Jerry Harrison has lived through every shift in music technology, style, and business over the last five decades, and he’s not done yet. The Talking Heads keyboardist and guitarist sat down with me to discuss the 40th anniversary of Stop Making Sense, the band’s landmark concert film, and how a little movie company called A24 managed to get the long-fractured band to reunite—at least for an interview.
If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be an integral part of one of the most forward-thinking bands in rock history, Harrison will tell you: it means witnessing, and sometimes driving, monumental changes in music. "May you be blessed by living in interesting times," he jokes early on. Harrison has been on the front lines of everything from new wave’s rise to the advent of digital recording to the latest Dolby Atmos mixes. And yes, that includes robots making music, though back in the day, those robots were controlled by humans. "Now we have robots making their own music," he muses. "That’s got to be an interesting... or a terrifying conversation."
Of course, before AIs started pumping out half-baked algorithms of the Talking Heads’ catalog, Harrison was part of a band that was actively rewriting the rules of rock music. And he remembers when those changes weren’t so easy to implement. "The most fun time to me was when we realized the recording studio could be an instrument," he says. "Back then, doing something experimental could take you all day. Now, you can do it in five minutes—but there was magic in that process."
It’s that magic that Stop Making Sense captured so well, and it’s why, even 40 years later, it’s getting the kind of re-release usually reserved for blockbuster films. Enter A24, the indie film powerhouse known for movies like Everything Everywhere All at Once. When the band’s contract with Palm Pictures expired, Harrison and the rest of the Heads decided it was time to find a new home for their iconic concert film. "Palm made an offer that felt inadequate, so we thought, maybe they’re just not the right company," he says. "A24 came in with a real plan."
That plan included a 4K remaster of Stop Making Sense, a full-scale theatrical re-release—including IMAX screenings—and the unthinkable: a Talking Heads reunion (sort of). No, they’re not picking up instruments, but for the first time in decades, all four members sat down together for a live conversation at the Toronto International Film Festival. "It was a healing experience for everybody," Harrison says. "We own the film together, we had to work together, and it reminded us that we actually can."
For fans, seeing David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz, and Jerry Harrison in the same room again was akin to spotting Bigfoot, only with better posture and some great suits. While the wounds of their split haven’t magically disappeared, Harrison says there’s a newfound pragmatism. "The conflicts are still out there. You can look them up. But do we need to voice them over and over again? At some point, you’ve made your point."
With Stop Making Sense back in theaters, a new Dolby Atmos mix giving it even more sonic depth, and Harrison himself diving back into live performance (he just wrapped a tour with Adrian Belew revisiting Remain in Light), he’s proving that he still has more to say. Just maybe not about band drama.
"Why waste our time on petty complaints from the past?" he says. "Let’s just enjoy what we made."
Watch the interview above and then check out the video below.
