When Jarrod Gorbel began writing new songs for his band The Honorary Title last year, he was exhausted from the trip his musical career had taken. He had dealt with an ever-changing band lineup, label switches, personal demons and crises, and the overall ego battering that comes with the current evolution of the music industry. “It was kind of like VH1’s Behind The Music, minus the fame or wealth,” says the singer-songwriter, whose new album Devil’s Made A New Friend will be his debut release under his own name. “But all of those experiences made me realize how far away I’d gotten from who I really was, as a person and an artist.” Though the past couple years had been a nightmarish rollercoaster ride, they were also part of a crucial rite of passage for Gorbel. By last summer, he knew he had to find a way to create something closer to his own heart: unfiltered, unbiased, produced in a way that didn’t veer too far from the songs’ original intention. The results are Gorbel’s best songs yet, mining classic soul, traditional folk and Americana, and incorporating strings, horns and female backing vocals for a sound more lush and organic than any of his previous work.