Who is The Sky? will be available this fall
Talking Heads frontman David Byrne announces Who Is the Sky?, his first new album since 2018’s acclaimed and award-winning American Utopia, which will be released September 5th by Matador Records. The album was produced by the Grammy-winning Kid Harpoon (Harry Styles, Miley Cyrus), while its 12 songs were arranged by the members of New York-based chamber ensemble Ghost Train Orchestra. A limited Cantaloupe Orange/Strawberry Pink split vinyl featuring a lenticular cover is available for pre-order.
Musical friends old and new, including St. Vincent, Paramore’s Hayley Williams, The Smile drummer Tom Skinner and American Utopia percussionist Mauro Refosco, also make appearances on the project, which is led by the infectious single “Everybody Laughs.” Along with the song, Byrne has released its official video, directed by multimedia artist Gabriel Barcia-Colombo.
“Someone I know said, ‘David, you use the word “everybody” a lot.’ I suppose I do that to give an anthropological view of life in New York as we know it,” says Byrne. “Everybody lives, dies, laughs, cries, sleeps and stares at the ceiling. Everybody’s wearing everybody else’s shoes, which not everybody does, but I have done. I tried to sing about these things that could be seen as negative in a way balanced by an uplifting feeling from the groove and the melody, especially at the end, when St. Vincent and I are doing a lot of hollering and singing together. Music can do that – hold opposites simultaneously. I realized that when singing with Robyn earlier this year. Her songs are often sad, but the music is joyous.”
“It took me a second to realize, oh yeah, these songs are personal, but with David’s unique perspective on life in general,” adds Kid Harpoon (aka Tom Hull). “Walking around New York listening to the demo of ‘Everybody Laughs’ was so joyous, because it made me feel like we’re all the same – we all laugh, cry and sing. The thing about David that resonates with a lot of people is that he’s in on the joke. He gets the absurdity of it all, and all of these personal observations are his perspective on it.”
Byrne will also return to the road with a new live show in support of Who Is the Sky? The touring band will comprise 13 musicians, singers and dancers, including members of the American Utopia band, all of whom will be mobile throughout the set. The North American tour begins in September, with Australia and New Zealand dates kicking off in January 2026 and European and United Kingdom dates starting the following month.
Presales are underway ahead of the general sale on Friday, June 13th at 10 am local time.
In 2023, as his triumphant American Utopia era came to a close after morphing from an album and tour into an acclaimed Broadway show and then a Spike Lee-directed HBO film, Byrne began jotting down the occasional groove, chord or melody. It had been a minute.
During the tumultuous three prior years, “I did a LOT of cooking (Mexican and Indian mostly) and a LOT of drawing,” says Byrne, who also started compiling lyric ideas and phrases for possible songs. “I’ve found that when the time comes, it’s easier to start if there’s a little stockpile – and before too long there was. Very rudimentary songs began to emerge, with just me on acoustic guitar singing over a programmed loop or beat.”
And with the world, and the in-progress American Utopia Broadway run, on pause, he, like much of humanity, took the opportunity to ask, “Do I like what I’m doing? Why am I writing songs, or working this job, or whatever? Does any of it matter?”
Byrne’s attempts to answer those weighty questions can be found on Who Is The Sky?, which builds upon the optimistic themes laid out by American Utopia and its supporting tour, and more specifically spelled out by the Grammy-winning Broadway show and subsequent movie. With this offering, Byrne continues his lifelong exploration of human connection and the potential for societal unity against the chaotic backdrop of the world. Who Is the Sky? is particularly cinematic, humorous and joyful, but often with a lesson baked in – that love is unexplainable, that enlightenment means very different things to different people and that it’s always a good idea to moisturize, whether you wake up the next morning with skin like a baby or not. Most importantly, the songs evince Byrne’s gift for riding the razor’s edge of avant-garde and accessible pop.
Byrne was inspired to enlist Ghost Train Orchestra for the album after hearing their 2023 tribute album to the blind New York composer and street poet Moondog, and later that year jumped on stage with the group during a Brooklyn performance. Enticed by the 15-member Ghost Train’s varied instrumental lineup – which includes drums, percussion, guitar and bass along with strings, winds and brass – he thought to himself, “what if that’s what these new songs of mine sounded like?” Byrne asked if they’d want to serve as his band for the Who Is The Sky? sessions, and they quickly agreed.
“David sent me some demos and asked us to put together some orchestral ideas,” says Ghost Train Orchestra leader Brian Carpenter. “Curtis Hasselbring and I quickly wrote a couple rough draft arrangements of his songs for Ghost Train, including ‘My Apartment Is My Friend,’ which was the first song we rehearsed at our tiny rehearsal space in Chinatown. To hear him singing with us for the first time on that song was just incredible.”
Via an introduction at a party by a friend, Kid Harpoon came into the picture next. “Sometimes things do happen at parties,” Byrne notes. “I knew this could all get complicated and I also wanted to be sure the recordings sounded as good as possible. An outside set of ears can be super helpful. A few artists I knew had worked with Kid Harpoon, and I thought those records sounded really good.” Byrne sent Harpoon some demos, and after a discussion at the former’s Santa Monica hotel, he jumped aboard too.
There are “more story songs than usual” on Who Is the Sky?, according to Byrne. These “mini-narratives based on personal experience” include “She Explains Things to Me” (sample lyric: “how come it’s all so obvious to her?”), “A Door Called No” (which magically opens after Byrne receives a kiss), “My Apartment Is My Friend” (“you’ve seen me at my very worst / but we always get along,” he sings) and “I Met the Buddha at a Downtown Party” (at which the onetime spiritual guru is more interested in the unhealthy deserts than deification).
Marked by the inviting vocal interplay between Byrne and Paramore’s Williams, the jaunty “What Is the Reason for It?” aims to codify love in a way logic can rarely accomplish (“does it do something useful? / nobody understands it”), while “The Avant Garde” wrestles with the merits of art for art’s sake (“it’s ahead of the curve / it’s deceptively weighty, profound, absurd / it’s whatever fits” – a meta observation if ever there was one from one of the most iconoclastic artists to emerge from the New York rock underground.
“I suspected that intimate orchestral arrangements would bring out the emotion I sense is there in these songs,” says Byrne. “It’s something that folks don’t always hear in my work, but this time for sure I thought it was there. At the same time, I also see myself as someone who aspires to be accessible. I imagined that Kid Harpoon would help with that, as well as being a set of trusted ears, since there was a lot going on. People think of producers as people who mainly make a record sound good, and Kid Harpoon did that, but he was also aware of how important the storytelling is.”
An admitted “stickler when it comes to grooves,” Byrne welcomed late-in-the-game contributions from Skinner and Refosco, with whom he’s recorded and toured for more than 30 years. Mixed by Mark “Spike” Stent and mastered by Emily Lazar, the finished product is about both hiding and revealing, or as Byrne puts it, “a chance to be the mythical creature we all harbor inside. A chance to step into another reality. A chance to transcend and escape from the prison of our ‘selves.’” These concepts are heavily incorporated in the Who Is The Sky? album package, which was designed by Shira Inbar and finds Byrne nearly obscured by radiating, colored patterns and psychedelic, spiky outfits designed by Belgian artist Tom Van Der Borght.
“At my age, at least for me, there’s a ‘don’t give a shit about what people think’ attitude that kicks in,” Byrne says. “I can step outside my comfort zone with the knowledge that I kind of know who I am by now and sort of know what I’m doing. That said, every new set of songs, every song even, is a new adventure. There’s always a bit of, ‘how do I work this?’ I’ve found that not every collaboration works, but often when they do, it’s because I’m able to clearly impart what it is I’m trying to do. They hopefully get that, and as a result, we’re now joined together heading to the same unknown place.”
- Everybody Laughs
- When We Are Singing
- My Apartment Is My Friend
- A Door Called No
- What Is the Reason for It?
- I Met the Buddha at a Downtown Party
- Don’t Be Like That
- The Avant Garde
- Moisturizing Thing
- I’m an Outsider
- She Explains Things to Me
- The Truth
David Byrne 2025-2026 Global Tour Dates:
Sept 14, 2025 – Providence, RI @ Veterans Memorial Auditorium
Sept 16, 2025 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Benedum Center PAC
Sept 17, 2025 – Columbus, OH @ Mershon Auditorium
Sept 19, 2025 – Akron, OH @ Akron Civic Theatre
Sept 21, 2025 – Schenectady, NY @ Proctors
Sept 23, 2025 – Syracuse, NY @ Landmark Theatre
Sept 25, 2025 – Buffalo, NY @ Shea’s Buffalo Theatre
Sept 27, 2025 – Washington D.C. @ The Anthem
Sept 28, 2025 – Washington D.C. @ The Anthem
Sept 30, 2025 – New York, NY @ Radio City Music Hall
Oct 1, 2025 – New York, NY @ Radio City Music Hall
Oct 3, 2025 – Boston, MA @ Boch Center Wang Theatre
Oct 4, 2025 – Boston, MA @ Boch Center Wang Theatre
Oct 7, 2025 – Wallingford, CT @ Toyota Oakdale Theatre
Oct 8, 2025 – Portland, ME @ Merrill Auditorium at City Hall
Oct 10, 2025 – New York, NY @ Radio City Music Hall
Oct 14, 2025 – Richmond, VA @ Altria Theater
Oct 16, 2025 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Met Philadelphia presented by Highmark
Oct 17, 2025 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Met Philadelphia presented by Highmark
Oct 21, 2025 – Toronto, ON, Canada @ Massey Hall
Oct 22, 2025 – Toronto, ON, Canada @ Massey Hall
Oct 25, 2025 – Detroit, MI @ Fox Theatre
Oct 28, 2025 – Chicago, IL @ The Auditorium
Oct 29, 2025 – Chicago, IL @ The Auditorium
Oct 31, 2025 – Chicago, IL @ The Auditorium
Nov 3, 2025 – Minneapolis, MN @ Orpheum Theatre
Nov 4, 2025 – Minneapolis, MN @ Orpheum Theatre
Nov 6, 2025 – Denver, CO @ Bellco Theatre
Nov 7, 2025 – Denver, CO @ Bellco Theatre
Nov 11, 2025 – Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre
Nov 12, 2025 – Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre
Nov 16, 2025 – San Francisco, CA @ The Theater at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
Nov 17, 2025 – San Francisco, CA @ The Theater at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
Nov 20, 2025 – Los Angeles, CA @ Dolby Theatre
Nov 21, 2025 – Los Angeles, CA @ Dolby Theatre
Nov 25, 2025 – Austin, TX @ Bass Concert Hall
Nov 26, 2025 – Austin, TX @ Bass Concert Hall
Nov 28, 2025 – Dallas, TX @ Music Hall at Fair Park
Nov 29, 2025 – Dallas, TX @ Music Hall at Fair Park
Dec 2, 2025 – Atlanta, GA @ Fox Theatre
Dec 3, 2025 – Atlanta, GA @ Fox Theatre
Dec 5, 2025 – Miami, FL @ Fillmore Miami Beach At Jackie Gleason Theatre
Dec 6, 2025 – Miami, FL @ Fillmore Miami Beach At Jackie Gleason Theatre
Jan 14, 2026 – Auckland, New Zealand @ Spark Arena
Jan 17, 2026 – Brisbane, Australia @ Brisbane Entertainment Center
Jan 21, 2026 – Sydney, Australia @ ICC Sydney Theatre
Jan 22, 2026 – Melbourne, Australia @ Sidney Myer Music Bowl
Jan 24, 2026 – Adelaide, Australia @ Adelaide Entertainment Centre Arena
Jan 27, 2026 – Perth, Australia @ RAC Arena
Feb 12, 2026 – Berlin, Germany @ Tempodrom
Feb 15, 2026 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ AFAS Live
Feb 16, 2026 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ AFAS Live
Feb 18, 2026 – Brussels, Belgium @ Forest National
Feb 21, 2026 – Milan, Italy @ Teatro degli Arcimboldi
Feb 22, 2026 – Milan, Italy @ Teatro degli Arcimboldi
Feb 24, 2026 – Frankfurt, Germany @ Jahrhunderthalle
Feb 27, 2026 – Zurich, Switzerland @ The Hall
Mar 2, 2026 – Cardiff, UK @ Utilita Arena
Mar 3, 2026 – London, UK @ Eventim Apollo
Mar 4, 2026 – London, UK @ Eventim Apollo
Mar 6, 2026 – Glasgow, UK @ SEC Armadillo
Mar 7, 2026 – Glasgow, UK @ SEC Armadillo
Mar 9 ,2026 – Manchester, UK @o2 Apollo
Mar 10 ,2026 – Manchester, UK @ o2 Apollo
Mar 13, 2026 – Dublin, Ireland @ 3Arena
Mar 15, 2026 – London, UK @Eventim Apollo
Mar 18, 2026 – Paris, France @ La Seine Musicale
Mar 19, 2026 – Paris, France @ La Seine Musicale
