David Byrne shows people what’s possible
‘American Utopia’ shares realistic but hopeful message
Spike Lee’s “American Utopia,” a documentary of David Byrne’s concert musical, supplies the giddy rush of live performance in a packed house.
The filmwas shot during the late 2019-to-early 2020 run of Byrne’s acclaimed Broadway showat the Hudson Theatre. In it, Byrne deconstructs the traditional rock concert, sketching a narrative through his songbook from familiar TalkingHeads classics up to his 2018 solo album of the same name.
With 11 other musicians, all of them barefoot and dressed in silvery gray suits, Byrne gathers together a jubilant march on a road to nowhere.“Would you like to come along,” he sings in the TalkingHeads staple. “You can help me sing the song/ And it’s all right, baby, it’s all right.”
There is plenty that’s not all right, Byrne, 68, granted.
“AmericanUtopia” is full of plenty darker realities of American life, touching on police brutality (with her endorsement, he performs JanelleMonae’s 2015 protest song “Hell You Talmbout”), immigrant rights and the 2020 election. (A voter registration teamwas stationed in the lobby.)
But pockets of hope are still around, Byrne seems to suggest, especially when you’ve got a good percussion section.
The film, which will premiere onHBOandHBO Max onOct. 17, drewraves out of the Toronto International Film Festival (or wherever critics arewatching remotely). Electrically shot by Lee, “American Utopia” may even be one of the best films of the year and, yes, even aworthy spiritual sequel to Jonathan Demme’s concert
documentary classic “Stop Making Sense.”
Fresh fromvisiting his daughter in the Catskills, Byrne spoke about living up to that film, why even now he’s not hopeless and how his pandemic cooking is going. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
The joy of live performance is so palpable in “AmericanUtopia.” Do you miss it?
The film is going to be in theNewYork Film Festival and at drive-in screenings. That’s like a little baby step toward getting us back together.
We’re actually in eyesight of one another. We’ll be in cars; instead of applauding, peoplewill honk their horns. It’s a step. We’ll at least feel likewe’re together. It’s kind of an essential part of whatwe are.
It’s not justmy life as a performer, it’s whatwe are as a species. We’re social animals, and one of the greatest punishments that human beings can inflect on one another is to isolate them from the tribe or isolate them fromother people.
You touch on many of the more troubling parts of American life ... but there’s a constant uplift. In such dystopic times, has it been harder to find bits of utopia?
Part of the nature of the showis to be realistic but showpeople what’s possible. I have a little solutions-journalism project that I have called “Reasons to Be Cheerful.” We look for examples that are hopeful, people who have found solutions to problems.
The showdoesn’t shy away from a lot of the dark
stuff going. And yet what the audience is seeing and feeling fromthe band and from the show, they’re kind of witnessing a solution to those types of things.
We’re not telling them, “This is howyou fix it.” As they say, showdon’t tell. We’re kind of showing them.
The film is dedicated to JonathanDemme(and Colin Kaepernick). Were you at all mindful of living up to “StopMaking Sense”?
Yes, that bar has been raised pretty high, but time has passed. I think this showand Spike’s filming of it— it’s very different than what Jonathan did— but I think in someways it equals it.
Therewas a point during the filming where Spike looked up at the ceiling— hewas often in the aisles
(dancing)— and he goes, “Jonathan, howwe doin’?”
You recently apologized forwearing black face in a skit for the promotion of “StopMaking Sense” in the early ’80s. Have you spoken with Lee about that?
Before I made this public statement about this video skit I had done 30-some years ago, I wrote to Spike, Iwrote to the band (and) a couple friends. I said, “Heads up, I did this and I’m going to talk about it.”
The reactions I’ve gotten have been very supportive. Spikewas just like, “I know you. You’re fine.” The band was kind of the sameway. I thought, OK, I can learn from this. It’s possible to be open and own our mistakes and bad judgments, and people will forgive them.
Howhave you been
getting through the pandemic?
I’ve been learning to cook new dishes. Some of them are really successful, and some of them are real failures, and I go, “I think I got to eat this anyway.” But there are days where I wake up, and I go, “What arewe doing? Why I am doing anything?”
The music of “AmericanUtopia” spans much of your life. Do you consider it an encapsulation of you as an artist?
It’s personal, but I feel it’s also universal. I’m using myself as the vehicle, but I think I’m telling a human story of a person who begins introvertedwithin themselves and then finds a community and eventually engages with the whole world around them.
Which is a kind of journey that a lot us take.