They might still be adamant that they’re not reforming, but Talking Heads do seem to be unusually active lately.
In addition to doing joint interviews to promote the reissue of Stop Making Sense and being honoured with their own pop radio station on SiriusXM (which is on air until the end of the month), the band have announced that there is a Talking Heads book coming out next year. It’s called Talking Heads: New Feeling and is set to be published on 18 May.
So what’s in it? Well, according to a Jerry Harrison interview that the guitarist gave to the publisher Abrams Books: “For this book, we pulled out handwritten lyrics, original album sketches, and private photos, some of which haven’t left our archive in over 40 years.” Apparently, it also features essays from all four members, as well as contributions from a number of famous fans, including Lorde, Debbie Harry, Karl Ove Knausgård and Jeff Bridges.
Meanwhile, in other ‘Heads news, it’s been David Byrne’s turn to be asked about his views on AI. And while he’s not optimistic, he does admit it does have some uses…
“I like to think that certain aspects of AI can be used as a handy tool,” he said in an interview with i-D Magazine. “If you’re analysing spreadsheets and you want to see a pattern, AI might be good at that. I’ve read that it’s good for, like, skin doctors discovering the beginning of a melanoma, the AI can pick it out sometimes better than a doctor can. If it’s trustworthy as a tool, that seems useful.”
However, there is a ‘but’: “I’ve heard of students using it to write their papers, and then they end up with no knowledge of the thing they just wrote about,” he said. “And I think, ‘Oh, it’s going to make people really stupid.'”
“Of course, there’s all the stuff we read about it breaking out of the sandbox and hacking into whatever, deceiving its masters. I could have predicted that. I’ve read enough science fiction. This was inevitable - and it’s not going to end well.”
Just what we need then, as the nights draw in and the prospect of climate and societal breakdown sidles ever closer: another prediction of AI apocalypse! However, Byrne doesn’t think we’re all necessarily doomed...
“It’s a struggle,” the 74-year-old singer admitted. “We’re fighting an uphill battle because the human brain loves bad news. You’ll doom scroll through bad news forever. We’ve evolved to be aware of warnings: is that a tiger in the bush? I’m going to assume it is, and that way I won’t die.’”
“But then there are little pockets of people doing really interesting things, solving problems. And that goes quite a ways to mitigate the stuff you read in the paper. It helps you realise: it’s not all gloom and doom. I’m optimistic that people will persevere.”
