Brendan Kelly (Lawrence Arms) Announces New Band

The Lawrence Arms bassist/vocalist Brendan Kelly’s has revealed details about his new solo project, Brendan Kelly and the Wandering Birds.

The band, which predominantly features Kelly and his long time friend  Nick Martin, has finished work on a full length record that will be available though Red Scare Industries in February. However, they will release a three song digital EP, A Man With The Passion of Tennessee Williams, on December 27th. 

Kelly gave more details to Alternative Press saying:

“After Buttsweat And Tears came out I didn’t really feel like I had any ideas for any new songs, or at least nothing that seemed interesting to me. I also didn’t have a lot of time because I was suddenly a dad. After a while, I started to get really antsy to create something new and different, but I had no direction. I remembered an old interview with Billie Joe Armstrong that I read in like ’99 where he said something to the effect of, “When a song’s lyrics make me nervous, when I’m kind of apprehensive to show people, those usually end up being the songs that turn out the best, the ones that are the result of me stepping out of my comfort zone.” This resonated with me at the time because I had felt so in my comfort zone with the last two Lawrence Arms records that I couldn’t figure out where else to go, creatively.

SO, I decided to start writing songs that made me nervous. I wrote words that came from a much darker place than before, and songs about things that are usually not the subjects of punk rock songs. This record isn’t an autobiographical one, it’s more of an exploration of some fucked up situations and mental states. Lots of these songs are about feeling pretty trapped and caged and the way that the human brain twists and warps when it can’t do what it wants. That’s where all sorts of fucked up crime and deviance comes from and that’s kind of what this record is exploring, content-wise.”

And no, The Lawrence Arms are not breaking up.