Music

David Byrne on his latest album, 'Who Is the Sky?'

WSHU | By Raina Douris,

Published November 15, 2025 at 9:36 AM EST

There are some people so endlessly inventive that it's almost impossible to imagine them getting writer's block. David Byrne is one of those people.

In 1975, Byrne, along with bassist Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Frantz, founded Talking Heads — a band that was a trailblazer in the new wave scene and went on to release several highly influential albums. Byrne is also a prolific solo artist who follows his curiosity in every direction, from sound collage and film scores to theater and dance, including his recent Broadway show for his album American Utopia.

But before writing his new album, Who Is the Sky?, it finally happened: Byrne got writer's block.

In this session, Byrne talks about what happened, how he eventually started writing again, his joyful new album and the vibrant new stage show for his current tour.

Featured Songs

"Everybody Laughs"
"Moisturizing Thing"
"My Apartment is My Friend"
"What Is The Reason For It?"
"When We Are Singing"

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Kimberly Junod. Our digital producer is Miguel Perez. World Cafe's engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.

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Raina Douris

Raina Douris, an award-winning radio personality from Toronto, Ontario, comes to World Cafe from the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), where she was host and writer for the daily live, national morning program Mornings on CBC Music. She is also involved with Canada's highest music honors: Since 2017, she has hosted the Polaris Music Prize Gala, for which she is also a jury member, and she has also been a jury member for the Juno Awards. Douris has also served as guest host and interviewer for various CBC Music and CBC Radio programs, and red carpet host and interviewer for the Juno Awards and Canadian Country Music Association Awards, as well as a panelist for such renowned CBC programs as Metro Morning, q and CBC News.

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Kimberly Junod

World Cafe senior producer Kimberly Junod has been a part of the World Cafe team since 2001, when she started as the show's first line producer. In 2011 Kimberly launched (and continues to helm) World Cafe's Sense of Place series that includes social media, broadcast and video elements to take listeners across the U.S. and abroad with an intimate look at local music scenes. She was thrilled to be part of the team that received the 2006 ASCAP Deems Taylor Radio Broadcast Award for excellence in music programming. In the time she has spent at World Cafe, Kimberly has produced and edited thousands of interviews and recorded several hundred bands for the program, as well as supervised the show's production staff. She has also taught sound to young women (at Girl's Rock Philly) and adults (as an "Ask an Engineer" at WYNC's Werk It! Women's Podcast Festival).

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