Lorenzo Montatore (Madrid, 1983) is a complete author who as soon as he dares to write a biography sui generis by Francisco Umbral, The lie to come (Astiberri, 2021), immerses himself in the world of addictions with There is a breakdown here (ECC, 2023) or is encouraged by children’s comics with Blanca Lacasa in the recent I have a fear! (Kodomo, 2024). In his latest work, his line cartoon He sets off to discover the world of one of the groups of his life: Talking Heads.
The unclassifiable project by David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison, halfway between new wave and post punk, became a cult band of the 80s, which Montatore approaches from a personal connection with subjects such as Burn down the house either This must be the perfect place In If you dance, you will understand the lyrics bettera work that goes well beyond the usual biography. “I wasn’t interested in doing a typical biography,” explains Montatore in conversation with this media. What I do is create comics and I have to come up with my own vision. Plus, there’s already plenty of material out there for anyone who wants to know all things Talking Heads, like Chris Frantz’s memoir, chronic love (Kultrum Books, 2021).”
For the Madrid cartoonist, his story with the group began many years ago, in a very curious way: “I discovered them, without knowing that they were Talking Heads, in the film Revenge of the rookies (1984). There is a party scene in a brotherhood, in which we hear Burn the house. “It seemed like a great song to me.” Shortly after, as Montatore recounts in the comic strip, a teacher at his high school recorded several cassettes for him with music from the Velvet Underground, Brian Eno and David Bowie. “It was my gateway to all the music that has been so important to me,” he says. “Among these cassettes, he recorded one of the Talking Heads for me. Since then, I have had a connection with this group; When they ask me, I always say it’s my favorite band.
But for the designer, it is not a question of simple nostalgia. “I love their songs, I have played and danced to them countless times. But it’s also really good music,” Montatore says. The author keeps two of his albums: “in Stay in the Light (1980), you can see the hand of Brian Eno, it is considered his best work, and it is the most experimental, with samples, sounds of all kinds, with very complex sound engineering behind. Speaking in tongues (1984) is very different: they take the idea of the perfect pop song and push it to the extreme. It’s pop more than perfect“.
The title of the comic If you dance, you will understand the lyrics betterAccording to Lorenzo Montarore, this is an adaptation of something Byrne said at a concert, but it also has to do with something he heard from Red Hot Chilli singer Anthony Kiedis. Peppers, someone who, the author admits, does not like him. I don’t like it much, but that’s what he says defines the band: “The first time I heard Talking Heads, I wanted to dance like crazy and at the same time I felt intelligent .”
Even though nearly fifty years have passed since Talking Heads formed, they still seem to be a staple band. “They’re a little more fashionable now because of the anniversary of the documentary Stop making sense (1984) – known as Montarore –. Since last year, they’ve been giving interviews, we’ve seen the four of them together again… But it’s true that they’re not the Beatles, that’s clear.” Inclusion of your theme Psycho killer on the soundtrack of Stranger Things This also gave them great momentum among younger generations.
However, the artist of Be careful, you will be murdered! (La Cúpula, 2018) believes that they have “a snobbish, but fun touch. If you like Talking Heads, you’re a cool person.” The Madrid author also defends that it is a group that has aged very well and has been widely imitated, while claiming its diversity: “they had an African-American guitarist, Alex Weir, and some African-American backing vocalists who are not in the background, but in the front line, with a leading role. Without forgetting Tina Weymouth, the bassist, without whom. the sound of the Talking Heads cannot be understood.”
Sampled designs
Anyone familiar with Lorenzo Montatore’s earlier works may be surprised by the aesthetic of If you dance, you will understand the lyrics betterwhere he shows a broken line and practices different experiments with photographs and photocopies. “It was something more fanzine-like,” he admits. “I always try to adapt the drawing to what I’m telling, because it’s the same thing. In this comic, this seemed doubly important to me, given that it contains no text. And I wanted it to have the same spirit as the group.
Montatore specifies: “What must coexist cartoon with something more figurative, more realistic, but at the same time all these ideas come to me. The book is full of photos of real places in my neighborhood, objects in my house, scanned pages of encyclopedias or things that reference Talking Heads. I think it lends itself a lot to reading with a magnifying glass”, explains the author, who, in a certain way, wanted to reproduce “this sound production, this geometry” in his comic strip, with the introduction of photocopied images, which emulate, in a way, the group’s samples. “Despite all this, the 130 pages of this comic cost me much more work than the almost 300 pages of this comic. There is a breakdown heremy previous comic strip. It was a complicated job, even if it seems very loose and indifferent to the finish,” admits Montatore.
This comic also represents the author’s first foray into directly autobiographical territory, drawing on different moments in his life. “It was something natural because I don’t hide anything… – Montatore warns – even if I call my characters differently, everyone knows that what I tell has to do with me. Román Tesoro or Centramina, that was me. The designer explains that his decision was also influenced by the good reception of the self-portraits and the short comic strips that he posted online on his social networks: “For me, it is a field of experimentation, which allows me to see if things work and if people like them. , like a comedian who goes to one. open mic to try a new text.
His decision also responds to the structure of the comic strip, which presents three different lines: the biographical with Talking Heads, the fiction and the autobiographical. “In the fiction part, there was already a character cartoonso it would have been confusing to introduce another one in the more personal parts,” explains Montatore. And the truth is that he seems to have felt at ease, because his next work, on which he is starting to work, will be openly autobiographical, “although with all the lies and fantasies that one can imagine” , he specifies.
In the meantime we can enjoy If you dance, you will understand the lyrics betterone of the most playful and dynamic works of an author in a state of grace, already a reference in Spanish comics.
