Brandi Cyrus Opens Up About Her Music Plans, Shares Cute Unreleased Christmas Anthem

Mike Wass | December 6, 2013 1:22 pm

Brandi Cyrus caused a stir when she worked the red carpet at this year’s American Music Awards as a correspondent for Spin Media. For starters, she looked incredible and turned out to be a wiz with a microphone. But there’s more to Miley‘s older sister than good looks and interview skills.

The 26-year-old plans to take the fashion world by storm and is part of an alt-pop duo called Frank + Derol. The band is on hiatus at the moment due to label issues, which is a shame because their music is very good. A good example is their unreleased cover of “Silver Bells” with Paper Route frontman J.T. Daly.

The hazy, lo-fi approach brings a new perspective to the Christmas standard and the harmonies are on point. I caught up with Brandi to chat about the track, her future music plans and other exciting endeavors. Listen to the song and see what’s next from Ms. Cyrus after the jump.

Is Frank + Derol still together? You guys have been pretty quiet. Frank + Derol is still a band, yes. Unfortunately, earlier this year we had a lot of issues with both our label and our management. It kind of put us between a rock a hard place. We’re trying to figure out how we can put out the music we worked so long and hard on, and would like nothing more than to release something soon.

In the meantime, Codi and I are both working on other great things that we are finally getting a chance to do! For me that includes a clothing line collaboration and a lot of on-air hosting for some cool music networks.

Tell us more about “Silver Bells”. How did you hook up with J.T. Daly? Well I started out as a huge Paper Route fan and got linked up with J.T. in the hopes of working on music together. Our mutual friend Taylor York from Paramore connected us, and we became fast friends!

Why wasn’t the song released? We kind of decided to do this really late in the game last year. To make the most of a Christmas track, you have to plan months and months in advance to release it or really do anything with. The three of us were so slammed until December that we didn’t have time to record the song until the first of the month, but we wanted to do it so bad we just kinda put it out there on our own.

Why did you decide to cover that song? I believe Codi chose the song. She pretty much musically directs everything we do as Frank + Derol, and J.T. was game for anything. I’m really glad she chose it though, it turned out great!

What’s next for you? We want new music! I’m in the middle of getting this clothing line up and going with Rad + Refined. I also anticipate doing a lot of work next year as a music news correspondent, and I’ve got a few other fun things up my sleeve that I can’t exactly announce yet. If you follow me on Twitter you’ll find out very soon what those are!

As for new music — it’s definitely something I want to do. It means the world to me that people love the music we DID get to release. I would love to collaborate more with J.T., he’s really incredible. He has pretty much been on the road all year, but I know he’s always game for making music.

Check out “Silver Bells”:

Do you love Brandi’s Christmas anthem? Let us know in the comments below.

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