David ByrneNot everyone can say they’ve done as much at 73 as David Byrne.
The creative-at-heart has retained the sort of childlike curiosity that led to a start in art school, to a half-decade’s and counting career in music, and onto side-quests ranging from visual art, writing, and filmmaking.
A colourful character at heart, Byrne gained fame as the frontman of new wave band Talking Heads which led the charge of the new wave sound from 1975 and into the early ‘90s, before the band’s split.
In Byrne’s life outside of Talking Heads, solo music has taken the reins.
But, a man of unique connections, Byrne is never really ‘solo’, as per say. The troubadour tapped NYC-based Ghost Train Orchestra to collaborate on the colourful Who Is The Sky album, released towards the end of 2025.
A departure from 2018’s American Utopia which focused heavily on systemic themes, Who Is The Sky looks inward. Borne of Covid’s forced introspection, Byrne’s ninth solo album goes as absurdist as it gets when you’re stuck in lockdowns for two years, leaning into the personal quirks of humanity be it through his apartment or his skincare routine.
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It’s now a post-COVID world, and, at 73, Byrne is still ambitious to get up and dance. The Who Is The Sky tour touched down in Australia on January 17th, following an Auckland show across the Tasman, and a prior US tour.
Brisbane was up first, but to the surprise of an only two-thirds full crowd at The Entertainment Centre – perhaps solo Byrne isn’t so familiar for OG Talking Heads fans outside of the new wave lens? Regardless, Gen Xers and young people in big suit homages made their way out to Boondall in droves, ready to take in the legacy of a 50-year musical tenure.
After a 30-minute ushering delay soothed by the sound of the stage’s birdsong, Byrne and his 13-piece touring band drifted onto the stage one by one.
While 2018’s American Utopia saw matching grey suits, the latest album tour has seen Byrne & co dressed in head-to-toe blue or orange, alternating each show. Auckland got blue, so Brisbane was up for a jailbird-meets-Nickelodeon burst of colour, and if Marty Supreme’s Timothee Chalamet were there, he’d be drooling.
The soul of Talking Heads entered stage, with 1979 single Heaven leading the charge.
“There is a party, everyone is there/Everyone will leave at exactly the same time,” he sings. “When this party's over, it will start again; Will not be any different, will be exactly the same.” Preached the choir, juggling the euphemism of tour life and humanity in general. Byrne pointed to a satellite photo of Earth as our own personal Heaven.
It wouldn’t be a new album tour without new material, and Byrne unleashed his new project like one introduces a new kitten to a family on Christmas. Whimsical single Everybody Laughs came in on the melody of a big white acoustic strummed by Byrne, and, while times have changed for the artist, it was clear that New York was still central to his musings, highlighted kindly on the backdrops.
Released via Matador Records in September 2025, Who Is The Sky has received positive reception across the board. The record collected an average of 4/5 stars from most major music outlets, with the exception of a 5.1/10 review only typical of Pitchfork. But in its defence, Pitchfork’s vote comes from a place of realism – viewing Byrne’s brand of optimism as a candy forced down one’s throat during a time of chaos.
For the most part, all signs should have pointed towards this album flopping, if we’re being brutally honest. In the post-pandemic timeline, where the economy is dismal and discrimination is high, an optimistic album can read tone deaf, despite its essentialism to the zeitgeist we’re facing. Yes, the world is terrible, but it doesn’t have to be!
Uncut rated the 12-song LP as high as a 4/5, noting that, while the songs were joyful, you can’t have a David Byrne track without contemplating the existentialist questions.
As Byrne knows best, optimism can come from taking your inner monologue for a walk outside. The joys of time and the breaking of the fame hierarchy has given the singer some anonymity to indulge in this pleasure of public life through his later years, and indulge he has.
An avid bicycle enthusiast, Byrne admitted to having taken his wheels out for a spin across the Queensland capital. South Bank Lagoon at night, while ordinary for Brisvegas residents, was intriguing enough for Byrne to project his own selfies of the place to the 15,000+ audience, followed by a five-minute spiel on the joys of a ‘prop shop’ he found in the inner suburbs. Fair to say that the Talking Heads singer was completing the Brisbane River Loop this weekend – anyone have his Strava?
The night segwayed back to Talking Heads, with an excerpt as to how the 1985 song And She Was came to be. Before bursting into it, Byrne explained that the song was about a girl he met as a teenager in Baltimore. She’d told him about how she liked to go to the field near the Yoo-Hoo milk factory to take LSD. Years later, it became the hit anthem of sixth Talking Heads album, Little Creatures.
For a punter expecting the Talking Heads throwbacks to be on the minimal, it was a pleasant surprise to hear tunes from nearly every album introduced into the audible tasting board. Byrne and the band drew out the afro-inspired polyrhythms of Speaking In Tongues, the latin flair of Blind, and the post-punk of Remain In Light and Fear Of Music.
Not to mention a complete rarity – despite going on record to describe this 1977 hit as a tiring performance for Byrne, the singer revived Psycho Killer for the Who Is The Sky tour, taking it for its first live spin in almost 20 years.
“There’s a version that Arthur Russell arranged years ago,” Byrne told Vulture at the kick-off of his new tour. “It’s a very different-sounding version of the song. It’s the same song, it has everything, but it has a different feeling and it’s maybe a little more interior feeling than the rock-out version. So I figured, let’s do that one.”
The change of heart may have also been due to Psycho Killer’s recent milestone.
Last year, the four members of Talking Heads caught up to celebrate the 50th anniversary of debut self titled album Talking Heads: 77, which included Psycho Killer as its magnum opus. The celebration gifted us with the single’s first ever accompanying music video, following Golden Globe actress Saorise Ronan as her mind unravels from the mundanity of corporate Western routine.
2025 also marked the 40 year anniversary of Talking Heads’ concert film Stop Making Sense - highly regarded as one of the best concert films of all time. And to take a step back in time, yes, we were lucky enough to indulge in revivals of all-time Talking Heads hits This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody), Once In A Lifetime, and an encore including Burning Down The House.
Taking a look back at this iconic film, it’s clear to see that collaboration has always been key for Talking Heads and, by extension, Byrne. Nine musicians, predominantly from black American backgrounds, joined the band for the Stop Making Sense tour, and the 13-piece lineup we see at Byrne’s solo tour today is similar in its diversity of perspectives.
During a talking segment, Byrne displayed keen interest in his crew, challenging assumptions via a crowd-based census as to which member had an astrophysics degree, and how many members of the crew were homeschooled (I won’t spoil it for you).
During the 1989 song Independence Day, Byrne even gave each cast member a name plaque projected onto the floor in front of them, and while it definitely made the marching orange figures look like digital avatars, they were now people with names and faces.
But face isn’t everything, as Byrne would preface before Who Is The Sky Single Moisturizing Thing. Does he still get heckled as being sexy to middle aged women? Yes. But does it fuel his ego? Maybe, but he’s self-aware enough to look deeper, into the pores. “Life isn't easy when you look like you're three” he gesticulates, critiquing the anti-aging empire with his signature hint of absurdism.
If anything, Byrne’s latest album reads like kids music, but for adults. Hearing him play through new songs like Everybody Laughs, My Apartment Is My Friend, and Don’t Be Like That cement the feeling of a Sesame Street episode if it got dipped in arthouse.
The live performance further aids the digestion of simple human truths made just that: simple. And in an era of convoluted digital noise and questionable sources, sometimes we need to go back to the basics: home is where the heart is, but connection is still key; aging is inevitable, as is criticism, but freedom and self expression are worth their weight in gold.
Byrne made an environment that felt safe to explore your inner child and sense of wonderment with the world. In an era of political chaos, we were reminded of the simple things that matter, and still matter. Same as it ever was.
