David Byrne has announced a new album (his first since American Utopia in 2018) and an arena tour with UK and Ireland dates. Tickets for the shows go on sale at 10am on Friday 13 June. Scroll to the bottom of this article for a detailed list of the band’s UK and Ireland performances. 

Titled Who Is The Sky?, Byrne's trademark buoyant art rock will feature appearances from St Vincent, Paramore’s Hayley Williams, The Smile drummer Tom Skinner, and American Utopia percussionist Mauro Refosco, with production duties by the Grammy-winning Kid Harpoon and Ghost Train Orchestra. It'll be released on Friday 5 September via Matador Records. 

Leading the album is new 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,’ said 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.’

Listen to the single below. 

Who Is the Sky? track list:

1 ‘Everybody Laughs’
2 ‘When We Are Singing’
3 ‘My Apartment Is My Friend’
4 ‘A Door Called No’
5 ‘What Is the Reason for It?’
6 ‘I Met the Buddha at a Downtown Party’
7 ‘Don't Be Like That’
8 ‘The Avant Garde’
9 ‘Moisturizing Thing’
10 ‘I'm an Outsider’
11 ‘She Explains Things to Me’
12 ‘The Truth’

David Byrne’s 2026 UK and Ireland tour dates: 

Utilita Arena, Cardiff, Monday 2 March 
Eventim Apollo, London, Tuesday 3 March 
Eventim Apollo, London, Wednesday 4 March 
SEC Armadillo, Glasgow, Friday 6 March 
SEC Armadillo, Glasgow, Saturday 7 March 
O2 Apollo, Manchester, Monday 9 March 
O2 Apollo, Manchester, Tuesday 10 March 
3Arena, Dublin, Friday 13 March 
Eventim Apollo, London, Sunday 15 March 

Tickets for David Byrne’s Who Is The Sky? tour go on sale at 10am on Friday 13 June; main picture: Shervin Lainez.