David Byrne Announces First Solo Album in 7 Years
The LP is due out September 5 via Matador. Listen to "Everybody Laughs" below.
Photo by Shervin Lainez
On September 5, David Byrne will release Who Is the Sky?, his first album of solo material since 2018’s American Utopia, via Matador Records. He recorded the album with Grammy-winning producer Kid Harpoon, and the songs are set to feature the Ghost Train Orchestra, Hayley Williams, the Smile’s Tom Skinner, and St. Vincent’s Annie Clark. The news comes with lead single “Everybody Laughs.” “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 said in a press release. “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.”
Kid Harpoon added, “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.”
Last summer, a year after the American Utopia Broadway adaptation concluded, Byrne was a part of our special Cover Story feature with Talking Heads and the 40th anniversary of Stop Making Sense. Watch the music video for “Everybody Laughs” and check out the Who Is the Sky? album artwork and tracklist below.
Who Is the Sky? Artwork:
