what's the cause of solo projects

I find myself sitting down with some writer's block. As I'm sitting there reading through a list of my ideas for what to write about next, a Big Thief song starts playing on my headphones. Whenever I hear a Big Thief song, I just think about how I found out that Adrianne Lenker was the lead singer since I knew her from her solo career first. I was introduced to Adrianne Lenker's music sometime around 2022, and it took me two years to find out she was also in a band.

Fast forward those two years and I'm in the car with a friend, now I have a slight fear of having aux when I'm in the car with friends but that's for another day and a Big Thief song comes on. It was from Masterpiece, I think it might've been "Real love," and when it was playing, I said this song sounds like super familiar to this one artist I like, you might like them. So I went on to play the Adrianne Lenker song "Two Reverse," and the friend told me it sounded similar. Now I don't entirely remember how we found out that it was the same person singing, but I think it had something to do with Adrianne Lenker posting on Instagram about Big Thief or vice versa.

It really made me start to wonder about all the artists out there pursuing a solo career or beginning a solo project while they're in a band or after the band goes through a breakup.

songs by Adrianne Lenker (2020)

When writing this, I also thought about a recent solo project that just came out that I've been listening to on repeat, and that's the Not For Radio album Melt by María Zardoya, also the lead singer of the Marías, who's actually been my number one most listened to artist for the last four months in a row. She even drew some parallels, although painful, they were recognized instantly by all of her fans. The Marías and their recent hit song "Back to Me," and the song titled "Back to You," in the Not for Radio album. Now I love the Melt album, but I'm curious what this means for María and any more on her solo project Not for Radio, but also what this means for the Marías, considering they recently just ended touring and their last song release was in April of 2025. Will the Marías continue to make music as a band, or will they take some time off, and will María herself dive into her solo career more?

There's a lot of bands where there's members who go off to have their solo careers whether that's continuing with the band or even after separating. It goes back to Fleetwood Mac and then Stevie Nicks having a solo career after, the Smiths to Morrissey, the Fugees to Ms. Lauryn Hill, Destiny's Child to Beyoncé, One Direction to each member having a solo career, Shelly's short-lived experience to Clairo's fame, and so many other notable careers. It makes me curious to see how much these bands could have flourished if they hadn't separated. Or did they separate because their talent wasn't meant to be kept in a band, instead their band wouldn't have gotten nearly as much success or attention if they had stayed in it.

Now I know this is purely hypothetical and even just opinion based but it makes me wonder about the smaller bands this has happened to, are we gonna see a big artist blow up out of nowhere and they actually used to be apart of a seemingly not so popular band? Or what about the artists like Alice Phoebe Lou, a part of Men I Trust, or Adrianne Lenker with Big Thief, and María from the Marías, or Lydia Knight, whose band the Regrettes recently took an indefinite break? What will happen with their solo careers and the bands they're a part of?

Melt by Not For Radio (2025)

How common a phenomenon is it in the music industry? I know at times it's common for when a member or members die, they continue to create a new band. Like when Kurt Cobain died, Nirvana came to an end, but Dave Grohl decided to create the Foo Fighters. But do a lot of solo artists start with bands, and once they get famous enough, they decide to go solo? Or if the band gets famous enough, they scrap any plans of a potential solo career? Or maybe the band has reached its full potential and there's nowhere else to go. Or maybe even a Fleetwood Mac dilemma and there's too much conflict within the group to continue on being a band?

There's a lot of unanswered questions and hypotheticals I have when it comes to bands and solo projects as anyone can clearly tell. But I simply just wonder if this phenomenon that's been seen in the past with the timeline of bands to solo projects will continue. Or will I soon have to say bye to the bands I love, like the Marías, Men I Trust, and Big Thief, and follow up on the solo careers that come out of them? As much of a possibility as that may be I hope it's just unrealistic, then again it might be unrealistic to think that. Despite that, I know no matter what, I'll continue to be a fan. Their music will always live forever, it just reminds me to always jump on any tour for any band because you never know if that will be the last tour they go on together.