Fans have long understood it: “ Brandi Carlile ” isn’t just the name of a singer — it’s really a band, too, one that has included identical twin brothers Phil and Tim Hanseroth as mainstays and full collaborators for close to a quarter-century. But now we’re getting to see and hear that group without the tip of the triangle, as the Hanseroth Twins step out as a duo with a side project, their just-released debut album for Elektra, “Vera.” “It’s almost a memoir of sorts, the album,” says Tim Hanseroth.
“It’s our truth, it’s our story, it’s just us. And that’s what brings us to the name ‘Vera,’ which is a Latin word meaning true, real, genuine, actual. In the writing, in the performing, the singing, the production, we just wanted it to be authentic and like real.
” Of course, Carlile’s two decades of records have been about nothing if not truth-telling, and the Hanseroths have been a big part of that, having a hand in the writing of most of the songs. But there was some of this actuality that felt like it applied more to their lives than something she felt honest in singing herself. And that, along with Carlile wanting to take a year off from the recording/touring cycle herself, led to the brothers re-learning what it felt like to specialize in two-part harmony — or do actual solo lead vocals — instead of their usual three-.
Variety spoke with the Washington-born-and-bred brothers during a recent promo stop in L.A., where they sang for .