VIK LIKE A CORPORATE ANNUAL REPORT?
BYRNE Yes, like an annual report, with lots of motivational books and tapes for one to do one's utmost and become successful. I drew inspiration from that. I found the whole culture fascinating. Then I decided that the only way to really understand this culture was to plunge into it and do something like the book.
VIK HAVE YOU CONSIDERED WRITING A TEXT-ONLY BOOK?
BYRNE I'm getting there. I'm working on it. It'll be called The New Sins. At first I thought it would be funny, but now it's getting a little depressing...
VIK WHAT ABOUT THE INTERNET? ANY PROJECTS IN THIS AREA?
BYRNE No. It's very difficult right now. Everything on the Internet is failing. Every day the papers say that another 10 million company is bankrupt. It's not a good time to try.
VIK DO YOU LIKE THE WEB'S CURRENT CONTENT?
BYRNE I like being able to use the Internet for research on music, literature, etc. It's perfect for this kind of thing. And, as long as I don't get too many e-mails, I can keep in touch with people. But I don't think it works for watching a film, listening to a radio, reading a book...
VIK DO YOU WATCH TV?
BYRNE Not much. I usually rent videos.
VIK WHEN YOU DO WATCH TV, WHAT DO YOU LIKE?
BYRNE A watch old films, the Simpsons... I don't like news shows. Sometimes I watch a special feature, but never remember them. They're usually on late at night.
VIK DO YOU READ THE PAPER?
BYRNE Yes.
VIK WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?
BYRNE In the paper, I can choose one or two topics I'm interested in an focus on them. On the TV, there are only horrible things happening.
VIK WHAT DO YOU THINK OF CNN?
BYRNE CNN is a futuristic novel come true. It's as if there was a single source of news in the whole world. What sort of media monopoly is this? It doesn't seem scary, but it should, because they monopolize it.
VIK WHAT ABOUT MTV? DO YOU THINK IT IS GOOD FOR CONTEMPORARY MUSIC?
BYRNE I think MTV has nothing to do with music. Not that it has a negative effect on music. But it has nothing to do with it.

VIK BEING INVOLVED WITH MUSIC FROM SO MANY PLACES, DO YOU STILL CONSIDER YOURSELF TO BE AN AMERICAN MUSICIAN?
BYRNE I don't think I share its perspective, but I think I am part of the American culture and economy. What I do is a product of all the music I listen to, from everywhere. To me, it doesn't sound like typical American pop albums.
VIK DO YOU THINK THE WAY YOU COMPOSE AND WRITE SONGS CHANGED IN THE COURSE OF YOUR CAREER?
BYRNE I think so. At first I composed only to see if I could do it, I wasn't very pretentious. After you realize it can be done, you become more aware of the process and it gets more pleasurable. The trick is to be aware of the process and still make it all sound as if it were accidental.
VIK HOW DID TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES CHANGE YOUR WAY OF COMPOSING?
BYRNE Now I use a computer and have a more digital writing style. Recording resources have come a long way. My music sounds better.
VIK YOU RELEASED TWO RECORDS ON THE INTERNET. WHAT'S YOUR OPINION OF NAPSTER, THE CONTROVERSIAL APPLICATION THAT MAKES MUSIC AVAILABLE ON THE WEB?
BYRNE The good side is that, yes, one can listen to lots of songs and read about them. The sad aspect of Napster is that, like the rest of the Internet, it is totally impersonal. It is one thing for somebody to bring me a tape or a CD and say: "I think you'll like this." The person gives you something, there's an exchange, it's close and personal. None of this occurs with Napster, which is simply data exchange. When you trade a tape or something like it with someone, you don't exchange information alone, there's also a relationship. This is something I find a little sad not only with Napster, but with the Internet as a whole: it is a cold exchange.
VIK DO YOU THINK NAPSTER HAD AN EFFECT NOT ONLY ON THE MODE OF EXCHANGE, BUT ALSO ON THE PRODUCTION OF MUSIC ITSELF?
BYRNE The anonymous distribution of music may even work out. But I recall something [German philosopher] Walter Benjamin wrote, that you need and object and its performance. This is what's frustrating about Napster, you can't see what you're exchanging, can't have dramatic contact with the art.
VIK YOU ONCE SAID THAT YOU GRADUALLY OVERCAME THE RACISM THAT SOCIETY HAD INSTILLED IN YOU. DO YOU THINK THIS KIND OF BIAS PREVENTED YOU FROM AN EARLIER INTEREST IN MUSIC FROM OTHER CULTURES?
BYRNE I don't think so. It's possible for someone to like black music and yet be a complete bigot, which is obviously hard to understand. But it happens.

VIK DO YOU HAVE ANY PRECONCEPTIONS?
BYRNE Yes, I do. I believe in all national cliches. I know they're not true, but I believe in them. Germans are precise, Scandinavians are beautiful, but have lots of issues, the English are totally repressed, Russians are always drinking. Up to a point, I believe in all that [laughing].
VIK WHAT ABOUT TODAY'S AMERICAN YOUTH? WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THEM?
BYRNE Well, sometimes I see them on TV and think they're all idiots [laughing]. Complete clowns. They're lost, so the kill each other at school. Just yesterday there was another shooting [this interview took place the day after Charles Andrew Williams went berserk in a school in Santee, California, killing two colleagues and injuring other thirteen]. They have so many issues they become afraid of themselves. But, at the same time, many people I know personally, who are twenty-something years old, are incredibly creative and intelligent.
VIK WHO ARE YOUR BEST FRIENDS?
BYRNE I have a few friends, but I don't think any of them are musicians. When musicians get together, they don't talk about music, but rather about equipment, career and business. "What guitar are you playing," this kind of thing. So I'd rather talk to someone else, people with whom I can talk about feelings, thoughts.
VIK DID YOU EVER WANT TO KILL SOMEBODY?
BYRNE Yes.
VIK CAN YOU SAY WHO?
BYRNE I'd get into trouble. But it's just a feeling. Sometimes I think of killing a politician. Someone who's evil, a criminal, someone I think should be killed. But I don't do it.
VIK DO YOU REGRET EVER HAVING DONE OR NOT HAVING DONE SOMETHING?
BYRNE Probably. But I try to forget it. Maybe this is one of the reasons why I work so hard: so I don't have to think about things like these.
VIK WERE YOU EVER IN THERAPY?
BYRNE I was in therapy for a year, more or less. But I quit.
VIK WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THERAPY?
BYRNE It's fun. It feels good to talk to someone who listens and doesn't go away. It's not like at a party, where people say "I'm going to get a drink." It's fun, but expensive. Another thing is that the goal of therapy is to make you happy, to make you adapt. One can be happy, save for the adaptation part. Then it's like trying to fit a square plug into a round hole and pushing hard. The corners of the square are shaved off until the plug can fit into the hole. But they never ask: "What if we made a square hole?"
VIK DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF TO BE TEMPERAMENTAL? OR IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THINKS MORE LINEAR?
BYRNE It's quite linear. I'm cool, today. I get tense and snappy when I'm under pressure, with a lot of things to do. But that's normal.
VIK WERE YOU EVER DEPRESSED?
BYRNE No. But I'm curious about the drugs they have for depression. I've been told that medications like Prozac have no effect if you're not depressed. But if you take them in a depression, they'll make you very happy.