Acclaimed country duo Brothers Osborne stretched their creative process farther than ever with their 2023 self-titled album. Along with an expanded and experimental soundscape, the stellar project also features a few new collaborators.
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Their standout track, “We Ain’t Good at Breaking Up,” was crafted by TJ and John Osborne, longtime songwriting partner Jesse Frasure, and fellow country hitmaker Miranda Lambert.
“It was amazing writing with Miranda because it’s super hard as an artist to take your artist’s hat off and just write for another artist,” John Osborne told American Songwriter during their 2023 cover story interview. “But she’s really the best that I have seen at doing that. We had just had so much fun.”
“Miranda just has that thing,” TJ Osborne added. “When she came in and started singing on it, we just knew this was cool and something we haven’t done before.”
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“I actually was thinking about my relationship and, without getting into it, there were just reasons why it didn’t make sense for us to be together,” TJ Osborne continued. “We really loved each other. And when we tried not to get to a place where we were destroying that, we would try to be super practical and end the relationship, but we just couldn’t do it.
“We would have therapy sessions, sit down and be like, ‘Okay, we’re here to try to untangle this,'” he added. “And then we went into therapy session like, I love you. So I started joking that we were not good at breaking up because we weren’t. As I was joking with some people about it, Jesse Frazier said, ‘Oh my God, we have to write that idea. We had a write come in within a couple of weeks that Miranda was already scheduled on.”
The trio went into the already planned co-write with that idea fresh on their minds. It didn’t take long for inspiration to strike, leading to the creation of “We Ain’t Good at Breaking Up.” Both Osborne brothers reiterated how easily the process was with Lambert in the mix.
“It felt natural,” John Osborne added. “The song felt super real; it’s so true and one of my favorites on the whole album.”
Miranda Lambert (L) photo by Terry Wyatt/WireImage; Brothers Osborne (R) photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images
