When we were doing it in 2019 and early 2020, people were very anxious about the division in the country: “Who are we? Where are we going? What’s happening?” The show gave them some sort of hope, but it was also very emotional. I don’t know if my intention has changed, but the way an audience reacts changes all the time. Now that you’re on the home stretch of its Broadway run, has your intention for the show changed?

You’ve been performing American Utopia since 2019, through some major global events. It’s pretty hard for the rest of us to have influence. And it’s pretty tough to do anything to help ameliorate that unless you’re a Drake or Taylor Swift, or those kinds of artists. It’s a very powerful bargaining chip an artist like her holds.Īnd now there’s been all these things about platforms having … let’s say questionable or controversial content putting out misinformation or outright lies or … not exactly hate speech, but things that are making a lot of artists uncomfortable. Which I think was brave for her and good for a lot of the rest of us. I watched as Taylor Swift went to Apple and said, “You can’t do this you can’t have a freemium layer that will last forever.” And she – I mean, bless her heart – she managed to get them to. There was definitely a period where I thought, “Oh, this is going to be tough for a lot of artists”, especially with Spotify’s “freemium” layer. I’m curious to know how your views on the platform have changed since then – if they have – especially in light of artists recently removing their work as a form of protest or bargaining.Ī handful of mega, mega artists are doing really well, and many of the others – especially emerging artists – are having a tough time with it. You wrote in 2013 that you’d pulled as much of your catalogue from Spotify as you could. I think it was very personal but for me it seemed very universal.īyrne performs remotely with Montaigne in February. It was very easy to put myself in that head and identify with that. But I know that feeling, when you’re not sure if everything’s working. And I thought, wow, this is pretty brave. did another song together called Gravity, and in both songs she seemed to be talking to her partner in a very blunt and honest way about their relationship – and then putting it out to the world. Do you feel like you’re still asking those questions, or have you found the answers?ĭavid Byrne: I certainly don’t think I’ve found the answers. The lyrics to your verse in Always Be You touch on the bravery required to fall in love, and whether you’re content enough with yourself to do that. “ about how you have to be willing to face that vulnerability when it confronts you.”īyrne shared his perspective on the track – along with his thoughts on streaming platforms, wrapping up American Utopia’s landmark run, and his impending 70th birthday. “I really resonated with the part where he talks about how intimate/romantic relationships are really miraculous unions that have absolutely no right to work out,” Montaigne explains over email.

“If I get it wrong, will I be left alone?” Byrne sings on the track, which draws inspiration from a routine by English comedian Daniel Kitson, in his show It’s Always Right Now, Until It’s Later. “I found those two texts so inspiring and they really transformed the way I approached live performance, at least as a body on stage,” she says. She was 19 when she first encountered his book How Music Works and his concert film Stop Making Sense, and was immediately drawn to his outlook. Last week, Australian musician Montaigne announced Byrne as a guest on her new single, Always Be You. Always Be You by Montaigne and David Byrne.

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