Tiffany Hanssen: I'm Tiffany Hanssen, [laughs] and you're listening to All Of It.

[MUSIC - The Lemon Twigs: A Dream Is All We Know]

A dream is all I know,

Is all I've got to show for my being here

Tiffany Hanssen: That is the latest single from Long Island's own The Lemon Twigs the title track of their forthcoming album A Dream Is All We Know. It will be the sibling duo's fifth album following last year's critically acclaimed, Everything Harmony, an album favorably compared to mid-60s Beach Boys, The Beatles, and Bee Gees by reviewers. Following its release, Paste Magazine called The Lemon Twigs the new princes of rock and roll. Their forthcoming album captures more of the long-haired duo's masterful retro sound that began on their debut recorded and released when they were still two high schoolers from Hicksville. Today, brothers Brian and Michael D'Addario, did I say that right, you guys?

Michael D'Addario: Yes.

Brian D'Addario: Yes. D'Addario-D'Addario-D'Addario. Everybody says it different.

Tiffany Hanssen: All right. We'll get there.

Michael D'Addario: It's a bit like tomato-tomato.

Tiffany Hanssen: Nice. Maybe I'll just change it every time I say it. They're here with me in WNYC's Studio 5 to preview the new album which is out May 3rd and play some songs live. Brian, Michael, welcome to All Of It.

Brian D'Addario: Thank you.

Michael D'Addario: Thank you.

Tiffany Hanssen: Hey, how about-- Nice, in stereo, let's just get started with the song. How about My Golden Years? Let's start there.

Michael D'Addario: That sounds good.

Brian D'Addario: Let's do it.

[MUSIC - The Lemon Twigs: My Golden Years]

In these, my golden years

How can I try and push down my fears?

'Cause in the blink of an eye

I'll watch these golden years fly by

In time, I hope that I can show all the world

The love in my mind

I know if only I try

I'll get these golden years to shine

How can I get near it (How can I get near it)

If all I do is fear it? (If all I do is fear it?)

So bad, so bad

Well, no, well, no, no

An now though so much has passed,

The only thing true

Is nothing can last

And in the blink of an eye

I'll watch these golden years fly by

Thinking back on the many times I cried

What could have been if I stood up tall and tried

And now I know that I

Can get these golden years to shine

Tiffany Hanssen: That was My Golden Years performed by The Lemon Twigs here with us in studio today. This is All Of It. I'm Tiffany Hanson in for Alison Stewart. The Lemon Twigs, also known as Brian and Michael D'Addario. Brian, let's start with you.

Brian D'Addario: Sure.

Tiffany Hanssen: You guys have been credited with coining the term Mersey Beach.

Brian D'Addario: Yes. It'll go on our Wikipedia page. It'll say it on my tombstone hopefully.

Michael D'Addario: [laughs].

Tiffany Hanssen: What is it?

Brian D'Addario: It is a combination, I would say, perfect combination of The Beatles' Mersey during the Pacemakers' sound and the Beach Boys' Southern California Jan and Dean, the Tradewinds. Who else? Bruce & Terry.

Michael D'Addario: That's New York's [unintelligible 00:05:10]. Harmony sound? Yes. That wonderful all-encompassing stereo harmony sound.

Tiffany Hanssen: Jan and Dean. That was good.

Brian D'Addario: Jan and Dean?

Michael D'Addario: Yes.

Tiffany Hanssen: All right.

Brian D'Addario: We're hoping it'll sweep the nation like a wildfire.

Tiffany Hanssen: It already is now. I'm wondering then, since you coined the phrase, you really view it as a thing. Like a real thing. It's not just a marketing phrase for you.

Brian D'Addario: It's as much a marketing phrase as it is a real thing, I would say.

Michael D'Addario: Right. Yes. It's equal for its marketing phrase.

Brian D'Addario: I wouldn't say we put any conscious effort into combining those sounds but when it comes to our biggest influences, I would say, it neatly describes our biggest influences.

Tiffany Hanssen: All right. In the liner notes to A Dream Is All We Know, there's a focus on the year 1968. I'm wondering-- What? Why are you giving me that look?

Michael D'Addario: Oh, no, no, no. There's no look.

Tiffany Hanssen: You're like, "No, she's wrong?"

Michael D'Addario: No, no, this is all correct. This is all information, but I don't know that it's meant to be taken so literally or seriously. It's like you make a record and then they ask you to come up with some way to present it so that-

Brian D'Addario: In its context.

Michael D'Addario: -maybe people know what they're getting into before they listen to it. For us, these are things and it's certainly more accurate than it would be, I guess, if somebody else wrote.

Tiffany Hanssen: 1968 is a year that you connect with musically.

Brian D'Addario: Sure. Especially, I think sonically. I would say the sonics of the record fit neatly into that. It's another thing that fits very neatly.

Tiffany Hanssen: Describe 1968 sonically for me.

Michael D'Addario: I guess the record has a lot of-- I don't know, the record has a lot of compression, a lot of busing things together.

Tiffany Hanssen: Busing things together.

Michael D'Addario: Yes, you take the drums and you fuse them together and you put them through a compressor, you take that, put it with the bass because you have a limited number of tracks that you're working with. Because they were working with low track numbers on their tape machines and stuff, but it's not as primitive as earlier than that and the stereo image is wider. It's just--

Brian D'Addario: Yes, '68 allowed for overdubbing. We record our records playing all the instruments and doing one track at a time, but it also didn't have quite the fullness in frequency that the mid-'70s, say, had.

Michael D'Addario: Sure.

Tiffany Hanssen: I want to bring your dad in. No, he's not here. Ronnie D'Addario. Also a musician. His website says he grew up listening to 1960s pop music. I think as kids, we are drawn to what our parents are listening to a lot of the time. I remember specifically songs that were on the radio when I was in my mom's Opel, and I was a little kid driving around. I can tell you exactly what that feels like and what that day feels like. How does that influence from your dad affect all of this attraction for you to that specific era?

Brian D'Addario: A number of ways because he's a musician as well, as you said, and when we were first writing songs, there was the influence of not only like, "I love this music," but there was the influence of just when it came to melody and chords, things had to be interesting to get his attention. They had to be uncommon. They had to go in a way that you didn't necessarily expect, which is also what the great Beatles or Beach Boys songs do. They modulate a lot, they go from key to key, and things like that. That was the biggest influence.

Michael D'Addario: Put in a pop format. You're doing that, and you're able to put it into this pop format. Of course, just the era of music and everything, it's entirely-- we had tunnel vision. We were presented with-- we didn't know really what was going on in the outside world musically. We really only listened to what my dad and mom played and oldies radio and stuff and shunned modern music really.

Tiffany Hanssen: Is there a modern music you connect with?

Brian D'Addario: Yes. I would say Royal Trux was the last modern thing that I was very into.

Michael D'Addario: Modern, it's like they're not really modern at this point, I suppose.

Brian D'Addario: The last album came out in 2019. I was into that.

Michael D'Addario: Yes. There's lots of things--

Tiffany Hanssen: That's [unintelligible 00:10:09].

Michael D'Addario: No, no but they're band-

Brian D'Addario: Started in the '90s.

Michael D'Addario: -from the '90s.

Tiffany Hanssen: Oh, right.

Michael D'Addario: Great band. There's lots of bands that we like. They're typically indebted to the '60s and '70, though. They typically have a sound that's reminiscent of that era.

Tiffany Hanssen: Both of you also had acting careers. You've been on Broadway, Brian, you were in The Little Mermaid, Les Mis. Michael, you were in All My Sons on Broadway, so I'm wondering how that professional theater experience influences your approach to live performances like this one here as the Lemon Twigs.

Michael D'Addario: We're a little bit more used to it, I guess. We definitely turn on when the camera's on or whatever, maybe, I don't know.

Brian D'Addario: We get into a performance mode, I would say. It's more accurate

Tiffany Hanssen: Are you in character?

Brian D'Addario: No. Just a little bit more focused than we would be if we weren't performing. That's probably the case for non-actors or people without it.

Michael D'Addario: People without that experience, too. We also simultaneously we were playing a lot of shows when we were kids in bands and stuff. It's hard to chalk that up to the acting or whatever because we were always performing in different contexts.

Tiffany Hanssen: Your 2018 album, Go to School was, "A musical by the Lemon Twigs."

Michael D'Addario: Right.

Tiffany Hanssen: It's a concept album. Talk about the challenges of creating a concept album.

Brian D'Addario: In that case, I was way more into the story than Michael was. I would say to him, "Your song has to be about this. Write a song about this." I had this sort of feeling of really wanting to go through with it because we had the impetus of the idea. In retrospect, I don't dislike the album, but I think it's more healthy and creative to write without that aim of having to tie songs together in a conscious way. It's better to just let the song be a vehicle for your subconscious or--

Tiffany Hanssen: So no more concept albums coming from the Lemon Twigs?

Brian D'Addario: Probably not.

[laughter]

Tiffany Hanssen: That's the headline. Any idea that Go to School might actually go to a stage show?

Michael D'Addario: I don't know. There was a interest a while ago, but it's like, if that were to work, we'd have to be really into it and it seems like--

Brian D'Addario: It seems like something we could possibly do when it's a little bit further away.

Tiffany Hanssen: Further in the rearview?

Brian D'Addario: Yes.

Tiffany Hanssen: All right, let's get to some more music here. How about, let's hear Corner Of My Eye.

Michael D'Addario: Sure.

Tiffany Hanssen: Another little slurp of water.

[MUSIC - The Lemon Twigs: Corner Of My Eye]

I've got a wonderful feeling

That's ripe for being wrong

Lately, the Lord's got me kneeling

It's been hard to get along

But when I've got you in the corner of my eye

All my moments are the same when day or night

I saw you twice before

Now I really wanna see you more

I played the game of heartbreak

The emptiness remains

But how much loneliness can a man take

'Til he tries to take the reins?

But when I've got you in the corner of my eye

All my moments are the same when day or night

I saw you twice before

Now I really wanna see you more

I know that I won't forget you

May not be wise, I might regret you

But when I've got you in the corner of my eye

All my moments are the same when day or night

I saw you twice before

Now I really wanna see you more

When I've got you in the corner of my eye

All my moments are the same when day or night

I saw you twice before

Now I really wanna see you more

I saw you twice before

Now I really wanna see you more

I saw you twice before

Now I really wanna see you more

Tiffany Hanssen: That's the Lemon Twigs here on All of It. You are listening to us live in studio. That song, Corner Of My Eye came from your last album, Everything Harmony, which will turn a year old on May 5th. That's just two days after the release of this new album called A Dream Is All We Know. I'm going to say that seems like a really tight turnaround.

Brian D'Addario: There was quite a bit of time between finishing Everything Harmony and releasing that, maybe about nine months. In that interim, we weren't touring and we really got into working on A Dream is All We Know in that time. We weren't fully signed to Captured Tracks at that point. There were things like manufacturing, things that happened and so--

Michael D'Addario: It takes a long time. It took a long time to get it straight.

Tiffany Hanssen: There are musicians who will tell you, "It takes me 10 years to come out with another album." I look at what you said, nine month,s and I think, "Holy cow, that's like more than a song a month."

Brian D'Addario: We're writing way more than that. It's way easier to write the songs for us than to record them and produce them.

Tiffany Hanssen: Why is that?

Brian D'Addario: I think it's just more fun to write songs for us. I don't know, it's just really fun.

Michael D'Addario: We just get melodic ideas a lot of the time, but carrying out and having the time to carry them out and to--

Brian D'Addario: Produce them the correct way.

Michael D'Addario: Yes, to produce them in really the right way where--

Brian D'Addario: Strings and things like that.

Michael D'Addario: Yes, certain ones need that kind of thing.

Tiffany Hanssen: One of you will say, "Hey, I got an idea for this thing I'm hearing in my head and play it," and then the next thing you know it's a song?

Michael D'Addario: Right. We will do that a lot independently, too, more so than we do it together, get an idea. I'll get an idea.

Brian D'Addario: We get arrangement ideas when we're just playing each other, what we've written. The other person will get arrangement ideas, and it helps to have a pool of songs.

Tiffany Hanssen: You talked about the recording process for you and how different that is from the songwriting process. You recorded Everything Harmony between 2020-2021. That's major pandemic era, so how did that affect things?

Brian D'Addario: We had decided to move out of our parents maybe about a year into the pandemic, maybe a little less, six months, and the recording studio was there for our whole career up until that point. We moved to this place in Midtown that was just a rehearsal studio. The pandemic it was just, we only had-- we could only record or whatever, but we weren't necessarily more productive because--

Michael D'Addario: We got pretty sick of each other.

Brian D'Addario: Yes. I don't know. It just get--

Tiffany Hanssen: Welcome.

[laughs]

Brian D'Addario: I tend to forget that whole thing.

Michael D'Addario: We have bad memories in general.

Tiffany Hanssen: Oh, all right.

Michael D'Addario: Just poor memories.

Tiffany Hanssen: Not specifically of the pandemic, but just in general, you guys don't--

Michael D'Addario: We retain a lot that's not musical.

Tiffany Hanssen: Can you remember how the process was different just as compared to the process for this current album? Just how it felt.

Michael D'Addario: We went to finish the album in San Francisco, and it was just Brian, and I, and an engineer, our friend Rias.

Brian D'Addario: The Everything Harmony album.

Michael D'Addario: The Everything Harmony album, yes. I guess it was way more isolated.

Brian D'Addario: We hadn't played any shows. We had played a lot of shows this past year.

Michael D'Addario: That's true. That influenced the album a lot.

Brian D'Addario: It did inform the album because--

Michael D'Addario: Because we wanted more upbeat stuff, the last record was pretty down because-

Tiffany Hanssen: You were down. Everybody was down.

Michael D'Addario: -we were down. We were in our rooms with the acoustic guitar and stuff.

Brian D'Addario: Singing quietly.

Tiffany Hanssen: You say touring and being in front of live audiences affects the work. Is that like, "Oh, everybody." That seems to really resonate with people for sure.

Michael D'Addario: That's typically what it is. You have more of a reason to do a little rock and roll song, or something like that, as opposed to a ballad just because people fall asleep standing up.

Tiffany Hanssen: I want to talk about collaboration. There's a song on A Dream is All We Know that is co-produced by Sean Ono Lennon, who is also featured on bass. It's called In the Eyes of The Girl. What I want to talk about specifically is collaboration and how you approach that.

Brian D'Addario: We typically don't do all that much on our records, aside from bring people in to play. We generally have pretty specific ideas about what we want them to play. It was really nice working with Sean because he has a really good ear for harmony and melody. He wouldn't suggest something that harmonically didn't work. He's a true musician. It's always good when you get to play with someone who's bringing in something and also, who can take direction well and things like that. Also, he--

Michael D'Addario: He has ideas. Sometimes you got to work with somebody and they have an idea and you go, "Oh, yes," but you know you're not going to do that. That wasn't the situation with him. Luckily, with most of the people that we collaborate, you find out pretty quick if it doesn't work that well to work with somebody.

Tiffany Hanssen: Any dream collaborations? Now's the time.

Brian D'Addario: McCartney would be cool.

Michael D'Addario: McCartney, Jeff Lynne.

Tiffany Hanssen: Paul, if you're listening.

Brian D'Addario: Roy Wood.

Michael D'Addario: Roy Wood, yes.

Tiffany Hanssen: You had guest appearances on previous albums. Todd Rundgren, how was that unique?

Michael D'Addario: Similarly to Sean. He's somebody who's a really great musician.

Tiffany Hanssen: A musician's musician for sure.

Michael D'Addario: When that's the situation, it's pretty easy. It's just a matter of getting the performance on tape or whatever, or knowing what you want. I think that with Todd, he's famous for, if you don't know what you want, he'll figure out what you want anyway, or something, an alternative. He's the consummate professional. We had him on stage playing with us, too. He was handed a guitar that was a very difficult guitar to play. He played it very, very well. He didn't want anything in his monitor. He can just work with anything, is my point.

Tiffany Hanssen: You've said about the album we talked about, Go to School, that obviously, it's a concept album that's very escapist and it's storytelling. Generally speaking, do you think your work overall has an escapist bent?

Brian D'Addario: It could, yes. Maybe less so the last album, because it was more about day-to-day life and it dealt with some more slightly heavier feelings. Everything harmony. We tend to fall back on this sort of thing that's just more joyful. I think our lyrics sometimes, they usually are about something true.

Michael D'Addario: That's really happened.

Brian D'Addario: Just the way it's all packaged and stuff like that, it's just supposed to give you a good feeling.

Michael D'Addario: I think that the instrumentation is a big part of that. That use of harpsichord and fun instruments that people don't typically-- It's not this real raw thing with just a straight rock band or just an acoustic guitar. Often, it's pretty ornate with a lot of harmonies and stuff, which I think seems escapist. Has that feel.

Tiffany Hanssen: We're going to take a quick break. We are talking with The Lemon Twigs about their forthcoming album, A Dream Is All We Know. We're going to do some music when we come back. How does that sound?

Brian D'Addario: Cool.

Tiffany Hanssen: All right. You're listening to All Of It. I'm Tiffany Hanssen, in for Alison Stewart.

[music]

Tiffany Hanssen: You are listening to All Of It. I'm Tiffany Hanssen, in for Alison Stewart. We are talking with The Lemon Twigs about their forthcoming album, A Dream Is All We Know. Forthcoming, as in, out on May 3rd. Michael and Brian, I said let's play some music, so let's play some music. How about?

Brian D'Addario: Cool.

Michael D'Addario: Cool.

[MUSIC - The Lemon Twigs: How Can I Love Her More]

My baby works real hard and she comes home late each night

She knows that I really love her

I get to cryin' when she's not right by my side

She knows that I would never say a bad thing about her

But has she found just what she's looking for

She walks right through that door and I say I miss you

But I don't think it's enough, and I'm left here wonderin'

My baby sets her mind and she always gets her prize

She turns out right she never falters

I get to wonderin' what is really on her mind

I hope that she would never think that I would ever doubt her

But has she found just what she's looking for

She walks right through that door and I say I miss you

But I don't think it's enough, and I'm left here wonderin'

How can I love her more than before

Say a bad thing about our love (Say a bad thing about our love)

Say a bad thing about our love (Say a bad thing about our love)

But has she found just what she's looking for

She walks right through that door and I say I miss you

But I don't think it's enough and I'm left

Oh, has she found just what she's looking for

She walks right through that door and I say I miss you

But I don't think it's enough, and I'm left here wonderin'

How can I love her more than before

Tiffany Hanssen: That song, in case you couldn't tell from the last line, is called, How Can I Love Her More.

Brian D'Addario: That's its debut. [unintelligible 00:28:59].

Tiffany Hanssen: I like it. Tell me about that. Tell me about this song.

Michael D'Addario: It's like an upbeat Turtles type of tune. I wrote that pretty much alone. We're going to do a video for it next week or something.

Tiffany Hanssen: We got the scoop?

Michael D'Addario: Yes, you got the scoop.

Tiffany Hanssen: Before we let you go, because we're running out of time here, I want to mention that All Of It is in the midst of our 2024 public song project. Listeners are invited to submit songs based on work in the public domain. You can join our public song project by going to wnyc.org/publicsongproject. Another part of this project is that we have some guest contributors. I think we all know where this is going. You guys are included in the guest contribution. Tell us about that.

Brian D'Addario: We just finished mixing it last night. It's a song called Tired of Me. I'm blanking on the writers right now, but I know a version by Henry Burr that was done in about 1920. I got into Henry Burr through Tiny Tim, who I'm a big fan of. We're both fans of.

Michael D'Addario: Yes, big Tiny Tim fans.

Brian D'Addario: He loves Henry Burr's voice. We love his voice.

Michael D'Addario: We love Henry Burr's voice, too. We just loved the song. We did a-- it's not real country, but it's got a swing country feel, but it's a really great song, I think. I think we did a good job.

Tiffany Hanssen: We'll hear that, won't we?

Brian D'Addario: Yes.

Tiffany Hanssen: All right.

Brian D'Addario: You can be the judge of that.

Tiffany Hanssen: That's right. We've been talking with The Lemon Twigs, A Dream Is All We Know is their forthcoming album. It's coming out May 3rd. Thank you so much for being in studio with us.

Michael D'Addario: Thanks for having us.

Brian D'Addario: Thank you for having us.

 

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