When Jarrod Gorbel began writing new songs for his band The Honorary Title last year, he was exhausted from the trip his musical career had taken. He had dealt with an ever-changing band lineup, label switches, personal demons and crises, and the overall ego battering that comes with the current evolution of the music industry. "It was kind of like VH1's Behind The Music, minus the fame or wealth," says the singer-songwriter, whose new album Devil's Made A New Friend will be his debut release under his own name. "But all of those experiences made me realize how far away I'd gotten from who I really was, as a person and an artist." Though the past couple years had been a nightmarish rollercoaster ride, they were also part of a crucial rite of passage for Gorbel. By last summer, he knew he had to find a way to create something closer to his own heart: unfiltered, unbiased, produced in a way that didn't veer too far from the songs' original intention. The results are Gorbel's best songs yet, mining classic soul, traditional folk and Americana, and incorporating strings, horns and female backing vocals for a sound more lush and organic than any of his previous work.
For the first time in years, Gorbel was able to record the songs without the supervision of a record label. He had the freedom to take risks with the more folk tinged-songs and had no one to satisfy but himself. This freedom paired with the shedding of the band name gave way to new sounds. From the Seventies folk- and soul-inspired album opener "Extraordinary," to the massive string-led "I'll Do Better," Devil's Made A New Friend is set of 10 songs that capture an artist, as he puts it "starting over, going back to the beginning, and re-establishing myself."
Devil's Made A New Friend will be released on August 31st; after his experiences with traditional labels, Gorbel opted to put out the album as a joint venture with Burning-house records, a new company helmed by a trusted friend and colleague, and his own imprint 'Gorbel Music'. "At first, it was hard to just accept that I'd have to take a few steps back in order to get where I wanted to go," says Gorbel. "But I wanted to make the record i had always envisioned, and needed to sacrifice in order to move forward musically, it was risky going solo but it just felt like a truthful and meaningful venture to take.