Save for a rare show here and there, Twin Brother has been in hiding for much of 2016. There are some reasons for that, actually. Not long after the release of 2014’s Swallow The Anchor, the emotive folk trio’s lineup expanded and changed, as new members were brought into the Twin Brotherhood to fill out the band’s patently barren sound with trumpet and keyboard accompaniment, and to make room for a second guitarist. Meanwhile, Tyler Nelson (drummer and one of two founding members) departed and Lodewijk “Lodi” Broekhuizen transitioned from bass duties to lead guitar. Though integrating new members into the mix ultimately signals promising things for Twin Brother, such a sizable transition is hell on the writing process.
As he was breaking in new members and seeking out another drummer, singer-guitarist Sean Raasch still found time to write new material to keep his songwriting skills sharp and to get a head start on having some songs to present to the new-look Twin Brother when the time was right. Knowing some either wouldn’t make the cut or would take on entirely new shapes in the process, Raasch self-recorded and played (nearly) everything on the just-released holdover album from Twin Brother, fittingly called (solo). He sporadically recorded the nine mournful, faintly-experimental, and somehow even more stripped-down songs in the band’s downtown rehearsal space over the last two years. Raasch says he had twice as many songs written, but these are his favorite of the batch.
“Part of releasing it now is because of the current transition,” Raasch says. “I can’t stand staying stagnant, so this is a way of mine to keep pushing while other things get situated.”
Raasch says he’s unlikely to play any of the songs live, so the Name-Your-Price Bandcamp download might be the only way to ever hear them. Give (solo) a listen as you wait for Twin Brother to come back better than ever as a six-piece at some point this year.