Covering Their Bases This Must Be The Band

Cover bands. Say what you will about them, but unlike their more successful and famous counterparts, they’ll always play the hits and won’t be snobby assholes about it. In Covering Their Bases, The A.V. Club asks a cover band to weigh in on a contentious issue regarding the reason for its existence. In this edition, Charlie Otto, the “David Byrne” of Talking Heads tribute band This Must Be The Band, discusses recreating Stop Making Sense. The film will be staged, choreography and all, by the band at Park West on Oct. 9.

The A.V. Club: How much have you studied Stop Making Sense?

Charlie Otto: Before the first time we did it, I took three months and I didn’t really do anything else. I’ve probably watched it at least 100 times. I have to know everyone’s parts and everyone’s costumes, so I’ve done countless hours of studying and organizing and stuff like that.

AVC: After watching it 100 times, do you hate it?

CO: It’s purely educational at this point for me, you know? It’s a job. I really like putting the show on, but I wouldn’t sit down and watch it for fun. Well...maybe I would. 

AVC: It’s person-for-person a recreation of the show?

CO: Yes. Everything will be the same, except in the film they push out the instruments and move the stage around. The stage isn’t big enough, so we won’t be doing that.

AVC: If you got some more money and more space, like a big theater, would you do the elaborate stage movements?

CO: Yeah, we’re trying to look for any venue that has wings on the side of the stage. 

AVC: Where did you get the suit?

CO: I had a woman make it for me, because the pants had to be tailored. There’s nobody big enough for the pants. And the jacket we bought at a thrift store, because there’s tons of huge, huge jackets at thrift stores for some reason. But then we altered that to make the shoulders more square and the lapels a little bit smaller.

AVC: Do you have to affect your Byrne voice, or is that how you naturally sing?

CO: Yeah. I didn’t really plan on singing when I started the band—I planned on playing guitar. So I started looking on Craigslist for people in general, and then I just realized that it’s a very specialized thing to ask for on Craigslist. Like, “Hey, does anyone know how to sing like David Byrne?” So I just worked on it myself. I don’t normally sing like that.

AVC: Do you feel left out during the Tom Tom Club portion of the show?

CO: No man, I’m changing! [Laughs.] It takes some time to get into the big suit. That’s why he had to go, too. I’m not sure how interested David Byrne was in getting a Tom Tom Club song involved in the show, but I’m pretty sure he just needed some time to change.

AVC: How much of the Talking Heads catalog do you guys know?

CO: We know 70 songs. That includes a few David Byrne songs, the Tom Tom Club song, and a couple others—some Brian Eno stuff. This is a bad thing, but the last two albums they made? I just bought them the other day. We know two or three off each of those, but we’ve gotta learn more.

AVC: Do you feel like the last two albums are the least essential of the band’s discography?

CO: It depends on who you’re playing for. But either way, we’re just doing what we want. That’s about it. I don’t want to force the band to play anything that they don’t want to play too much. Those songs—I’ve got to give them a few more listens—but they’re not what I listen to when I listen to the Talking Heads.

AVC: What’s your favorite album?

CO: Remain In Light. And we recreated that in May, and that was my favorite show we ever did. And that took 22 people on stage. So much fun.

AVC: Do you have anything in common with David Byrne?

CO: I know that we’re both huge bikers, and that’s what he goes around talking about a lot.

AVC: If anything goes downhill with This Must Be The Band, will you start a David Byrne solo act?

CO: [Laughs.] I absolutely should. I should start it now. I’ll get totally different people. [Laughs.]