Who is Mala Gaonkar? All we know as David Byrne opens up about marrying partner 'this week'

Musician and filmmaker David Byrne and businesswoman Mala Gaonkar have been together since 2016. However, Byrne recently said that he is ready to tie the knot and would do it by this week. On September 1, he shared an Instagram story, writing:

“I'm getting married this week and made an almost entirely instrumental playlist while our guests eat an amazing and spicy dinner. My sense is that words & lyrics can be distracting - the ear goes to them, especially if it's a song one knows.”

David Byrne went on:

“So, I opted for buoyant instrumentals that will create a hopeful and joyous atmosphere... and that folks can also ignore at the same time.”

Mala Gaonkar presently serves as the chairman of SurgoCap Partners, a company she established in 2022. She also worked as the Managing Director of Lone Pine Capital LLC for nearly 25 years. According to SurgoCap Partners’ official website, she is an alumna of Harvard Business School.

David Byrne previously called Gaonkar his fiancée while speaking to The Sunday Times. The piece mentioned Byrne’s song, Moisturizing Thing. Speaking about the song, he said:

“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?’ 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.”

David Byrne once tried a moisturizer and had an allergic reaction

During an interview with Stereogum released on August 28, David Byrne was asked what he thought when he wrote Moisturizing Thing. He said there was no specific product in mind, but his fiancée reminded her to apply moisturizer. He would then ask her if that was necessary, saying:

“Does this stuff really work? Does it do anything? And then I imagine to myself, ‘What if it really does work?’ And I wake up looking younger. ‘What if I woke up looking a lot younger?’ Now, the song I wake up and I look like I'm three years old. That's a little bit not plausible, but it makes for a funnier story.”

The singer said he once visited a dermatologist who told him that he had an allergic reaction to one of the moisturizers he was using. When asked which moisturizers he used, David Byrne said he usually just picked any and put them on.

He said that about a month earlier, he had bought an expensive one, thinking it might work better, but he was still waiting to see if it helped or if it was what made his skin feel irritated. When asked if he revisited songs, Byrne said:

“I've pulled out some old lyrics that I've written years ago and looked at them and go, ‘Oh, that's pretty good.’ And I would never write anything like that right now. So, let's see if I can pretend to be that person for a minute.”

David Byrne revealed that one of the early demos Talking Heads made, called Sugar on My Tongue, was never properly recorded. He explained that it was like a bubblegum song: simple, sweet, but filled with hidden meanings.

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