New York natives Brian and Michael D'Addario are about as close as it gets to born performers.
Long before they were The Lemon Twigs, the brothers performed in Broadway musicals, television and film as children.Fast-forwarding under a decade, at 23 and 21 the power-pop duo have just finished recording their third full-length rock album, 'Songs For The General Public'.
Speaking with Brian as he hopped in and out of vehicles across New York City, one gets the impression The Lemon Twigs have no intentions of letting a global pandemic cramp their style.
"I've been working on a record with my girlfriend's band Pinky Pinky," Brian muses. "It's rock pop, sort of in the wheelhouse of stuff we’ve been doing arrangement wise – lots of synths and guitars.
"It's rock music, but they have a unique way of writing." Brian explains the project as one of several he's lent time to over the past 18 months.
Brian and Michael work closely with producer Jonathan Rado, brainchild behind Foxygen and producer of Weyes Blood's 2019 epic 'Titanic Rising', on which the D'Addario's feature on five tracks.
The scope of The Lemon Twigs' musical range, from Beatles-esque British Invasion twee-pop to operatic theatrics to glam-rock proto punk, has made the pair one of the most sought-after song writing teams in the alternative rock scene, with fans including Elton John and Post Malone.
Brian explains some of the contemporary influences that informed their early sensibilities, leading to the group being discovered by Rado while still in high school.
“of Montreal is a huge band for me!" Brian exclaims. "They really influenced me for a long time. Them and Foxygen, kind of around the same time, really showed you that you could do whatever you wanted.
"It could be whatever music you wanted to make, and it didn't have to go with the trends of the day. MGMT and The Flaming Lips too. Right around the time we started working with Rado, those were the huge bands."
Last year the Twigs joined Tim Heidecker ('Tim And Eric's Awesome Show', co-host of 'On Cinema At The Cinema') along with Rado and Weyes Bloods' Natalie Mering to work on his upcoming record, 'Fear Of Death'.
"I met him what feels like a while ago, 2017 he announced us before we went on and that was really great. We've been a fan of his for a long time, and he's been a fan of ours since our first record."
Brian and Michael are musical savants, each a gifted performer on a handful of instruments. In the early days, The Lemon Twigs performed live as a quartet, with the brothers alternating between guitar/ lead vocals and drums/ harmonies.
For their sophomore record, 2018's 'Go To School', the group acquired new members, expanding into a five-piece musical troupe live and featuring the brothers' mother and the legendary Todd Rundgren playing roles on their first narrative-driven concept album.
2020's 'Songs For The General Public' expands upon the aesthetics of the first two records, with a diversity evoking the song writing partnerships of Jagger and Richards, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and the Davies Brothers.
"I don't even know what I was listening to," Brian says. "I was listening to stuff that didn't end up sounding like anything on the record. That's usually how it goes.
"But the whole thing with this was just letting our natural instincts take over and not forcing anything. We made a conscious decision to open ourselves up to what was around in the studio, which led to working with synths on the record."
'Songs For The General Public' features a plethora of unique tunes and, as with all Lemon Twigs records, there is a certain vintage eclecticism to it.
Their music and image conjure throwbacks to artists from the '60s and '70's, be they the elaborate Rolling Stones meets Evil Knievel costumery present in the video for power-pop single 'The One', or The Beach Boys' 'Smile Sessions'-esque nursery rhyme of 'Why Do Lovers Own Each Other?'.
In Brian's words: "It's hard to talk about what you're influenced by, because you don't really know. It's coloured by what the person who's hearing it has heard or listened to."
In the instance of album highlight 'Only A Fool', The Lemon Twigs directed their efforts to the relatively unfamiliar territory of jazz fusion.
"That came from hanging with the guys in the live band, listening to Pat Metheny and Michael Brecker. But I didn't listen to it a lot, I was just hearing it in passing and kind of trying to do those kinds of chord changes."
From the dazzling progression of 'No One Holds You Closer' to the soulful throwback balladry of 'Hell On Wheels', the album goes through incredible paces across 43 minutes. It's a rollicking trip, all at once familiar and experimental.
Closing track 'Ashamed' demonstrates a depth of tenderness never before heard in The Lemon Twigs' oeuvre, complete with Kinks-esque country imperfections and a midway transfiguration into triumphant low-fidelity revelry.
"Well, that was Michael's song and he just wrote it really quickly – two parts on different days, and I really don't know what it came from. I just know that when I heard it, I loved it, and it was immediately my favourite song that he ever did."
In terms of touring, the band have set those aspirations aside for the time being, opting to start work on a follow-up album. "I've just been trying to get into a concentrated period of working on a single project," Brian admits.
"The album took a long time to make because we made a lot of music that wasn't on the album.
"We're still at the parents' house and we've been trying to find a studio space – but there's a lot of back and forth with that, a lot more risks now with making a big change what with the uncertainty of where the music industry is going.
"But that's something we've been working on for a long time, getting our own space together."
When asked for a final word, Brian counters: "Oh man, I never have anything to say. The record says everything I have to say."
