David Byrne has shared a playlist for “people who hate Christmas music” – check it out below.
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The former Talking Heads frontman shared the 32-track playlist, titled ‘David Byrne Radio Presents: Christmas Music for People Who Hate Christmas Music’ with a message explaining its eclectic sound.
“This playlist is not about the solstice, nor does it have some Pagan agenda,” he told fans. “It’s rowdy, fun songs that gently poke at and refer to the holidays. Enjoy!”
The Spotify playlist features the likes of EI GC Y Su Raza Alterada’s festive hit ‘Ya Llega La Navidad’, Run-DMC’s ‘Christmas Is’ and Prince‘s ‘Another Lonely Christmas’.
Elsewhere, tracks by Macy Gray, Sufjan Stevens and Finneas appear, with two tracks by Willie Nelson and Laufey making the cut.
More explicit numbers include Big Freedia’s ‘Santa Is A Gay Man’ by Big Freedia and 100 Gecs‘ ‘Sympathy 4 The Grinch’, with Byrne rounding things off with Phoebe Bridgers’ ‘If We Make It Through December’, Sabrina Carpenter‘s ‘Santa Doesn’t Know You Like I Do’, and his own Christmas track, ‘Fat Man’s Comin”.
The playlist arrives shortly after Byrne’s North American tour drew to a close with the second of two Miami shows on Friday (December 6). He’s then off to Australia and New Zealand next month before coming to Europe in February, with the trek including nine dates across the UK and Ireland. Find Australia and New Zealand tickets here and UK and Ireland tickets here.
He kicked off the run of dates by playing the Talking Heads’ classic ‘Psycho Killer’ for the first time in 19 years, while Hayley Williams joined him in New York City to play Paramore’s ‘Hard Times’ as well as their recent collaboration, ‘What Is The Reason For It?’ from ‘Who Is The Sky?’.
He’s already been announced to play a handful of festivals in the summer, too, including Latitude – which he’s headlining – Open’er and Mad Cool.
Back in 2020, Byrne discussed the future of live music with NME, and predicated that the days of a traditional stage up were numbered. “It has to be really something special, because that’s where the performers are getting their money and that’s what the audience is paying for,” he said of the live music experience. “They’re not paying very much for streaming music, but they are paying quite a bit to go and see a performance, so the performance has to give them value for money.”
As for sources of inspiration when it came to reimagining stage shows, he told us he drew from rappers like Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar. “There are lots of ways to do this,” he said. “I love the idea of working with a band, with live musicians. ‘How can I innovate in this kind of way?’ It’s maybe easier for a hip-hop musician who doesn’t have a band to figure out. The pressure is on to come up with new ways of doing this.”
Last month, meanwhile, Byrne opened up about the possibility that he could be on the autism spectrum and explained that music has helped him with social skills. He has also touched on rumours of another Talking Heads reunion in recent months, with the band celebrating the 50th anniversary of their first live performance earlier this year.
“Musically, I’ve gone to a very different place,” he told Rolling Stone. “And I also felt like there’s been a fair number of reunion records and tours. And some of them were probably pretty good. Not very many. It’s pretty much impossible to recapture where you were at that time in your life.”
