Last month, Talking Heads released new Dolby Atmos mixes of all eight of their studio album — Talking Heads: 77, More Songs About Buildings and Food, Fear of Music, Remain in Light, Speaking in Tongues, Little Creatures, True Stories and Naked.
Overseeing the project was Talking Heads guitarist/keyboardist Jerry Harrison, who tells ABC Audio that all of the band’s other members — frontman David Byrne, drummer Chris Frantz and bassist Tina Weymouth — okayed the mixes.
Harrison says his main collaborator on the Dolby Atmos mixes was engineer Eric Thorngren, who also worked on the original Little Creatures and True Stories sessions. Ed Stasium, who engineered Talking Heads’ 1977 debut album, also contributed to the updated mixes.
The Dolby Atmos format offers a three-dimensional audio experience, and Jerry notes that while listening to the mixes with high-tech Apple headphones is great, he prefers listening them on traditional speakers.
“[W]hen you’re in a really good room that has an Atmos system, then that’s really quite fabulous sounding,” he maintains.
Meanwhile, Harrison teamed up with ex-King Crimson singer/guitarist Adrian Belew and other musicians this past Thursday at Los Angeles’ Wiltern theater and Saturday at San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival for their latest in a series of gigs celebrating the music of Talking Heads.
As previously reported, the shows were inspired by a 1980 concert Talking Heads played in Rome during the Remain in Light tour, when the band featured an expanded lineup that included Belew.
Harrison says he and Belew have plans to play more of these shows, but they probably won’t be until next year because of Adrian’s other touring commitments. Belew is taking part in the Celebrating David Bowie tribute trek, which runs from October 6 through November 13.
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