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Best
known for his groundbreaking tenure fronting the New Wave
group Talking Heads, David Byrne's solo work, while not
as successful, was no less adventurous, encroaching upon
such diverse media as world music, filmmaking and performance
art. Born May 14, 1952 in Dumbarton, Scotland, Byrne was
raised in Baltimore, Maryland. The son of an electronics
engineer, he played guitar in a series of teenage bands
before attending the prestigious Rhode Island School of
Design, where, feeling alienated from the largely upper-class
student population, he dropped out after one year. However,
he remained in the Providence area, performing solo on a
ukelele before forming the Artistics (also known as the
Autistics) with fellow students Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth.
After changing the name of the band to Talking Heads and
enlisting onetime Modern Lover Jerry Harrison, the group
signed to Sire Records; a series of LPs, including the debut
Talking Heads '77, 1978's More Songs About Buildings and
Food and 1980's Remain in Light followed, establishing the
quartet as one of contemporary music's most visionary talents.
During a band sabbatical in 1981, Byrne teamed with Brian
Eno, the producer of much of the Heads' work, for the collaborative
effort My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, a complex, evocative
album which fused electronic music with Third World percussion
and hypnotic vocal effects. That same year, Byrne also began
exploring theatre, composing The Complete Score From the
Broadway Production of 'The Catherine Wheel,' a dance piece
choreographed by Twyla Tharp.
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