Jarrod Gorbel Starts Over as Solo Act After the Honorary Title

Here's the trouble with naming your singer-songwriter project after something other than yourself: when you decide it's time to adopt your own moniker, it's like starting your career from scratch.

After disassembling the Honorary Title in late 2009, former frontman Jarrod Gorbel began touring under his name while readying his solo debut, Devil's Made a New Friend, due this fall -- but he's not too worried about regaining momentum.

"This is going back to the beginning," Gorbel tells Spinner. "But this time I know what I want and where I want to go. Of course I'm taking a few steps back, but not to where I was at the beginning of the Honorary Title."

Gorbel's former band, which collected accolades from Rolling Stone and Spin, began as a solo venture, after all. The Honorary Title, which officially became a quartet in 2007, was originally just a vehicle for Gorbel's songs.

So why not truck on alone while maintaining the established name? Freedom, says Gorbel. And a bit of a challenge.

"In a lot of ways, doors have opened now. A lot of people wrote off the band because they thought it was something it wasn't," he says. "A lot of people thought we were a punk band or something."

Gorbel's new, mostly-acoustic offerings won't garner any punk comparisons -- his lush folk tunes are singer-songwriter fare through and through. 'Devil's Made a New Friend' is currently being wrapped up with Rilo Kiley's Blake Sennet in the producer's chair.

"The hardcore fans do know me, but when you play a town with Jarrod Gorbel on the flyer, most people won't know that name. I have to re-establish myself," he says. "That's just a risk I have to take."