Who Is The Sky?

David Byrne has announced the release of his 1st album in 4 years, "Who Is The Sky?", due on September 5th, 2025, via Matador Records. The impending studio effort builds on the musical foundation Byrne laid via his 2018 critically acclaimed "American Utopia". As an initial preview of his latest creative endeavor, Byrne has shared the 1st single and official music video for “Everybody Laughs”.

The announcement follows a prolific spurt for Byrne, who joined pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo on stage during her headlining Governors Ball set on Saturday, June 7th, to perform the Talking Heads’ classic, “Burning Down The House”. Prior to appearing on the festival stage, Byrne and his former bandmates marked the 50th anniversary of their 1st live performance, opening for the Ramones at New York’s CBGB in 1975, by releasing an official music video for “Psycho Killer”, featuring Irish actress Saoirse Ronan.

The 12 piece collection of new material finds Byrne continuing his collaborative efforts on select tracks, tapping friends like St Vincent, Hayley Williams (Paramore), Tom Skinner (The Smile), and Mauro Refosco, "American Utopia" percussionist. “Everybody’s Laughing” represents the initial album preview, a catchy, easy listen with connective tissue that applies to listeners of all ages and backgrounds, with added help from Vincent. In his own words, he says, “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”.

Byrne continues, “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 album’s producer, Kid Harpoon, also known as Tom Hull, commented on the set’s totality, “It took me a second to realize, oh yeah, these songs are personal, but with David’s unique perspective on life in general”.

“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”, Hull reflects.

In support of the set, which was arranged by the members of the New York based chamber ensemble Ghost Train Orchestra, Byrne and 13 musicians, singers, and dancers, including participants in the "American Utopia" band, will hit the road beginning this fall for an extensive series of North American tour dates. This will precede the tour’s New Zealand and Australia leg in early 2026 and European dates slated for next spring.

"Who Is The Sky?" maintains Byrne’s distinct brand of art pop focused songs, with space for play and child like wonder. At 73 years old, the artist remains cognizant of the environment and feelings he aims to elicit, while emoting a scarce offering of deep feeling. He says, “I suspected that intimate orchestral arrangements would bring out the emotion I sense is there in these songs. 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”.

“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”.