David Byrne breaks silence with new album

David Byrne has announced his forthcoming new album, Who Is the Sky?, along with an accompanying world tour.

The 73-year-old American musician and writer’s new album, Who Is the Sky?, will be out on September 6 on Matador Records.

It will mark his first release since 2018’s American Utopia, which was produced by Grammy winner Kid Harpoon, Harry Styles, and Miley Cyrus. While the members of New York-based chamber ensemble Ghost Train Orchestra arranged its 12 hit songs.

Hayley Williams from Paramore, Tom Skinner from the Smile (drummer), and St. Vincent also play on the upcoming album. The first song on Who Is the Sky? is Everybody Laughs, which has been released along with its official video, made by multimedia artist Gabriel Barcia-Colombo.

Byrne said, “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.”

He added, “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,” the Strange Overtones crooner noted.

It is pertinent to mention that Byrne will tour with a 13-person band, including dancers, singers, and American Utopia members.

The tour that will start in North America this September will have shows in Australia and New Zealand in January 2026 and Europe and the United Kingdom afterwards; however, tickets will go on sale from June 13.