Brothers Osborne are giving fans a little taste of everything with their self-titled, fourth studio album. A project they say is heavily influenced by some of their favorite musical icons and decades, the real-life brothers promise the project is something new and exciting for their fans.
LISTEN NOW: Brothers Osborne discuss new, self-titled album on the Friday Night Takeover
“The more music you make, the less and less you have of what area you haven’t really charted into before,” TJ Osborne told Rob + Holly of the brothers exploring new sounds for this project. “This time we were like, ‘we haven’t really done anything with like, synthesizers, or a few other things, or approached things differently,’ so that was a big part [of the inspiration].”
John added, “If you look at a lot of our influences…. You look at ZZ Top when they hit the ‘80s they just leaned into it. If you listen to [Bruce] Springsteen, he leaned into it with synthesizers and stuff like that and we tried it, it just seemed to really work with what we do.”
While the duo was excited to explore new territory with their music, they admit they were careful not to stray too far from the sounds their fans have enjoyed from past projects. “You do want to evolve so it doesn’t get boring — not only for us, but for the fans and everyone playing the music — but there is that element of you don’t want to lose whatever it was that people liked about you originally either,” said TJ. “That is the challenging part, but it’s what we love. We love creating, we love challenging ourselves.”
That’s exactly what John and TJ did as they co-wrote every song on the album, including the chart-climbing single, “Nobody’s Nobody,” where they preach acceptance, love, and inclusion.
“We live in a very divisive world,” John stated before diving deeper into the idea behind the lyrics. “We have quite progressive views on a lot of things, but we grew up with a lot of people that have very conservative views — a lot of our family is like that — and we all love each other and get along.”
He continued, “We truly believe that we can all get along and you do that by realizing that everyone is important… Nobody is literally Nobody. Everyone is someone, especially when it comes to those they love and we just wanted to convey that message in a very seemingly divisive time.”
Their music and lyrics continue to lead them to success as the reigning CMA Vocal Duo of the Year celebrate being nominated again in this category, hoping to take home their fifth win in the category and seventh CMA Award overall. Additionally, older brother, John, received a songwriting nomination in the Album of the Year category for his work on Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville.
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“It is amazing,” John said of the nomination. “We never feel like we deserve anything. No one, truly, is just entitled to anything. You get out there, you work, and when those things happen, we really stop and smell the roses because this business forces you to chase the carrot dangling from the end of the stick… A nomination stops you and forces you to realize that things are great and we’re very fortunate people.”
Hear more about their reaction to the nomination, the new album and more by checking out the Brothers’ full conversation on the Friday Night Takeover above.