After over 50 years in the music business, Lenny Kaye, best known for being the longest-serving member of the Patti Smith Group, is out with his debut solo album, Goin’ Local.
So, why did it take so long for the 79-year-old Kaye to make a solo album?
He tells ABC Audio he’s had many of these songs for years, noting, “I wrote them, many of them, just for my own personal artistic satisfaction.”
He says one of the reasons he wanted to release them now is because he needed “artistic closure,” adding “a lot of the songs are kind of personal.”
“I write them because I need to in a certain way,” he explains. “That to me is one of the ways in which you can understand yourself, a relationship, a sense of who you are.”
Kaye has already released several tracks from the album, including the title track, “The Things You Leave Behind” and “Solstice,” co-written by Smith.
Kaye says it “feels great” to finally share these personal songs with the public.
“I mean, it’s also kind of a culmination of the many personas I’ve had within making music over the many years,” he says. “I love being a new artist.”
And Kaye says he hopes fans who listen to the album get a feel for who he really is.
“I hope that they understand that I’m a person who feels deeply, who tries to be honest with himself,” he says. “And I just hope that they realize that it’s an honest representation of who I am at this moment in time.”
Goin’ Local is out now. Kaye is currently on tour and is set to play in Sacramento on Friday.
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