVDs, video games, cable TV, lousy records, record companies no longer developing artists, corporate mergers (which started in the '90s) that call for quarterly profits—all of the above.
Along those lines, we notice you gave a talk this year entitled "Record Companies: Who Needs Them?" What do you mean by that?
I'm writing a long piece for Wired now that will answer those questions—it's a long answer.
Radio DavidByrne is pretty great. How does that work in terms of copyright?
I pay fees through a company that provides that service, as well as hosting the thing on their server. I don't see any income from it—so if the fees jump up, as is proposed, that could be an issue.
To say Radio DB is "eclectic" is an understatement. Just out of curiosity, approximately how many CDs/LPs/etc. do you own?
Yeah, I have a lot, but I have friends who have a lot more. Most of mine are at my office, so they are like a lending library for anyone there... I'm constantly trying to weed them out.
Finally, how is your experiment with allowing the public to re-mix songs from "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" going?
The mixes I've heard are really good! It's very impressive. I still expect to hear a track from one of our pieces used in someone's song or soundtrack or something—but those haven't appeared on my radar yet. Maybe they've just been well disguised.
Thanks, DB. We won't be watching too many days go by before we next check in with your cool site.
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