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Now he seems more interested in what constitutes good sense in society.
As he points out in the lecture, Everything is connected.
But it comes out.
Often you realize after youve written something, Ohhh, this is what its about.
This is whats really being said here.
How do you feel about money?
No, Im not going to deal with those kind of specifics.
Im going to come into the boardroom, or where youre making these kind of decisions.
You will be confronted at some point.
I really enjoyed theReasons to Be Cheerful lecture on your YouTube channel, which is a confrontation of sorts.
Which came first the album or the lecture series?About the same time.
There was no obvious connection.
Sometimes you dont realize what you are doing is about until youre getting near the finish.
Youre almost done, and then you realize, Ah!
You get the perspective on it.
Just instinctively, I started saving things that seemed vaguely helpful to me.
Not just someone has a good idea, the idea had to have been put into effect and tried.
I started collecting more and more of them, and I realized I should talk about it.
Not that this is going to totally cheer them up, but maybe a little bit.
I was writing the songs around the same time.
Heres some little tidbits of hope here.
And I think the feeling now is, Maybe we need to do a little more than that.
Which is easy for me to say.
Im a successful pop musician, and I cant be saying to people, Do what I do.
Not everybody is in a position to do what I do.
But I think everybody has their own way of being engaged.
Are feelings of guilt or shame things that you have dealt with?
There is a wider understanding of white privilege these days, and the responsibility that comes with that.
But theres also white guilt, which often leads to performative actions rather than real change.
What are your thoughts on that?Its complicated.
The song Doing the Right Thing feels like a skewering of privilege.Yes, its a bit of a skewering.
Most of the songs are not.
That one is kind of ironic.
Youve got this very pretty melody thats kind of scathing.
A lot of the words came first before the music.
Which would seem to imply that there was something being said rather than just a lot of syllables.
Hes Norwegian, lives in London, and wed talk occasionally.
I didnt mention the record [at first].
Would you like to hear it?
So he was really helpful in that way.
That kind of exploration is very much evident on the album.
Theres country and ambient and pop alongside so much more.
Do those juxtapositions still thrill you in the same way they did when you were starting out?Yeah!
That was not something I would ever come up with myself.
Thats why you invite people [to collaborate].
It didnt come from me.
My demo is still barreling along.
So thats another thing one of the collaborators brought.
[Note: after this interview, David Byrne releaseda statementfurther addressing this issue.]
Okay, where does that come from?
Does that come from the rise of city-states and agriculture and the need for that kind of administrative control?
I dont have an answer, but there was a big switch there.
As much as people might think [the patriarchy is] intrinsic to our nature, it wasnt always.
Two-thousand years is relatively recent, so who knows what the future might hold?
Something different could happen.
Historys definition of utopia often rests on the subjugation of others.
Start looking: What are they doing?
Hows it working for them?
The album can help amplify the conversations raised in the lecture series.In a way, yes.
Lets talk about other stuff, too.
