David Byrne (born May 14, 1952) is a Scottish-born musician permanently residing in the United States, a founding member and principal songwriter of the American New Wave band Talking Heads, active between 1975 and 1991.
David Byrne was born in Dumbarton, Scotland, to parents Tom and Emma. He was the elder of two children. Two years later, his parents moved to Hamilton, Ontario, and then to Arbutus, Maryland, when he was 8 or 9 years old. His father worked as an electronics engineer. Before high school, David Byrne already knew how to play the guitar, accordion, and violin. He was rejected from his middle school's choir because they claimed he was "off-key and too withdrawn". From a young age, he had a strong interest in music. His parents say that he would constantly play his phonograph from age three and he learned how to play the harmonica at age five.[5] In his journals he says, "I was a peculiar young man—borderline Asperger's, I would guess".[6][7] As revealed by Tina Weymouth in the commentary for the concert film Stop Making Sense, Byrne is left-handed but plays guitar right-handed.
He graduated from Lansdowne High School in southwest Baltimore County. Byrne started his musical career in a high school duo named Bizadi with Mark Kehoe. Their repertoire consisted mostly of songs such as "April Showers", "96 Tears", "Dancing On The Ceiling", and Frank Sinatra songs. Byrne then attended the Rhode Island School of Design (during the 1970–71 term) and the Maryland Institute College of Art (during the 1971–72 term) before dropping out and forming a band called "The Artistics" with fellow RISD student Chris Frantz.[8] The band dissolved within a year and the two moved to New York together with Frantz's girlfriend Tina Weymouth. Unable to find a bass player in New York, Frantz and Byrne persuaded Weymouth to learn to play the bass guitar.