by Michael D. Ayers, N.Y. |
February 10, 2009 3:41 EST
Jason Lytle
Ex-Grandaddy frontman Jason Lytle will resurface this spring with his Anti- debut "Yours Truly, The Commuter." Due May 19, the 12-song set was recorded last year in Lytle's new home state of Montana.
Except working with Thom Monohan (Dinosaur Jr, Devendra Banhart) on mixing, Lytle wrote everything and played all the instruments.
Since Grandaddy's 2006 split, Lytle has remained rather dormant, sans a brief tour that summer. "By the end of the Grandaddy days I was really burnt out on touring, especially touring the way we did," Lytle tells Billboard.com. "Loads of shows, loads of equipment, loads of people, loads of money spent. It was beginning to not make anymore sense to me.
"Plus, as a band, I believe we had already 'peaked,' so it seemed that things really needed to change. Although at the time, I wasn't sure how," he adds.
That said, "Yours Truly" is not a radical departure from Grandaddy, but the orchestrated "Rollin' Home Alone" and the soaring tempo of "Flying Thru Canyons" build up Lytle's voice in ways that guitars haven't been able to in the past. The sound is softer on the piano ballads "Furget It" and "This Song Is the Mute Button."
Lytle says he hasn't necessarily found any new musical inspirations in the last few years. "It's hard to differentiate the music I make by 'Grandaddy' or 'non-Grandaddy,'" he says. "I think the majority of my musical influences were set in stone when I was five or six years old. I have just basically been trying to achieve similar results all these years with my limited technical abilities."
Although he doesn't plan to tour as heavily as he did in his Grandaddy days, Lytle will hit the road at some point this year. "I'm not so worried about venturing out without a Grandaddy banner above my head," he says. "I've never liked team sports."
Except working with Thom Monohan (Dinosaur Jr, Devendra Banhart) on mixing, Lytle wrote everything and played all the instruments.
Since Grandaddy's 2006 split, Lytle has remained rather dormant, sans a brief tour that summer. "By the end of the Grandaddy days I was really burnt out on touring, especially touring the way we did," Lytle tells Billboard.com. "Loads of shows, loads of equipment, loads of people, loads of money spent. It was beginning to not make anymore sense to me.
"Plus, as a band, I believe we had already 'peaked,' so it seemed that things really needed to change. Although at the time, I wasn't sure how," he adds.
That said, "Yours Truly" is not a radical departure from Grandaddy, but the orchestrated "Rollin' Home Alone" and the soaring tempo of "Flying Thru Canyons" build up Lytle's voice in ways that guitars haven't been able to in the past. The sound is softer on the piano ballads "Furget It" and "This Song Is the Mute Button."
Lytle says he hasn't necessarily found any new musical inspirations in the last few years. "It's hard to differentiate the music I make by 'Grandaddy' or 'non-Grandaddy,'" he says. "I think the majority of my musical influences were set in stone when I was five or six years old. I have just basically been trying to achieve similar results all these years with my limited technical abilities."
Although he doesn't plan to tour as heavily as he did in his Grandaddy days, Lytle will hit the road at some point this year. "I'm not so worried about venturing out without a Grandaddy banner above my head," he says. "I've never liked team sports."
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