What We Know So Far About The New David Byrne Album [Photos/Videos]

While Talking Heads fans have spent the last few days in the throes of a familiar cycle of vague announcement breadcrumbs, ensuing 50th-anniversary reunion speculation, and eventual deflation the when the big news turned out to be a music video, David Byrne has been signaling the coming arrival of an original solo album—his first all-new studio LP since 2018’s acclaimed American Utopia. Here’s what we know about the as yet unnamed new David Byrne album:

David Byrne has not released a new solo album since 2018.

In recent years, David Byrne has issued various assorted singles, remixes, and collaborations and composed the music for the innovative (though short-lived) 2023 Imelda Marcos musical, Here Lies Love, but his last new studio album came seven long years ago via the widely acclaimed American Utopia.

Of course, the shelf-life of that album’s relevance was much longer than your typical album cycle. Following American Utopia‘s release, David Byrne launched an extensive, similarly acclaimed tour featuring uniquely theatrical staging. He followed that with an American Utopia tour live EP, The Best Live Show of All Time, then an American Utopia book, then multiple American Utopia Broadway runs, then a Grammy-nominated Broadway cast album, then a Spike Lee-directed film adaptation of the Broadway production, and so on.

In other words: Last time David Byrne did a new album, he did it big. We don’t know much about the new one yet, but if the last one was any indication, we could be in for another fertile Byrne era.

David Byrne recorded the new album with the 20(ish)-piece Ghost Train Orchestra.

Back in April 0f 2024, David Byrne joined Ghost Train Orchestra and Kronos Quartet during a show at New York’s Town Hall for a performance of “Be a Hobo”, one of the tracks reinterpreted on GTO/KQ’s 2023 tribute to avant-garde composer Moondog, Songs & Symphoniques.

About a month later, on May 26th, 2024, Ghost Train Orchestra, the New York City-based jazz and chamber ensemble led by Brian Carpenter, posted a batch of photos from an unspecified NYC studio with the caption, “David Byrne with Ghost Train Orchestra and producer Kid Harpoon hunkered down in the studio this past week recording all incredible new songs by David with GTO arrangements. Very exciting!” In September of 2024, GTO posted another batch of the 21-piece with the caption, “David Byrne with Ghost Train Orchestra wrapped up a run of David’s incredible songs with GTO arrangements with producer Kid Harpoon. What an adventure!”

Check out a photo of the full ensemble below including, from left to right, Brian Montgomery, Ben Miller, David Cossin, Michael Hickey, Matt Bauder, Brandon Seabrook, Emily Bookwalter, Alex Waterman, Dennis Lichtman, Andy Laster, Curtis Hasselbring, Sara Caswell, Chris Lightcap, Brian Carpenter, Ron Caswell, Brian Rajaratnam, Kid Harpoon, [front row] David Byrne, Rob Garcia, Katie Kresek, Sara Schoenbeck.

The album’s producer, Kid Harpoon, is one of the most successful pop producers/songwriters of this decade.

Kid Harpoon’s involvement in the new David Byrne album is notable, as well. The British songwriter, record producer, and musician born Tyler Hull may be the most successful musician of the 2020s whose name you don’t know. In 2023, he won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year and a Brit Award for Songwriter of the Year for his work as a producer and primary songwriter on Harry Styles‘ Harry’s House. That same year, he and frequent collaborator Tyler Johnson co-produced Miley Cyrus‘ “Flowers”, which went on to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 2024. With Styles’ “As It Was” and Cyrus’ “Flowers”, Kid Harpoon was the co-producer of the best-selling single in the world in both 2022 and 2023.

The new album marks Kid Harpoon’s first official collaboration with David Byrne. A personnel listing on a preview clip of the album’s first single, “Everybody Laughs”, lists Kid Harpoon as a programmer and a studio musician as well as a producer.

The Walkmen’s Hamilton Leithauser says he’s on it, too.

During a February 2025 interview with U.K. online magazine The Line of Best Fit, The Walkmen vocalist Hamilton Leithauser explained that he had been collaborating with David Byrne.

“Amazingly, I’m working on his new record right now,” Leithauser said. “I’m going to sing on it, and so I’ve got to know him a little bit and he’s really cool. He didn’t disappoint, meeting him was amazing. He’s very polite and one of those guys whose music I’ve loved for 30 years or whatever.”

Of note, Leithauser was not included on the personnel listing for the album’s forthcoming lead single, “Everybody Laughs”, so look out for him on other tracks down the line.

The album’s first track, “Everybody Laughs”, comes out on June 10th.

On May 27th, a 30-second preview of a new David Byrne song called “Everybody Laughs” appeared on YouTube and other online platforms. In addition to the audio clip and a kaleidoscopic image of Byrne, the YouTube video’s caption confirmed various details about the recording, including its full list of personnel, its label (Matador Records), and its release date, Tuesday, June 10th.

Related: David Byrne Discusses Shyness, Talking Heads’ Breakup, & More In Candid ’60 Minutes’ Interview [Watch]

On May 29th, the mercurial Byrne posted a reel to Facebook in which he explains, “I’m working on something new and will have more news to share soon, but in the meantime I’d like to see how, uh, how you could move to this,” before showing off some of his famous dance moves to a snippet the chorus from a new David Byrne song, “Everybody Laughs”. The following day, he posted a graphic to his Facebook page reading, “I’m working on something new. Be the first to hear more by signing up to my mailing list.”

David Byrne, Ghost Train Orchestra – “Everybody Laughs” (Single Preview)