Delving into the World of Harmony with Brian D’Addario | In Conversation

by Kitty Quinn

8/2/2023

At the height of my obsessions with the likes of The Beatles, The Moody Blues and Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, The Lemon Twigs were presented to me like a golden and glowing holy grail of modern music. The Long Island duo first charged into my life at the very inception of my burgeoning love for rock and roll music during my early teens, perfectly bridging the gap between my love for classic rock and putting rest to my qualms with contemporary pastiche. It was the year following the release of their debut album, Do Hollywood, and I felt like a moth being drawn to a flame— everything I loved was neatly packaged and almost effortlessly sewn into the fabric of my new favorite duo.

Hailing from a hamlet nestled in the suburbs of Long Island, New York, it’s no mystery where siblings Brian and Michael D’Addario were first catapulted into the world of music. Following in the footsteps of their father Ronnie D’Addario, a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist in the 1970s and 1980s, the duo incorporates the sounds of their father’s era and combines it with the essence of their musical theater backgrounds— ultimately delivering a product that is unique to them alone. Their career has been nothing short of an awe-inspiring whirlwind, the pair’s vivid imaginations evident through their constant self-reinvention album by album. They’ve done it all; theatrical baroque pop, a rock opera and gaudy, leather-cladden glam, yet nothing seem to hold a candle to their fourth studio album, Everything Harmony.

Aptly named, the album is chock-full of breathtaking harmonies that cradle words of tenderness and melancholia with near-flawless execution. With songs reflecting shared experiences and themes of depression and isolation paired with tunes of euphoric splendor, Everything Harmony cycles through a range of highs and lows with little wiggle room for any sense of in-between. The D’Addario brothers have found a sound that beholds their reverence for a catalog of diverse references whilst interweaving their distinct personalities in an unparalleled way. If you thought you knew them before, you were sorely mistaken.

Following the album’s release in May 2023, Starmaker Machine’s Kitty Quinn had the unique pleasure to ask Brian a few questions regarding the album.

A lot of your influences are evident throughout your music, but through that, you guys have created a very unique sound that embodies what everyone loves from older music with a more contemporary lens. There are many artists that have a specific idea of what they want their music to sound like and then there are others who just let it flow out of them and whatever comes out, comes out. For you, was your sound something you feel was organically created or was it something you both strived for?

BRIAN D’ADDARIO: Our sound is something that changes all the time. The technical sound of a recording is conceived of beforehand. But the writing is usually a spontaneous process that doesn’t involve a lot of willpower.

Following the release of Songs for the General Public, one of you stated that you create characters in your songs that can be you or an extension of you but aren't always necessary. When these characters manifest into something separate from you, do you think the need to tell stories outside of your realm of experience stems from a place of wanting to better understand all human experiences, good or bad? If so, is it genuine curiosity or is it one of those things where your creativity is guiding you?

BD: It may just be a creative impulse. Music is very easy to finish, and I usually try to write some words under the spell of the melody. There’s very little thought involved. When the words come, they might directly have to do with myself, or they might not. But I don’t think that you can really make art that isn’t a reflection of your own life. Whenever I look at the lyrics of a song I’ve written, they’re usually my own feelings or the feelings of someone I’ve met or know, or what I assume their feelings to be.

Compared to the writing, tracking and arranging of your past three albums, what do you feel differentiates Everything Harmony from the rest? Do you feel like you've accomplished something with this album that you were lacking in the past?

BD: The big accomplishment is getting the vocals in a place where they sound natural and have enough personality to carry the songs. That was the aspect of the album we probably worked the most on. Plus the recording process carried on for so long that the lesser songs we were working on at the time fell by the wayside when it came down to mixing and mastering the album.

Building again on the process of making Everything Harmony, do you think you learned anything new about yourselves creating this record? If so, how will you apply this to your subsequent albums?

BD: We learned how to blend our voices better than before. Giving our songs time to breathe, rather than rush to finish a lyric after the initial inspiration has faded away. Also, we learned not to over arrange, and that the reinforcement of a countermelody with another instrument goes a lot further than adding more melodic information.

If you could choose any specific film, book or album that you feel has consistently shown up for you and inspired you throughout your life and music career, what would that be and why?

BD: Probably Pet Sounds. No one has topped it yet!

See the Lemon Twigs on tour this fall!