As the hype train builds for the new David Byrne release, American Utopia, Byrne has expressed regret over the lack of female collaborators on the album, as reported by Paste. Byrne recently posted an Instagram collage detailing the twenty-five collaborators he worked with on the album, with an astute fan pointing out that Byrne worked only with men.

Byrne responded by expressing his regret over the lack of women collaborators and stated that his new touring lineup for his blockbuster spring and summer tour will feature plenty of diversity. While he has been mum on the specific details of his stage show for the tour, he has repeatedly said that the trek will be his most ambitious since his work with the Talking Heads on the classic concert film Stop Making Sense.

Byrne, of course, is known for his diverse array of collaborators, such as his magnificent work with St. Vincent on the Love This Giant record, so the lack of female representation on American Utopia is surprising.

I have a new album out (in 8 days!!!) called American Utopia. I wrote and recorded it over a two-year period and its evolution involved a lot of collaborators. Some were old friends and some were completely new to me. This month’s DB Radio playlist is a sample of their own work. We often ended up with a whole slew of contributors to a song, a patchwork—and somehow it worked. Though there were so many collaborators and contributors, much of the process was about stripping things away. Often we’d see how much we could remove while still maintaining the essence of the song. This seemed to give due emphasis to the vocals and lyrics—which is another story. Learn more about how American Utopia came to be and listen to the playlist on DavidByrne.com.

A post shared by David Byrne (@davidbyrneofficial) on Feb 28, 2018 at 9:00pm PST

A post shared by David Byrne (@davidbyrneofficial) on Mar 5, 2018 at 1:46pm PST