David Byrne has shared ‘The Avant Garde’, the third “edgy and untraditional” single from his forthcoming album ‘Who Is The Sky?’ – check it out below.
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The Talking Heads frontman will release his latest album on September 5 via Matador Records, marking his first new solo music since 2018’s ‘American Utopia’. You can pre-order/pre-save the record here.
The newest single follows previous previews of the LP, ‘She Explains Things To Me’ and ‘Everybody Laughs’, and sees Byrne contemplate the worth of art for art’s sake: “It’s ahead of the curve / it’s deceptively weighty, profound, absurd / it’s whatever fits”.
Speaking about his latest single, Byrne said some people would hear it and assume he was “calling bullshit” on his more eccentric peers. “But,” he reasoned, “it’s more nuanced than that.
“Anyone who knows me knows that I go to plenty of shows that might be classified as avant-garde or experimental. Edgy and untraditional work is hugely inspiring to me, as it often changes the way I think and influences what I do (without me simply appropriating the ideas, I hope).”
Touching on the creative bargain that comes with being more experiential, the ‘Burning Down The House‘ singer added that trying something unproven and “radically new” was risky.
“There’s no guarantee that it will achieve what it aims to do, but when it does, the emotional and intellectual rewards are worth it,” he said. “That is the risk one takes while making something new and unconventional. So yes, there are times when it doesn’t mean shit, but often there are times when something wholly original comes into being and it’s all worth it.
“I love that the Ghost Train [Orchestra] folks and Kid Harpoon took what could have been a fairly conventional song I’d written (musically at least), and steered it into something that to me sounds like Led Zeppelin meets Dirty Projectors.”
Produced by Kid Harpoon, the album is also set to feature St. Vincent, Paramore’s Hayley Williams, and The Smile drummer Tom Skinner, and is said to “build upon the optimistic themes” presented in 2018’s ‘American Utopia’, its tour, its successive Grammy-winning Broadway show and its Spike Lee-directed movie.
The album will continue Byrne’s “lifelong exploration of human connection and the potential for societal unity against the chaotic backdrop of the world”, and will feature “more story songs than usual”.
The 12 songs from the LP were all arranged by the New York City-based orchestra Ghost Train Orchestra, whom Byrne enlisted after discovering their 2023 tribute album to the blind New York composer and street poet Moondog.
Byrne will embark on a worldwide tour in support of ‘Who Is The Sky?’ kicking off in the US in September before calling at the UK in March 2026. Any remaining US tickets can be purchased here, and UK tickets here, and all dates can be viewed here.
We last caught up with David Byrne when he released the American Utopia concert film in 2020, with Byrne sharing why there wouldn’t be a Talking Heads reunion in the future. You can revisit the full Big Read cover feature here.
