Update your settings

 

Musical friends old and new, including St. Vincent, Paramore’s Hayley Williams, The Smile drummer Tom Skinner and American Utopia percussionist Mauro Refosco, also make appearances on Who Is the Sky?, which is led by the single "Everybody Laughs.” Along with the song, Byrne has released its official video, directed by multimedia artist Gabriel Barcia-Colombo.

 

“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,” says Byrne. “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.”

 

“It took me a second to realize, oh yeah, these songs are personal, but with David’s unique perspective on life in general,” adds Kid Harpoon (aka Tom Hull). “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.”

 

Byrne will also return to the road with a brand new live show in support of Who Is the Sky?. The touring band will comprise 13 musicians, singers and dancers, including members of the American Utopia band, all of whom will be mobile throughout the set.

 

The North American tour begins in September, with Australia & New Zealand dates kicking off in January 2026 and European & United Kingdom dates starting the following month. Tickets go on sale Friday, June 13 and can be purchased HERE. Fans can sign up for the artist presale now through June 12 at 10 p.m. local HERE. The artist presale will begin Tuesday, June 10 at 10 a.m. ET through Thursday, June 12 at 10 p.m. local. See the full tour itinerary below.

 

In 2023, as his triumphant American Utopia era came to a close after morphing from an album and tour into an acclaimed Broadway show and then a Spike Lee-directed HBO film, Byrne began jotting down the occasional groove, chord or melody. It had been a minute.

 

During the tumultuous three prior years, “I did a LOT of cooking (Mexican and Indian mostly) and a LOT of drawing,” says Byrne, who also started compiling lyric ideas and phrases for possible songs. “I’ve found that when the time comes, it’s easier to start if there’s a little stockpile – and before too long there was. Very rudimentary songs began to emerge, with just me on acoustic guitar singing over a programmed loop or beat.”

 

And with the world, and the in-progress American Utopia Broadway run, on pause, he, like much of humanity, took the opportunity to ask, “Do I like what I'm doing? Why am I writing songs, or working this job, or whatever? Does any of it matter?"

 

Byrne’s attempts to answer those weighty questions can be found on Who Is The Sky?, which builds upon the optimistic themes laid out by American Utopia and its supporting tour, and more specifically spelled out by the Grammy-winning Broadway show and subsequent movie. 

 

Byrne was inspired to enlist Ghost Train Orchestra for the album after hearing their 2023 tribute album to the blind New York composer and street poet Moondog, and later that year jumped on stage with the group during a Brooklyn performance. Enticed by the 15-member Ghost Train’s varied instrumental lineup – which includes drums, percussion, guitar and bass along with strings, winds and brass – he thought to himself, “what if that’s what these new songs of mine sounded like?” Byrne asked if they’d want to serve as his band for the Who Is The Sky? sessions, and they quickly agreed.

 

“David sent me some demos and asked us to put together some orchestral ideas,” says Ghost Train Orchestra leader Brian Carpenter. “Curtis Hasselbring and I quickly wrote a couple rough draft arrangements of his songs for Ghost Train, including ‘My Apartment Is My Friend,’ which was the first song we rehearsed at our tiny rehearsal space in Chinatown. To hear him singing with us for the first time on that song was just incredible.”

 

Via an introduction at a party by a friend, Kid Harpoon came into the picture next. “Sometimes things do happen at parties,” Byrne notes. “I knew this could all get complicated and I also wanted to be sure the recordings sounded as good as possible. An outside set of ears can be super helpful. A few artists I knew had worked with Kid Harpoon, and I thought those records sounded really good.” Byrne sent Harpoon some demos, and after a discussion at the former’s Santa Monica hotel, he jumped aboard too.

 

There are “more story songs than usual” on Who Is the Sky?, according to Byrne. These “mini-narratives are based on personal experience.”

 

Added Byrne:

 

“I suspected that intimate orchestral arrangements would bring out the emotion I sense is there in these songs,” says Byrne. “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.”

 

An admitted “stickler when it comes to grooves,” Byrne welcomed late-in-the-game contributions from Skinner and Refosco, with whom he’s recorded and toured for more than 30 years. Mixed by Mark “Spike” Stent and mastered by Emily Lazar, the finished product is about both hiding and revealing, or as Byrne puts it, “a chance to be the mythical creature we all harbor inside. A chance to step into another reality. A chance to transcend and escape from the prison of our ‘selves.’” These concepts are heavily incorporated in the Who Is The Sky? album package, which was designed by Shira Inbar and finds Byrne nearly obscured by radiating, colored patterns and psychedelic, spiky outfits designed by Belgian artist Tom Van Der Borght.

 

“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.”

 

Track list:

 

Everybody Laughs

When We Are Singing
My Apartment Is My Friend
A Door Called No
What Is the Reason for It?
I Met the Buddha at a Downtown Party
Don't Be Like That
The Avant Garde
Moisturizing Thing
I'm an Outsider
She Explains Things to Me
The Truth

 

North American tour dates:

 

09/14/2025 - Providence, RI - Veterans Memorial Auditorium
09/16/2025 - Pittsburgh, PA - Benedum Center PAC
09/17/2025 - Columbus, OH - Mershon Auditorium
09/19/2025 - Akron, OH - Akron Civic Theatre
09/21/2025 - Schenectady, NY - Proctors
09/23/2025 - Syracuse, NY - Landmark Theatre
09/25/2025 - Buffalo, NY - Shea’s Buffalo Theatre
09/27/2025 - Washington D.C. - The Anthem
09/28/2025 - Washington D.C. - The Anthem
09/30/2025 - New York, NY - Radio City Music Hall
10/01/2025 - New York, NY - Radio City Music Hall
10/03/2025 - Boston, MA - Boch Center Wang Theatre
10/04/2025 - Boston, MA - Boch Center Wang Theatre
10/07/2025 - Wallingford, CT - Toyota Oakdale Theatre
10/08/2025 - Portland, ME - Merrill Auditorium at City Hall
10/10/2025 - New York, NY - Radio City Music Hall
10/14/2025 - Richmond, VA - Altria Theater
10/16/2025 - Philadelphia, PA - The Met Philadelphia presented by Highmark
10/17/2025 - Philadelphia, PA - The Met Philadelphia presented by Highmark
10/21/2025 - Toronto, ON, Canada - Massey Hall
10/22/2025 - Toronto, ON, Canada - Massey Hall
10/25/2025 - Detroit, MI - Fox Theatre
10/28/2025 - Chicago, IL - The Auditorium
10/29/2025 - Chicago, IL - The Auditorium
10/31/2025 - Chicago, IL - The Auditorium
11/03/2025 - Minneapolis, MN - Orpheum Theatre
11/04/2025 - Minneapolis, MN - Orpheum Theatre
11/06/2025 - Denver, CO - Bellco Theatre
11/07/2025 - Denver, CO - Bellco Theatre
11/11/2025 - Seattle, WA - Paramount Theatre
11/12/2025 - Seattle, WA - Paramount Theatre
11/16/2025 - San Francisco, CA - The Theater at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
11/17/2025 - San Francisco, CA - The Theater at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
11/20/2025 - Los Angeles, CA - Dolby Theatre
11/21/2025 - Los Angeles, CA - Dolby Theatre
11/25/2025 - Austin, TX - Bass Concert Hall
11/26/2025 - Austin, TX - Bass Concert Hall
11/28/2025 - Dallas, TX - Music Hall at Fair Park
11/29/2025 - Dallas, TX - Music Hall at Fair Park
12/02/2025 - Atlanta, GA - Fox Theatre
12/03/2025 - Atlanta, GA - Fox Theatre
12/05/2025 - Miami, FL - Fillmore Miami Beach At Jackie Gleason Theatre
12/06/2025 - Miami, FL - Fillmore Miami Beach At Jackie Gleason Theatre