David Byrne has spoken about the influences that shaped his singular vocal and performance style, tracing them back to a mix of unlikely sources including choreographer Twyla Tharp, Lou Reed's Velvet Underground vocals, and the composers Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht. The Talking Heads frontman has long prioritised emotional resonance over conventional logic in his songwriting, an approach that underpinned the band's celebrated 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense and continues to inform his current live shows as part of his Who Is the Sky? tour.

Speaking to NPR, Byrne explained that his distinctive "talk-singing" delivery drew on Weill and Brecht's habit of interspersing melody with spoken passages, as well as the rising, incantatory energy of preachers he heard on the radio or in church, where speech would gradually transform into song. He also cited the jerky, trance-like body movements he observed in dancers and worshippers as an early inspiration for his stage presence. The article frames these influences as key to understanding why Talking Heads' music, blending world music textures with catchy melodies, has retained its distinctive appeal across generations.