You may find yourself sitting in a large video studio. And you may find yourself sitting next to people you haven’t made music with in more than 40 years. And you may ask yourself, “How did I get here?” And you may find yourself announcing a book you created with the three other musicians you hadn’t worked with in more than 40 years. Here comes the twist(er): The four members of Talking Heads announced on Wednesday that they’ve collaborated on an upcoming book, Talking Heads: New Feeling, out May 18.
All four members of the quartet sat in the round to explain what New Feeling was about in a reel for publisher Abrams Books’ Instagram. Bassist Tina Weymouth acknowledged the uniqueness of the four musicians coming together “to write and curate the comprehensive coffee-table book” about the band. Singer-guitarist David Byrne noted that the release date coincides with the 50th anniversary of their debut LP, Talking Heads: 77.
“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,” guitarist-multi-instrumentalist Jerry Harrison said.
“Our book tells the story of three art students who met at the Rhode Island School of Design and found their way to C.B.G.B., the heart of New York’s punk and emerging new-wave scene in the 1970s,” drummer Chris Frantz said.
A listing on the publisher’s website notes that all four musicians wrote original essays for the book, which features the original handwritten lyrics for “Psycho Killer,” “Life During Wartime,” and other songs. It promises to tell the band’s story through the 2023 re-release of the concert film, Stop Making Sense, which is when the quartet started making appearances together (though not making music together) again for the first time in decades.
In addition to appearing at events around the re-release of Stop Making Sense in 2023 and 2024, the four Heads also reunited in September to participate in an interview moderated by Este Haim for the launch of their Sirius XM channel, Talking Heads Radio. In the past year, the band released a collection of early recordings, Tentative Decisions: Demos & Live, and have plans to re-release their 1979 album, Fear of Music.
