Lead singer of Communist Daughter writes his life into song

Communist Daughter, a Minneapolis native band, will be performing at Jackpot Saloon this Thursday, Sept. 20. While most indie-rock music fans associate the name Communist Daughter with the title of a song by Neutral Milk Hotel, the band has taken on the name as their own.

Frontman Johnny Solomon walked away from music a few years back while he struggled with mental health and addiction, but since then he has revisited music with a clean and sober outlook. Solomon turned his troubles into songs about what he personally was going through at the time, creating a very relatable onstage presence that the band posses as a whole. The song “Speed of Sound,” from the band’s first album “Soundtrack to the End,” opens with Solomon singing, “Man I hate this town / So I’m looking for the only way out / And the life I wanted years ago is maybe not the life I should have found.”

Since the album’s release in April of 2010, Communist Daughter has had two songs on Grey’s Anatomy, one being “Speed of Sound,” in addition to being named NPR’s favorite in-studio session of 2010. Their performances are sprinkled with stories to validate each songs meaning, and the harmony between Solomon and Moore elevates their music to a new level.

Solomon, now married to vocalist Molly Moore, has continued to pour his personal life into his songs, and the band’s most recent release, “Lions and Lambs,” proves that this method works wonders. When asked if he was worried about the personal level of his songs in an interview with Earbuddy, Solomon responded by saying, “I guess I am not really worried about it in regards to how personal my songs are. It’s how I write. I’m not an entertainer, I’m a songwriter, and I write what I know.”

— Edited by Sarah McCabe

Lyndsey Havens is a journalism major from Chicago, Ill. Read more from .

  • Updated Jan. 30, 2013 at 12:23 am