7 minute read

Remain in Love

Next Article
Dining

Dining

‘Remain in Love’

Chris Frantz talks Tom Tom Club, Talking Heads and the future

BY BILL FORMAN

Context is everything. In 1979, when when we began the Tom Tom Club proj“Air Can Hurt You Too” appeared on ect because, just like with “Remain in Talking Heads’ “Fear of Music” album, its Light,” we hadn’t written anything. It was lyrics felt more paranoia than prophecy. all being composed in the studio as we But today, in a time of global warming recorded it. So, you know, we were flying and airborne disease, lyrics like “Some by the seat of our pants, you might say. people say not to worry about the air/ But even before we entered the studio Some people never had experience with with Tom Tom Club, Tina and I knew we air” sounds eerily prescient wanted to do something completely dif

By this point, the band’s debut album, ferent sounding from Talking Heads. We “Talking Heads ’77,” and its unsettling didn’t want to appear to be riding on the single “Psycho Killer” had already escoattails of our other band. We loved regtablished it as one of most quirky bands gae, soca and calypso. And we also loved to come out of New York City’s punk this new thing we were hearing on the scene. Formed by Rhode Island School radio called rap. So that’s why we sound of Design graduates singer/guitarist Dadifferent. I’m pretty sure that a lot of peovid Byrne, bassist Tina Weymouth and ple didn’t have any idea that Tom Tom drummer Chris Frantz, as well as former Club was in any way connected to Talking Modern Lovers keyboardist/guitarist JerHeads. ry Harrison, the band would go on to find unexpected success in the coming years, You both grew up listening to your parreaching their artistic pinnacle in 1980 ents’ calypso records, which is pretty with the epic, Brian Eno-produced “Reunusual for kids from Southern Calimain in Light.” fornia and Kentucky. So after you met

Once the album was finished, the four at the Rhode Island School of Design, musicians took a break to pursue individit must not have taken long to recogual side projects. Byrne collaborated with nize each other as kindred spirits. Eno. Harrison worked on a solo album. Correct. Before we even got into the And future husband and wife Frantz and music thing, we were studying art toWeymouth took off to the Bahamas to regether and we really liked each other’s cord as Tom Tom Club, whose laid-back paintings. We also liked a lot of the same singles “The Genius of Love” and “Wordy painters throughout history. I guess Tina Rappinghood” would propel them to knew more about classical painting and success on a par with Talking Heads. I knew more about contemporary paint

Recently, Faber & Faber published ing. And so we exchanged ideas and Frantz’s “Remain in Love: Talking Heads, thoughts. Tom Tom Club, Tina,” an engaging memoir that recounts his experiences in both What was it like moving from Rhode Isbands, as well as his 40-year relationship land to New York City? There had to be with Weymouth. I caught up with Frantz some degree of culture shock. recently to talk about all of that, as well as Tina, David and I all lived in this loft toTalking Heads’ cursed visits to San Frangether at 195 Chrystie Street on the Lowcisco, family tragedy during quarantine, er East Side. And so, yeah, we all got to go and the duo’s idea for their next musical through culture shock at the exact same project. time. I think it was a shock to our systems,

Tom Tom Club’s debut came out a year

Yeah, although I was very on edge but we all handled it very well.

after “Remain in Light,” which I’ve When you started going to venues like always thought of as Talking Heads’ CBGB, who were some of your favorite densest-sounding album. By contrast, bands to go see?

you and Tina went for a very breezy, I remember going to a show at CBGB for kind of island vibe, which left a lot of the first time and seeing the Ramones. I space in both the arrangements and had actually thought the Ramones would the production. Was there a sense of be a Mexican band, but instead they were relief that came with that? these four guys my age from Forest Hills, 16 | SEPTEMBER 2020 Queens. Back in those days, sometimes they would stop in the middle of the song and start yelling at each other; it was kind of like a conceptual art project. And I thought, this is fantastic!

And the next weekend, the headlining band was Television with Richard Hell on bass. And then I saw Patti Smith. And then I saw Blondie, who weren’t even called Blondie yet. I knew something really cool was happening and that we wanted to be part of that.

So I have a question that relates to the song “Psycho Killer.” During the “Talking Heads ’77” tour, you played an afternoon show at UC-Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza. As it turned out, that was just hours after (politician/activist) Harvey Milk had been shot. Did you know about it before you went onstage, or did you only find out afterward?

No, we found out after—at least I did. You know, it seemed like every time we went to San Francisco, something happened. The next time we went, the Jonestown Massacre happened, and a lot of those people were from San Francisco. And then another time, we were actually there with Tom Tom Club and were just leaving town when the earthquake happened—the big one that closed everything down for weeks. I started to feel like, wow, we should probably just not go to San Francisco.

So what’s next for you two?

Well, Tina has started working on a book of her own, and we’ve been thinking we might do something electronic together. Like, you know, we’re of a certain age, but we’re still kind of hip. And this is something she and I could do togeth

er. We love Tom Tom Club and Talking Heads, but this is something we could record low budget, keep the costs down, and just have some fun with it.

You could do a cover Suicide’s “Dream Baby Dream.”

I’d love to cover that song. We’ll call it “Stream, Baby, Stream.”

So earlier this month, right after your Rolling Stone magazine interview came out, blogs started posting headlines like “Chris Frantz Talks About the Possibility of a Talking Heads Reunion.” But what you’d actually talked about in that interview was the impossibility of a Talking Heads reunion. Have the prospects for a reunion really gone that far past the “never say never” stage?

Well, if David woke up one day and said, “I’m going to call Chris and Tina and Jerry and see if they’d like to do some shows or make a new album, we would be crazy to say no. You know, it might work or it might not work, but when we started the band, it (was like it) might work or it might not work too, right? It’s like, when you’re an artist, you have to take some Frantz...continues on page 17 www.LovinLife.com

Frantz...continued from page 16 chances. I think it would be fun, but I don’t think it’s going to happen, because David has said so many times he doesn’t want to. But who knows? Maybe one day he might get the fear of God put into him. (Laughs.)

Stranger things have happened. Peter Gabriel talked about how his father, who was a lifelong atheist, let his nursing home’s Catholic priest administer last rites. He said his father wanted to hedge his bets.

You know, my mother passed away on April 11 from COVID virus. She wasn’t Catholic, but she was Episcopalian, and they also have last rites. And she was administered last rites over the telephone while the rest of us listened in, because we weren’t allowed to visit her. And it was so—how shall I put this?—beautifully surreal. I don’t think it could have been more surreal than hearing your mother get her last rites over the telephone, where various members of the family are connected long distance. That was something wild, but that’s the kind of year we’ve been having.

Voted Best-in-State 3 Years in a Row!

Forbes has once again ranked Hughes among the best-in-state credit unions in Arizona for three consecutive years. Hughes is local, not-for-profit and has

been serving Southern Arizona for more than 65 years. Our members enjoy lower fees, exclusive University of Arizona ® Visa ® Debit Cards*, access to 30,000+ ATMs nationwide, eServices including Mobile Banking, Mobile Pay and more. We are both honored and proud to be one of Arizona’s preferred credit unions. Join us today!

Insured by NCUA

* Certain restrictions apply

HughesFCU.org/Best

This article is from: