David Byrne on Collaborations

Because of the recent collaborations and contributions I've been a part of recently, I feel that this article is fitting to my current situation. I've avoided collaborations, aside from a couple exceptions, up until last year because I simply didn't know how they were 'supposed' to go down. I find out that I've been on the right track all along and agree with his statement, "more and more as time goes by, and they (collaborations) are always slightly different from one another, there are more similarities than differences". The pictures in this article are of one of his workspaces.

David Byrne breaks down how he worked with Brian Eno, how he and friends hate dealing with lyrics and how he'd work on a collaboration for a bag of Doritos. While you don't have to agree with everything he says, if you plan on participating in a project that involves with other people, he writes of some great techniques, methods and attitudes that you can apply. For me, this is essential information on conducting remote collaborations.

"The unwritten game rules in these remote collaborations seem to be to leave the other person’s stuff alone as much as you can. Work with what you’re given; don’t try to imagine it as something other than what it is."

"One big reason is to restrict one’s own freedom in the writing process. There’s a joy and relief in being limited, restrained. For starters, to let someone else make half the decisions, or some big part of them, absolves one of the need to explore endless musical possibilities."

- David Byrne on Collaborations