The 1974 demo was recorded by David Byrne and Chris Frantz during their time at the Rhode Island School of Design
Before they were the Talking Heads, they were the Artistics. And as the Artistics, singer and guitarist David Byrne, drummer Christ Frantz, and bassist David Anderson recorded an early demo of future hit “Psycho Killer” in 1974 while studying at the Rhode Island School of Design. This month, that demo will be released for Record Store Day Black Friday this week.
The “Psycho Killer” demo was recorded in March 1974 in Frantz’s apartment along with tracks “Warnin’ Sign” and “Spin Spin.” The three-song reel-to-reel was first mailed off to their teacher Alan Sondheim, who had a radio show on WBAI in New York City, according to an interview with Frantz in The Boston Globe. Sondheim may have never played the tape on his show but he did keep it. It was purchased by the RISD Museum in 2005 as part of a collection of Sondheim’s material.
The tape was eventually put in the RISD Archives in 2023. That same year, the Talking Heads appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert where they mentioned that some of their early RISD recordings may still be out there. Last year, RISD loaned out the tapes to Frantz and Talking Heads’ bassist Tina Weymouth. Weymouth also attended RISD and had begun dating Frantz around this time. She co-wrote the song with Byrne and Frantz.
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Frantz and Weymouth copied and remastered the demo as part of a Record Store Day release this Friday. Titled Tentative Decisions: Demos and Live, the LP features the three songs from the Artistics’ demo tape as well as 11 additional demos and live recordings from the early years of the Talking Heads.
“We ran through these songs, and when we had the best version — what we thought was the best version — we kept it,” Frantz told The Boston Globe of the demos. “I think the real fans will recognize the songs in their demo form. Like I said, it was three amateurs in front of one microphone in a dusty apartment on Benefit Street, so technologically it’s not brilliant or anything like that. Quite the opposite. But it’s got an excitement to it and it’s got a real, I think, rock ‘n’ spirit. I’m very happy with it.”
