David Byrne has shared details of a new album, titled Who Is The Sky?
Spanning 12 tracks, the record was produced by Kid Harpoon and arranged by the members of New York-based chamber ensemble Ghost Train Orchestra. St. Vincent, Paramore’s Hayley Williams and Sons Of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner also appear on the LP, which is Byrne’s first since 2018’s American Utopia.t
In a statement, the former Talking Heads frontman 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. 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.”
Byrne will back the release of Who Is The Sky? with an extensive tour beginning in North America this September and continuing on to Europe, Australia and New Zealand in 2016. The shows will see him backed by musicians, as well as singers and dancers. Find the full list of gigs here.
To mark the announcement of the new album, Byrne has shared a video for lead single ‘Everybody Laughs’, which opens the record. You can watch the visual below.
Matador will release Who Is The Sky? on September 5, 2025.
