Brothers Osborne Discuss The Making Of The ‘Break Mine’ EP, Highlighting New Music And Revisiting Previous Releases

In September of 2023, Brothers Osborne unveiled 11 tracks that they co-wrote for their self-titled album. A few months later, the treated fans to a much shorter array of tunes on their Break Mine EP, which shines some extra light on two previous releases as well as two brand-new tracks. 

Fans might recognize the songs “We Ain’t Good at Breaking Up” and “Back Home,” as they both appear on the full-length project, while “Get to Movin’ Again” and their newest single, “Break Mine,” are fresh additions to their discography. 

New Single “Break Mine” Is Ready To Impact Country Radio

Co-written by members John and TJ alongside Pete Good and Shane McAnally, “Break Mine” opens with a tender guitar solo that leads into a laid-back melody to support the heart-thumping narrative. The duo comes together to deliver their addicting vocals in a string of harmonies that paint a picture of one’s desire to stay attached to a person even if it means it leaves them with a broken heart.  

“If you’re lookin’ for a place to fall for one night, I’ve always got a place in mind/ If you’re lookin’ for a place to land, not a one night stand, baby, that’s just fine/ But if you’re lookin’ for a heart to break, then get here in a straight line/ And break mine,” they sing on the chorus.

Diving Into Their Musical Intentions Behind The Song

While discussing their new single with Country Now and other outlets, John Osborne, who acts as the lead guitarist of the group, discussed their decision to start and end this particular song with a guitar solo. 

“Guitar solos are very intentional, and I’ve always tried to treat them as mini songs within the song. And we do have a couple songs that don’t have them because I just didn’t really feel like it needed, or I couldn’t have said anything through the guitar that would enhance the song,” he explained. “But there’s a yearning for this song. There’s a want, there’s a need, there’s a sense of urgency about the lyric and the message. I wanted the guitar solo to feel that way, like it’s really reaching out for something…It’s something that I really put a lot of thought and creative energy into because at the end of the day, the most important thing is the song and we’re all just trying to pay service to that. I always want to make sure that if there is a guitar solo, it’s not about me, it’s about the song.”

“Break Mine” officially shipped to country radio on Monday, April 15 prior to its add date of Monday, April 29.

Getting Family Members In The Studio To Record The Final Track

The two new songs bookend the EP with “Break Mine” being at the top and “Get to Movin’ Again” sitting at the very end. “Get to Movin’ Again” takes on a very different delivery, both sonically and through the story that’s being told. Brothers Osborne penned it with their close friend Natalie Hemby, and features vocals by members of the duo’s entire family, making it an extremely special sentiment within their catalog. 

They claim the steel-guitar fueled, road trip style anthem was inspired by some of their real-life events and serves as their ode to late country icon, John Prine. Since the lyrics give listeners a glimpse into simple significant moments in their lives, it only made sense to bring on some of those people who helped form those memories and reminisce on their upbringing.  

“What makes it extra special is we got in the studio, and we recorded it with, our mom was there, dad was there, our partners, our sister friends, and we all collectively sang the vocals together,” John explained. “That’s what we did growing up. We would sit around the kitchen table over a birthday or Thanksgiving or Christmas and the nights would end with all of us singing songs. It’s such a fond memory and made us who we are as musicians. So we wanted to pay tribute to that time in our lives by having our families sing along. Everyone was worried about singing and key and we’re like, don’t think about it. Just sing how you normally would sing that will make it special. And after about the third take, everyone was just kind of having a great time and it’s just a really good window into our childhood.”

TJ added, “It was just such a great moment with everyone. Some of ’em were great singers like John’s wife, people that were really used to that kind of thing, and then the total opposite…regardless of what happens with that song, it will always be special to us cause it’s such a family memento, just everyone that was there that day, both of our parents who were divorced and having them sing simultaneously with us on the mic and all that. It was a hilarious day. Not to mention everyone in the studio getting to experience this, it was full of lots of laughter.”

Offering A Fresh Look At Tunes That Appear On The Full-Length Album

In addition to getting to celebrate the new music with fans, the brothers admit they were excited to give the two previously released songs a chance to be re-featured after getting a bit overshadowed among the larger collection. 

“Especially this day and age, we’re aware, it doesn’t hurt my ego at all to think that someone didn’t get to listen to every single song that we put out,” TJ admitted. “As you release, you’re trickling songs out, and all these certain songs that you really love get spotlighted and then the ones that aren’t, people just only have so much time in their day to digest this stuff. So we felt like let’s, hey, these two songs we feel really strongly about and we love, let’s represent these again and try to bring ’em back to people’s minds.”

“So many people don’t even realize that that’s what we just did, which is just proves that is why we did it. We thought they were too good to go unnoticed,” he added. 

Entering The Next Chapter Of Their Careers

Overall, it’s safe to say the four-song EP shows Brothers Osborne in a slightly softer light compared to their more recent string of hard-hitting, guitar focused country/rock anthems that have been lighting up the stages of their live shows. The ACM Duo of the Year nominees deemed this as a reflection of where they are at personally and simply allowed them to connect with a different side of their artistry. 

“I think it probably had a lot to do with just the fact that we’ve done that a lot. We’ve had big songs and we’ve come in hard and we’ll probably do it again. I mean, we love doing that. Our shows are pretty full-on,” TJ explained. “But I think for us, that whole last project was, we wanted to kind of take a musical journey through all of our influences and a lot of this music we recorded in that moment knowing we would eventually get to releasing these songs. So as they went through, I think it was kind of like the story, musically, what we wanted to tell. And then as we rolled into this next chapter of what we wanted to say musically.” 

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The Grammy-winning duo kicked off their 35-date Might As Well Be Us Tour on March 28 in Milwaukee. They will continue with dates throughout 2024, making stops in cities such as Atlanta, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Chicago and more. 

On the road, they are joined by supporting acts Stephen Wilson Jr., The Cadillac Three, Zach Top, Jackson Dean, Madeline Edwards, and Caylee Hammack, all on select dates.