Reigning ACM and CMA Vocal Duo of the Year, the Brothers Osborne, have had quite the breakthrough year to say the least. In addition to taking home top honors in a very talented and crowded space at both major country music award shows they also racked up a GRAMMY nod. They currently have their fourth single ‘It Ain’t My Fault’ off their debut album ‘Pawn Shop’ in the top 20 for both radio and music video and are working on their sophomore album.
While the last year or so has really been when the Maryland natives T.J. and John have become household names, they have been playing together for quite some time. Growing up their father and uncle would have jam sessions just around the kitchen table. The boys eventually joined in and before long were playing gigs at local bars. From that, as T.J. put it during a recent chat with NECM, they “got the bug” and have been making a living off music ever since. John moved to Nashville first to play in other bands. Two years later T.J. followed and the Brothers began the process of writing and recording music together.
While there are many great duos in country music today, the Brothers stand out in that T.J. does most of the vocals and John lets his guitar do the talking. Much of their music sounds like a duet, it’s just not with two vocalists. One song where this cool concept really plays out is their current single ‘It Ain’t My Fault.’ T.J. says that they went into the write for that song with the idea of having a song with multiple choruses. “You don’t realize it but there’s kinda like 3 choruses in the songs, the hook of the ‘ooohs,’ ‘It Ain’t My Fault’ then ‘I go my hands up, I need an alibi’… I think that’s something the pop world is doing really well, sometimes the song isn’t even that great, but they inject multiple choruses into it and it’s pretty fun. It’s a fun concept.”
T.J. says the brothers have wanted to put the song out for a long time, but are glad it came out when it did, fitting well with everything going on in the world today, “It’s just kinda one of those sayings that you say all the time, and hear all the time, but you don’t really think about how much that’s a part of our lives: not taking the blame.” When it came time to put together the music video for the song, they really wanted to do something different. As T.J. explained, “You have 3, 3 and a half minutes of single time to say something lyrically but the video allows you to add another story to that which is always fun.” They certainly did with this one! They created a mini-movie featuring robbers in masks of various political figures robbing a Pawn Shop (of course a nod to their record). “I think there is not a more relative place for the phrase ‘It Ain’t my Fault’ than politics… It started out with these presidents, then we were like we could make it really comical if we just kind of poke fun at all of them.”
The guys are thankful for all of their success and accolades so far in their career but to them it’s just the beginning. They are hard at work on their second album hoping to avoid a sophomore slump. “John and I write all the time and we know with this (new) record and us having won these past awards, people are expecting a lot from us.” Their goal is to “just carry on the legacy of good songs and honest material that country has been known for since its inception. We knew with this record, we have a lot of expectations, a lots of eyes on us and we’re going to try to deliver on that. Trying to make a good record, especially getting into your sophomore record, everyone talks about the sophomore record being the most difficult. For John and I, we’ve tried really really really hard to take a lot of time off this year, which we have.”
T.J. explained that many new artists get distracted by the fact that after years of grinding and losing money on shows to get your name out there, they finally having some notoriety and being able to make money on shows. These artists then get booked like crazy and end up losing focus on their second album which comes out awful. The brothers are trying like hell to avoid this, actually turning down shows to focus on writing and recording new music. “This is our number one priority to put out a really good record. Hopefully we put it out there, and it will be up to the fans to decide if it’s good or not… Hopefully this one will turn a nomination into a Grammy win, I want one of those on my wall.”
With a limited touring schedule, they guys don’t have any New England dates on their calendar at the moment, but they will be in Western New York at Jam In The Valley July 7th. There is no official release date for their new album, but be sure to follow the guys on social media @brothersosborne so you’ll know once it’s announced. Big thanks to T.J. for taking time out to talk to us! If for some reason you don’t have a copy of Pawn Shop you can get it here.