David Byrne has shared an instrumental playlist ahead of his nuptials later on this week – check it out below.
- READ MORE: David Byrne: “I have a little bit of hope. Not every day, but some days”
On Monday (September 1), the former Talking Heads frontman revealed he’ll be tying the knot later this week, which comes only shortly after he announced his engagement to financier Mala Gaonkar.
Taking to Instagram stories, he shared a 42-track playlist of instrumental numbers that will play at his wedding dinner. “I’m getting married this week and made an almost entirely instrumental playlist while our guests eat an amazing and spicy dinner,” Byrne told fans, sharing a link to an Apple Music playlist which you can check out here.
“My sense is that words and lyrics can be distracting – the ear goes to them, especially if it’s a song one knows. So, I opted for buoyant instrumentals that will create a hopeful and joyous atmosphere… and that folks can also ignore at the same time.”
Taylor Swift: engaged
David Byrne: hold my bike pic.twitter.com/rIh1PDFFJI
— bulbous salutation (@freydator13) September 1, 2025
The playlist has a focus on Latin music, featuring tracks by artists including the Mexican Institute of Sound, Son Rompe Pera, El Alfa, Café Tacvba and the Meridian Brothers. Also appearing on the wedding playlist are tracks by Herbie Hancock, an instrumental version of Post Malone’s ‘Wow’ and Brian Eno’s ‘An Ending (Ascent)’.
Byrne revealed that he was engaged to Baonkar in an interview with The Times while discussing the song ‘Moisturizing Things’ from his forthcoming album. “My fiancée will sometimes come at me with greasy hands, ready to smear my face.
“And at one point I thought, ‘What if I wake up and really looked younger?’” he said at the time. “But there’s a message, too. About how people judge us by the way we look. You learn a lesson you didn’t expect at the start.”
Elsewhere in the interview, he once again dismissed the idea of a full-blown Talking Heads reunion, saying that the task would be “a fool’s errand”.
He is, however, gearing up to release his first new solo album in seven years, ‘Who Is The Sky?’. It is set to arrive on Friday (September 5) via Matador Records, and available for pre-order here.
To celebrate the release, Byrne will embark on a worldwide tour, kicking off dates in the US in September, before calling at the UK in March 2026. Any remaining US tickets can be purchased here, and UK tickets here.
He has also teamed up with Hayley Williams lately for a new song, which has been written for the latest adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Twits.
