David Byrne

Not very long ago, I was asked by my friend Thomas Bartlett if I wanted to do a song for an EP of covers that Anna Calvi was doing. I’m a big fan of Anna’s two records—I caught her tour when it made its way to Bowery Ballroom here in N.Y. in 2011 after her first record came out. “Epic,” I think, is the word that is often used.

I immediately agreed to join in the project and suggested the Keren Ann song “Strange Weather,” which to me already has some of the minor key drama that Anna sometimes gravitates towards. She liked the idea, and we did the song in an afternoon here in N.Y. Anna then suggested I join in on the Connan Mockasin track "I'm the Man, That Will Find You," too.

The recording will be out soon—pre-orders are available. And a video for "Strange Weather" (below), directed by Annie Clark's best friend Alan Del Rio Ortiz, is out now as well. The moody woman in the video is not Anna Calvi by the way.