The Lemon Twigs are an American rock band from the Hicksville

neighborhood A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neigh ...

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

, New York. The duo consists of brothers Brian and Michael D'Addario. Both brothers are vocalists,

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

s and

multi-instrumentalist A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays two or more musical instruments, often but not exclusively at a professional level of proficiency. Also known as woodwind doubler, doubling, the practice allows greater ensemble flexibility and mor ...

s, and during live performances they are joined by Danny Ayala (keyboards, vocals, bass) and Reza Matin (drums, vocals, guitar). The band's music has been noted for its stylistic roots in 1960s and 1970s pop and rock music, ranging from

power pop Power pop (also typeset as powerpop) is a subgenre of rock music and form of pop rock based on the early music of bands such as the Who, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Byrds. It typically incorporates melodic hooks, vocal harmonies, ...

glam rock Glam rock is a style of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s and was primarily defined by the flamboyant clothing, makeup, and hairstyles of its musicians, particularly platform shoes and glitter. Glam artists d ...

art rock Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an ar ...

, and

jangle pop Jangle pop is a Music subgenre, subgenre of pop rock and college rock that emphasizes jangle, jangly guitars and 1960s-style pop music, pop melodies. The "jangly" guitar sound is characterized by its clean, shimmering and Arpeggio, arpeggiated ...

. Since their commercial debut in 2016, the Lemon Twigs have released five studio albums, one live album, and an EP. The D'Addarios have also collaborated musically with other acts, including

Weyes Blood Natalie Laura Mering (born June 11, 1988), known professionally as Weyes Blood (pronounced , like "wise blood"), is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. She was primarily raised in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. She has been performing her o ...

and

Todd Rundgren Todd Harry Rundgren (born June 22, 1948) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who has performed a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the bands Nazz and Utopia. He is known for his sophistica ...

History

Early childhood

Brian and Michael were born two years apart from each other, both in March. Ronnie D'Addario, their father, is a musician and songwriter from Manhattan who played with Irish folk singer Tommy Makem. Susan Hall, their mother, is a neuropsychologist from Ohio who pursued acting and entertainment in her younger years. The first few years of the D'Addario brothers' lives were spent in an apartment in

Flushing, Queens Flushing is a neighborhood in the north-central portion of the New York City Borough (New York City), borough of Queens. The neighborhood is the fourth-largest central business district in New York City. Downtown Flushing is a major commercial ...

. The family then moved to a house in the suburbs of Long Island. The brothers were raised in a musical household and learned to play and sing at a very early age, developing an obsession with

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

that was passed down from their father.

Formation and first years

Brian and Michael D'Addario had extensive stage experience as children. Brian played

Gavroche Gavroche () is a fictional character in the 1862 novel ''Les Misérables'' by Victor Hugo. He is a boy who lives on the streets of Paris. His name has become a synonym for an urchin or Street children, street child. Gavroche plays a short yet si ...

in '' Les Miserables'' and Flounder in '' The Little Mermaid'' on Broadway. Michael appeared in '' The Coast of Utopia'', ''The Radio City Christmas Spectacular'', and the 2008 production of '' All My Sons''. Michael also appeared in a variety of television shows and films, such as ''

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before Presidency of John Adams, his presidency, he was a leader of ...

'' on HBO, '' Are We There Yet?'' on TBS, and the 2012 films '' People Like Us'' and '' Sinister''. The D'Addario brothers first played music together in a cover band called Members of the Press. The Lemon Twigs were founded by the brothers while they were both students at Hicksville High School on Long Island, New York. The siblings both perform lead vocals, lead guitar, drums and other instruments. Their first release was the cassette ''What We Know'', issued in a limited edition of 100 copies (with digital download) in 2015 by Winspear.

2016–2018: ''Do Hollywood''

The Lemon Twigs - Haldern Pop Festival 2018-1

In 2014, the unsigned D'Addarios approached Jonathan Rado of Foxygen on

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with demo recordings in hopes of attracting interest. Rado flew the brothers out to Los Angeles to record a series of basic album tracks and spent 18 months engineering and refining the tracks. The brothers also signed with the British independent label 4AD. On the resulting album, '' Do Hollywood'' (2016), each brother took the lead on vocals and guitar on the songs he composed; during live performances, this setup was preserved, with the remaining D'Addario playing the drums, and fellow schoolmates Megan Zeankowski and Danny Ayala (who have played with the D'Addarios on and off since their youth) playing bass and keyboards, respectively. Ayala also sang backing vocals. The Lemon Twigs served as opening act for fellow New York City/Long Island-based alt-rockers Sunflower Bean on their East Coast tour in late 2016 and performed on television programs like ''

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon ''The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by actor and comedian Jimmy Fallon that airs on NBC. The show premiered on February 17, 2014, and is produced by Broadway Video and Universal Television. It i ...

'', ''

CBS This Morning ''CBS This Morning'' (''CTM'') is an American morning television program that aired on CBS from November 30, 1987 to October 29, 1999, and again from January 9, 2012 to September 6, 2021. On November 1, 1999, the original incarnation was repla ...

'' "Saturday Sessions" and '' Conan, Jimmy Kimmel, Jools Holland, Seth Myers'' along the way. In early 2017 it was announced that the band would play on day one of the

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival Coachella (officially called the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and sometimes known as Coachella Festival) is an annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley in the Colora ...

in Indio, California on April 14, 2017. This performance saw the Twigs joined by one of the band's "favorite musicians ever, in the whole world",

, to play "Couldn't I Just Tell You" from Rundgren's classic 1972 double album, '' Something/Anything?'' The Lemon Twigs released the ''Do Hollywood'' tracks "These Words" and "As Long As We're Together" as a double-A-side single, and made videos for both songs. The third single was the album opener, "I Wanna Prove to You", with a video directed by Nick Roney. The band played at several major festivals in the summer of 2017, such as

Glastonbury Glastonbury ( , ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury is less than across the River ...

Outside Lands Outside Lands was the name used in the 19th century for the present-day Richmond District and Sunset District on the West Side of San Francisco. With few roads and no public transportation, the area was covered by sand dunes and was conside ...

Lollapalooza Lollapalooza () is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991, with Chicago becoming its permanent location beginning in 2005. Music genres i ...

, Austin City, and the

Montreux Montreux (, ; ; ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, Swiss municipality and List of towns in Switzerland, town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Swiss Alps, Alps. It belongs to the Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut (district), Riviera-Pays ...

, in addition to opening for Phoenix across the United States. The Lemon Twigs performed with Thomas Hedlund of Phoenix on drums while supporting Phoenix at the Hollywood Bowl alongside Mac DeMarco. In September 2017 the band released an EP, ''Brothers of Destruction'', containing songs recorded during the ''Do Hollywood'' sessions.

2018–2019: ''Go to School''

The band's second album, '' Go to School'', a musical about a chimpanzee raised as a human boy, was released on August 24, 2018. Singles included: "If You Give Enough," "Small Victories," and "The Fire." The album debuted at number 93 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

on September 6, 2018. The band were also announced as one of the support acts for

Arctic Monkeys Arctic Monkeys are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Sheffield in 2002. They comprise lead singer Alex Turner, drummer Matt Helders, guitarist Jamie Cook and bassist Nick O'Malley. The co-founder and original bassist Andy Nicholson ...

' 2018 tour in support of their album '' Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino''. Appearing on the album were

and

Big Star Big Star was an American rock band formed in Memphis, Tennessee in 1971 by Alex Chilton (vocals, guitar), Chris Bell (vocals, guitar), Jody Stephens (drums), and Andy Hummel (bass). They have been described as the "quintessential American ...

drummer Jody Stephens. Prior to beginning their run of shows promoting ''Go to School'', the group underwent a number of personnel changes. Both Megan Zeankowski and Danny Ayala were replaced by Daryl Johns (bass), Andres Valbuena (drums) and Tommaso Taddonio (keyboards).

2020: ''Songs for the General Public''

On March 2, 2020, the band announced that '' Songs for the General Public'', their third studio album, was scheduled to be released on May 1, 2020. However, due to complications of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the album's release was changed to August 21, 2020. Singles included: "The One," "Moon," "Only A Fool," and "No One Holds You (Closer Than the One You Haven't Met)."

2023: ''Everything Harmony''

In March 2023, the D'Addarios backed Zombies singer

Colin Blunstone Colin Edward Michael Blunstone (born 24 June 1945) is an English singer and songwriter. In a career spanning more than 60 years, Blunstone came to prominence in the mid-1960s as the lead singer of the Rock music, rock band the Zombies, which rel ...

at the

South by Southwest South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

festival in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

. On May 5, 2023, the Twigs released their fourth album, '' Everything Harmony'', through Captured Tracks. It was self-produced by the band and received positive reviews from critics. The album produced the singles "Corner of My Eye," "In My Head," "Anytime of Day," and "Every Day Is the Worst Day of My Life." The band supported the album release with a tour of North America and western Europe, concluding in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

on June 1, 2023.

2024: ''A Dream Is All We Know''

'' A Dream Is All We Know'' is the band's fifth studio album, released on May 3, 2024. It was preceded by four singles, the first being "power-pop anthem" "My Golden Years" on January 2, 2024. The album and album artwork were subsequently announced on ''

'' on January 31, 2024. The three succeeding singles for the album were: "They Don't Know How To Fall In Place", "A Dream Is All I Know", and "How Can I Love Her More". In May 2024, the Lemon Twigs began a tour of North America and Europe in support of ''A Dream Is All We Know'', including a string of shows opening for Lake Street Dive and a main stage performance at the

Primavera Sound Primavera Sound (commonly referred to as Primavera) is an annual music festival held at the Parc del Fòrum in Barcelona, Spain, during late May and early June. It was founded in 2001 by Pablo Soler as "a showcase for Spanish Noise rock, noise ban ...

festival in Barcelona. On August 9, they performed at San Francisco's annual

festival. On September 1, they played the End of the Road Festival in southwest England.

2025: Brian D'Addario solo album

On February 19, 2025, Brian D'Addario released a single, "Till The Morning", from a solo album of the same name released on March 20. Despite the solo billing, Michael D'Addario co-produced the album, contributed backing vocals, and co-wrote two of the songs. Former Beach Boys collaborator Stephen Kalinich also wrote the lyrics for two songs. D'Addario described the album's sound as "country

baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

Collaborations

The Lemon Twigs played on Foxygen's 2017 album '' Hang'', credited as playing drums, percussion, acoustic and electric guitar, bass guitar, piano and organ. They also were players on

's '' Titanic Rising'', released in 2019 via Sub Pop records. Michael played drums on three of the tracks, while Brian played guitar, bass, piano and synthesizer on five tracks; he is also credited with production on "Mirror Forever" and providing the string arrangement to album opener "A Lot's Gonna Change", and instrumental closer "Nearer To Thee." The Lemon Twigs performed on many tracks for Tim Heidecker's album '' Fear of Death'', released on September 25, 2020, alongside Weyes Blood. They are credited for playing bass guitar, acoustic and electric guitar, drums, vocals, and mellotron. The Twigs collaborated with

on the song "I'm Leaving" from Rundgren's 2022 album, ''

Space Force A space force is a military branch of a nation's armed forces that conducts military operations in outer space and space warfare. The world's first space force was the Russian Space Forces, established in 1992 as an independent military service. ...

''. They provided backing vocals on Chris Stamey's 2025 single, "I'd Be Lost Without You".

Style

The Lemon Twigs' musical style has been described as

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with a DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and s ...

, baroque rock,

, and

. In a 2024 interview, band member Michael D'Addario described the band's sound as fundamentally "

pop rock Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre and form of rock music characterized by a strong commercial appeal, with more emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than standard rock musi ...

. ... It's not always power pop and it's certainly not always glam rock. ... The through line would be pop structures and rock-based instrumentation." Michael cited

and the Beach Boys as their ultimate musical influences, adding that their other musical influences were in turn inspired by those bands. (The brothers jokingly refer to this mashup of Beatles and Beach Boys sounds as a genre called "Merseybeat, Mersey California sound, Beach".) In 2016, ''The Times'' characterized the Lemon Twigs' early sound as "a modern-day band combining the melodic, harmony-rich soft rock of Wings (band), Wings and Supertramp, the underground cool of

and the Ramones, and the theatricality of Broadway musicals." ''The Guardian'' cited the "humbling beauty of their songs" and their "sumptuous harmonies." A number of diverse pop music figures have publicly expressed admiration for the Twigs: Elton John, the Zombies, Dan Hawkins (musician), Dan and Justin Hawkins, Boy George, Gary Brooker, Iggy Pop,

, Flea (musician), Flea, Gerard Way, Questlove, Alice Cooper, Michael McDonald (musician), Michael McDonald, and Jack Antonoff.

Band members

Current members * Brian D'Addario – vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, trumpet, cello (2014–present) * Michael D'Addario – vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, percussion (2014–present) Touring members * Danny Ayala – keyboards, vocals, bass (2014–2017, 2023–present) * Reza Matin – drums, vocals, guitar, bass (2023–present) Former touring members * Daryl Johns – bass, vocals (2018–2021) * Tommaso Taddonio – keyboards (2018–2019) * Andres Valbuena – drums (2018–2021) * Megan Zeankowski – bass (2014–2017) * Will Berman – drums, guitar, keyboards (2022) * James Richardson – bass, synth, vocals (2021–2022)

Discography

Studio albums

* ''What We Know'' (2015) (limited release) * '' Do Hollywood'' (2016) * '' Go to School'' (2018) * '' Songs for the General Public'' (2020) * '' Everything Harmony'' (2023) * '' A Dream Is All We Know'' (2024) * ''Till the Morning'' (2025) (Brian D'Addario solo album)

EPs

* ''Brothers of Destruction'' (2017)

Singles

* "These Words"/"As Long as We're Together" (2016) * "I Wanna Prove to You" (2017) * "Night Song" (2017) * "Why Didn't You Say That?" (2017) * "Foolin' Around"/"Tailor Made" (2018) * "If You Give Enough" (2018) * "Small Victories" (2018) * "The Fire" (2018) * "The One" (2020) * "Moon" (2020) * "Live in Favor of Tomorrow" (2020) * "No One Holds You Closer (Than The One You Haven’t Met)" (2020) * "Corner of My Eye" (2023) * "Any Time of Day" (2023) * "In My Head" (2023) * "Every Day Is the Worst Day of My Life" (2023) * "My Golden Years" (2024) * "They Don't Know How to Fall in Place" (2024) * "A Dream Is All I Know" (2024) * "How Can I Love Her More?" (2024)

Live albums

* ''The Lemon Twigs LIVE'' (2020)