Brian D’Addario explains his decision to release a solo album
Brian D’Addario has announced his plans to release his first solo album away from The Lemon Twigs. His debut album without the band, Till the Morning, is due for release on March 20th.
But does it spell a split for the D’Addario brothers or a lengthy hiatus for the group? Far Out Magazine caught up with Brian in January to discuss the record, and he explained the decision to go solo and everything else that lies ahead in 2025.
Discussing the rationale behind the record, Brian explained, “It’s really just a way to get more music out, you know? I mean, I just had the songs for a solo record.” That stance is a sign of how prolific he has been presently with the last Lemon Twigs album released only a short while ago in May 2024.
He also explained what differentiated Till the Morning from a bonafide Lemon Twigs release. “We recorded the songs – Michael and I – just like we record any Lemon Twigs record,” he said. “We basically just take each song on as if it were a solo song anyway. Except we both sing together usually.”
“But a lot of these tracks,” he continued, “it just happened that we had more of my songs completed than Michael’s songs, so we thought, let’s not hold these back for another record. Let’s just put them out together so we can record new stuff.”
Michael even features heavily on the album, just in more of a supportive capacity than usual. “He’s on it a lot,” Brian confirmed. “And he recorded a lot of it. There are exceptions, like, there’s the song ‘Till the Morning’, I recorded by myself, and ‘Nothing on My Mind’, which I mostly recorded by myself, but Michael does a harmony.”
However, with Brian sitting on a slew of songs, they harmoniously arrived at the decision that they may as well release them in an alternative capacity. “They’re essentially songs that we would have considered for a Lemon Twigs record, but stylistically, they fit more together than they did with Michael’s songs,” Brian reasoned.
Many of the tracks on the album date back years, with the oldest written in 2017, which also informed the thinking behind finally giving these well honed tunes the light of day. Coupling this with what Brian calls a collective “country baroque” tinge, made it clear to the brothers that they weren’t dealing with a typical Lemon Twigs collaborative effort, but they decided that shouldn’t hold them back.
Quelling any fear from fans, he also added that The Lemon Twigs will almost certainly announce a release in the near future, too. “We haven’t started recording yet, but I would be really surprised if it wasn’t some at some point this year. I mean, we’re going to try to and get going soon,” he said.
He even added that we might see Michael release his own solo album should similar circumstances arise. “Yeah, we’ll probably see one,” he says. “But he, he’s really more into the idea of not compiling old songs, but recording something in a totally different way instead. Like a flash of inspiration. Which I think would be really cool, so he’ll probably do it at some point, but the conditions aren’t really right.”
He added, “We’re really focused on making our next record together, and this, I don’t know, we both just felt like this would be a good way to hold people over and until the next Lemon Twigs record. Not that that was the whole reason, but it was just, why not release more stuff?” Especially when its good stuff.
So, there’s certainly plenty of music on the way from the brothers and they’re even in the midst of producing Tchotchke’s forthcoming record. With that in mind, Far Out Magazine‘s feature interview with Brian D’Addario will be arriving in March, ahead of Till the Morning, where we discuss songwriting, the CIA, and the sound of going solo.
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