 David Byrne was born in Dumbarton, Scotland, on May 14, 1952, but David Byrne's parents moved the family across the Atlantic when he was two and he spent his formative years growing up in the suburbs of Baltimore, Md. Upon graduating from high school in 1970, David Byrne enrolled at the Rhode Island School of Design.
It was there that he met Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth with whom he founded the prototypical new wave - punk band the Talking Heads. The three left RISD for New York City in 1974 where they got their big break opening up for the Ramones at the infamous club CBGB's. Three years later, in 1977, the Talking Heads were signed to Sire Records and released their first of many albums, Talking Heads '77.
Byrne experimented with many sounds during his stint with the Talking Heads. He added electronic instruments, funk, world music and heavy African percussion to the band's style. Over the course of their nearly 12-year career, the Talking Heads recorded 10 albums which included hits such as "Psycho Killer," "Burning Down the House" and "Road to Nowhere," with Byrne's geeky, nervous energy and wacky stage presence establishing him as the frontman of the band. In 1991, the Talking Heads officially announced their breakup. Since then, Byrne has focused attention on his solo career and the label he formed in 1989, the Warner Brothers - distributed Luaka Bop, which focuses on world music and skewed pop and rock with a global flavor.
In addition to his music, in the past decade Byrne has been involved in film, directing True Stories, a full-length feature film, and producing Ila Aiye (The House of Life), a documentary about the Candomble Nago religion of Brazil; he's also a prolific photographer whose photographs have appeared in many major magazines and have been exhibited worldwide at such places as the Galerie Transit in Leuven, Belgium, Stelling Gallerie in Leiden, the Netherlands and the Burdon Gallery in New York City.
Byrne's latest album, Look Into The Eyeball, was released in 2001.
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