David Byrne is returning to the charts with his first new solo album in seven years.
The 73-year-old Talking Heads star is releasing Who Is the Sky? – his first solo project since 2018’s American Utopia – in September and it features arrangements by New York chamber ensemble Ghost Train Orchestra as well as contributions from St. Vincent, Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams and the Smile drummer Tom Skinner.
Byrne said in a statement: “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.
“I realized that when singing with Robyn earlier this year. Her songs are often sad, but the music is joyous.”
He went on to add: “At my age, at least for me, there’s a ‘don’t give a shit about what people think’ attitude that kicks in. 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.”
Byrne has released the album’s first single Everybody Laughs and will hit the road for a world tour later this year.
The trek kicks off in North American in September – with the first show in Providence, Rhode Island on September 14 – before heading to Australia and New Zealand in January and then on to the UK and Europe and in February.
The tour is due to conclude in Paris, France on March 19.