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Unlike some other producers, Eno doesn't really have a signature
sound or style. What does he bring into a session that gets such
results?
I'm going to guess that it's the fact that his musical vocabulary is limited
-- not sonically, he has a pretty wide-ranging and sophisticated ear, but as far
as his musical training. I don't think he knows any jazz chords or things like
that. So that means that he's listening to what's going on, as opposed to using
chops and music theory or other stuff. He's working based on what he hears.
You said that you want your work to be accessible, usable. As the
ways in which music is consumed change so drastically, how does that change the
music you make?
I actually try not to let it change the creative process that much. I have
been in situations in the past where you start making the stuff based on the
demographic or how it's going to be marketed. And it ends up sounding like you
made it based on how you're going to sell it, and you can hear that and it's not
a good thing to hear.
But I do think that things are going to fragment. There will be artists who
make singles that become viral and everybody hears them all the time -- like
that "Umbrella" song. There will be different versions and it might get used
here and there for commercials, spin-off versions. And then there will be other
artists who are about live performances, and others who do more concept records.
I think that's all fine, all great. But all of that is slightly different
from the regular record as a collection of 10, 11, 12 songs that just happen to
be bundled together. I think that's going to be a tough sell, if there isn't
some other reason for it.
No matter how many different projects, different media you tackle,
there will always be people who identify you as David Byrne of Talking Heads. At
this point, do you consider that more of a burden or more of an opportunity that
still helps open doors?
For quite a while, it was a bit of a weight to carry around. It was like this
appendix to my name -- "David Byrne of Talking Heads," that was my full name.
And I think that's kind of gone away. I guess I worry that if, like a lot of
other people, we did the reunion thing, then it comes back in, and you've got to
go through the whole process again.
Talking Heads is a great legacy to have, and I still earn money from it, but
it's not the only appendage to my name now. When I biked over here this morning,
some guy stopped me on the street and said he liked the bike racks. So that's
what he knows. And I thought that's pretty great. I'm happy with that.
Alan Light is the former editor-in-chief of Spin, Vibe and Tracks
magazines and a former senior writer at Rolling Stone. His writing has also
appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, GQ and Entertainment Weekly. His
book "The Skills to Pay the Bills: The Story of the Beastie Boys" was published
in 2006. Alan is a two-time winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for
excellence in music writing.
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