Lemon Twigs, how to survive out of the fashions of the time

Between the garage distortions of the jets and the electric blues of the Black Keys, the next July 15 on the stage of the Ama Music Festival Lemon Twigs will also go up. The duo, formed by the Addario brothers, New Yorkers who grew up among the glam ghosts of the 70s, will stage their somewhat retromaniaco sound. The band will return to Italy so after the passage of last December to present the latest album “A Dream is all we know” (here our review): “The tour is going very well. The songs of the last album have become natural to play and we are testing many new ones with the audience”, explains the group to Rockol a few days before returning to our parts: “They have a rather immediate quality, so it was nice to see us First listening. Waiting to see them in action a Romano d’Ezzelino, in the province of Vicenzahere is the interview with Lemon Twigs, between reflections on being a rock band in 2025 and the instinct that guides all their pace on stage.

What can the Italian public expect from your set? Do you plan some surprise for this show?

In a sense, it is a more refined set than the last time we have been to Italy. There will certainly be different songs, some new covers and modified arrangements. We will also include some songs from my solo album, which had not yet come out when we played the last time in Italy. The flow of the show is much improved. It is quite energetic.

Over the years, how has your approach to live performance changed, in particular with regard to theatricality and arrangements?

By now we climb on stage in a slightly more casual way. The arrangements are much more precise. There are more harmonies. Now everyone in the band sing, which helps us a lot to complete the arrangements while maintaining only four tools. We like the fact that the sound can be full without becoming confused.

Theatricality has always been a central part of your identity. How much of your style on stage is instinctive and how much is it planned?

It is practically all instinctive. Maybe natural patterns develop after making many concerts in a row, but we try not to plan too much.

“A Dream is all we know,” has marked an evolution in your sound. How would you describe this change compared to previous discs? And what do you focus on more when you bring these songs live?

It was much more fun than the previous album. “Everything Harmony” of 2023 was very focused on the ballads and had a more serious tone. The latter is more carefree, even if we have edited the production a lot. When we play these new live songs, we focus mainly on singing. The instrumental parts now come to us automatically, but the voices always require attention, if you want to play the harmonies well.

Your music melts Glam, Classic Rock and Power Pop – that type of melodic and guitar pop that lives on rickenbackers, arpeggios and a certain cult devotion. Do you feel part of that tradition? And what still fascinates you of that language? It has always been a kind of niche, almost underground, yet every now and then it manages to get to the mainstream: do you think what keeps it alive and why does it continue to resonate today?

It continues to resonate today because, even by remaining in those borders, many things can be done at the harmonious and melodic level. Live many of our songs are arranged for two guitars, but in the studio we also like to use orchestral instruments and keyboards. But we discovered that, especially with the twelve ropes, the sound of guitars has an almost orchestral quality, which it fills a lot.
We feel part of the tradition of these guitar pop bands, but we don’t think that our original material is a tribute to that past. We believe there are still many new songs to write, many interesting melodies to invent. We do not have the ambition to create a “new sound” to be emulated to others. We just want to be faithful to the sound of our voice and our melodic and lyrical tendencies, which we believe are unique.

Your work often evokes the 60s and 70s, but never sounds like pure nostalgia. How do you find the balance between the tribute to the past and the remaining anchored to the present?

We always try to write original melodies. If we realize that something is too similar to an existing song, let’s try to change it. We like to combine sound elements of discs that we love, rather than copying the sound of an entire album. But the main makeup is to imagine the song in the head before registering it, thinking of all the possibilities. Each song can be arranged in a thousand different ways and sometimes it is difficult to find the right one. We often record everything in different versions.
We do not make any particular effort to remain rooted in the present. We tend to avoid influences that sound artificial or raffazzonate, which often happens in the music that is produced today. But there is also a lot of valid stuff out there, so we simply listen to what we like, like anyone else.

Nostalgia for you is a creative engine – a lens with which to reinterpret the present – or is it more a choice of style? Look back what allows you to unlock, artistically?

For us, the music of the 60s and 70s does not seem so far in time. We know that the world of pop moves very quickly, and it happened above all when musical technology has started to evolve at a very rapid rhythm. But if the music of the 1960s had a meaning then, and if people continue to listen and love it today, why shouldn’t you let yourself be influenced? And why shouldn’t you get influenced above all by music led by the guitar, if you are a guitarist?
It is like a classic composer who refuses to be inspired by Bach only because he is “too ancient”. We could also be more influenced by Billy Corgan than by Brian Wilson, since we are a generation closer to the time of the Smashing Pumpkins, but his voice is far from our listening.

How do you live today a “rock band”, in a scene dominated by pop, rap and electronics?

It is quite beautiful. When we play at the festivals, we cannot say that we see many other bands with an attitude similar to ours – which, in the end, we believe it is good for us.

At the Ama Music Festival you will share the day with Black Keys and Jet – What relationship do you have with these bands as listeners?

We don’t know them very well. But we are really curious to see them live.

If you could choose any artist, from the past or present, with which to share the stage for a dream evening, who would it be and why?

One of the best live bands ever was the beach boys with Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar in ’72 and ’73. So getting on stage with them would be super fun! They had a crazy energy live and played really interesting pieces. “The Beach Boys in Concert” is one of our favorite live records.