Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle Ages in Reverse

Former Grandaddy frontman returns with solo album.

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credit: wendy lynch
credit: Wendy Lynch

Jason Lytle is a tenacious musician, for sure. When much-beloved indie-poppers Grandaddy called it quits shortly before their final farewell, Just Like the Fambly Cat, in 2006, Lytle braved the follow-up tour by his lonesome.

“By the end of the Grandaddy days, I was really burnt out on touring … It was beginning to not make anymore sense to me,” the former frontman told Billboard recently. But after several years of regrouping, Lytle made a subtle reemergence by pairing up with M. Ward for his upcoming Hold Time, and now, finally, has decided to trailblaze a solo career.

Signed to California label Anti- and fresh out of the studio in his homestate of Montana, Lytle is set to release his debut Yours Truly, the Commuter on May 19th. Despite its traditional 12-track lineup, Lytle assures his solo venture is no retreat from the neo-psychedelic oddities that defined Grandaddy, though he’s taken all the songwriting on himself, as well as manned every instrument.

His only accomplices for Yours Truly has been Thom Monahan (Pernice Brother and production guru for the likes of Dinosaur Jr. and Devendra Banhart) to handle mixing.

“It’s hard to differentiate the music I make by ‘Grandaddy’ or ‘non-Grandaddy,’” says Lytle. “I think the majority of my musical influences were set in stone when I was five or six years old. I have just basically been trying to achieve similar results all these years with my limited technical abilities.”

For now, live dates are in limbo, but Lytle has said it shouldn’t be a stretch to see him on the road this year, in some capacity.

Here’s the track list:

1. Yours Truly, the Commuter
2. Brand New Sun
3. Ghost of My Old Dog
4. I Am Lost (And the Moment Cannot Last)
5. Birds Encouraged Him
6. It’s the Weekend
7. Fürget It
8. This Song Is the Mute Button
9. Rollin’ Home Alone
10. You’re Too Gone
11. Flying Thru Canyons
12. Here for Good