Inside the bottom floor of the New York City loft they once shared in the mid-1970s, at 195 Chrystie Street in the Lower East Side, the Talking Heads gave fans a premiere look at the band’s first-ever music video for their iconic song “Psycho Killer.” The screening took place the night before its official premiere on June 5, which also marks the day the band first performed together 50 years earlier.
Directed by Mike Mills, who has worked on music videos for Yoko Ono, Moby, Air, and more, the video commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Talking Heads’ debut performance at CBGB on June 5, 1975, when the band’s David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, and Jerry Harrison opened for the Ramones.
The music video stars Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird, Little Women), who begins to fall apart during her day-to-day routine, moving from different scenes—the bedroom, kitchen, backyard, office, and car—and visibly transforming into another person each day. From sunup to sunset, her character unravels through one frenzied Groundhog Day-like scenario to another.
“This video makes the song better,” said the Talking Heads in a joint statement. “We love what this video is not. It’s not literal, creepy, bloody, physically violent, or obvious.”
Released on the Talking Heads’ 1977 debut Talking Heads: 77, and written by Byrne, Frantz, and Weymouth, “Psycho Killer” quickly became the band’s signature song. Byrne and Frantz first started playing a version of the song as the Artistics while both were attending the Rhode Island School of Design in the early ’70s.
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Released December 1977, “Psycho Killer” was also the band’s first charting single on the Billboard Hot 100, at No. 92, with its French lines—Qu’est-ce que c’est and Ce que j’ai fait, ce soir la / Ce qu’elle a dit, ce soir la / Realisant mon espoir / Je me lance, vers la gloire, added on with the help of Weymouth.
“I told David [Byrne] that Tina’s mother is French and that they always spoke French in the home,” recalled Frantz in 2021 of how the song later developed. “Tina agreed to do it and just sat down and did it in a little over an hour. I wrote a couple of more verses, and within a few hours, ‘Psycho Killer’ was more or less done.”
Talking Heads: 77 was also a life-changing album for the filmmaker. “This album literally changed what was possible in life for me,” said Mills in a statement. “So to get to play with the subversive, uncategorizable beauty of Talking Heads, and to play with Saoirse who brought so much surprise, power, vulnerability and mischief to the party, it’s one of the best things I ever got to be a part of – still can’t believe it actually happened.”
Ronan said she’s still shocked that she is now part of a little piece of Talking Heads history. “To simply be mentioned in the same breath as Talking Heads is hands down one of the coolest things that has ever happened to me, let alone making a video with the singular Mike Mills to accompany one of their most iconic songs, ‘Psycho Killer,’” said Ronan. “I have grown up listening to their music, so this truly is a childhood/teenage/lifelong dream come true. Mike, myself and the rest of the creative team had so much fun making this, and I can’t wait for Talking Heads fans to see it.”
Photo: Talking Heads (l to r) Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, David Byrne, and Jerry Harrison on September 13, 2023, in Brooklyn, New York (Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for BAM)
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