Mar 20, 2024
We kick off our tenth anniversary year with ARIA-winner Mia
Dyson, who joins me to talk about the soundtrack of the iconic
Talking Heads concert film 'Stop Making Sense'.
We talk about wearing out VHS tapes in the pre-streaming era, the
contrast between the band's musical eccentricity and austere
aesthetic, why the film is the perfect entry point for new Talking
Heads fans, how the show builds from David Byrne solo acoustic to
the full expanded band extravaganza, Byrne's obsession with
deconstruction, how the analogue staging and filmmaking techniques
have kept the film timeless 40 years later, the overriding
joyousness of the performances despite the contentious interband
dynamics, the unconventional choreography in the show, the earnest
emotional core behind all the weirdness and Mia's NYC David Byrne
sighting. Mia talks about how this music gave her permission to be
herself in her own music, different concepts of authenticity and
how Talking Heads influenced her 2018 album 'If I Said Only So Far,
I Take It Back', and her approach to vocal performance and
revisiting abandoned material for her new album 'Tender Heart'.