The musician’s latest Who Is the Sky? single was inspired by Rebecca Solnit’s Men Explain Things to Me
David Byrne has shared his new song “She Explains Things to Me,” the latest single from the former Talking Heads frontman’s upcoming album Who Is The Sky?
The sweeping track was inspired in part by Rebecca Solnit’s 2014 collection Men Explain Things to Me, with the titular essay providing a scathing look at male arrogance and how conversations between men and women go awry.
“Many times I have marveled at how a friend (usually a female friend) seems to clock what is going on in a film between characters way before I do,” Byrne said of the single in a statement. “Sometimes I understand poetry, but sometimes I need help. Though inspired by the Solnit book Men Explain Things to Me, there is a huge difference — mansplaining is usually unasked for, in this case I am the one asking.”
Bynre shared the first single and opening track “Everybody Laughs” from Who Is the Sky? last month. The album marks his first since 2018’s LP-turned-Broadway show-turned-HBO film American Utopia. It arrives Sept. 5 and features contributions from Hayley Williams, St. Vincent, and the Smile drummer Tom Skinner.
Byrne previously said in a statement that Who Is the Sky? is “a chance to be the mythical creature we all harbor inside. A chance to step into another reality. A chance to transcend and escape from the prison of our ‘selves.’”
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He added, “At my age, at least for me, there’s a ‘don’t give a shit about what people think’ attitude that kicks in. I can step outside my comfort zone with the knowledge that I kind of know who I am by now and sort of know what I’m doing. That said, every new set of songs, every song even, is a new adventure. There’s always a bit of, ‘how do I work this?’ I’ve found that not every collaboration works, but often when they do, it’s because I’m able to clearly impart what it is I’m trying to do. They hopefully get that, and as a result, we’re now joined together heading to the same unknown place.”
Byrne will support the record with a lengthy North American tour this fall that will feature — like his American Utopia gigs — a mobile 13-piece band.
