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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.
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