After 40 years with Infidels and stints in such Youngstown bands as The 8 Balls and The Smarties, Dave Lisko is going solo with “Spiders & the Sun.”

Lisko, who now lives in Rochester, N.Y., still is active with Infidels, which releases its first album in 22 years on Friday with “Never Forever,” but his solo debut will be available two weeks later on Sept. 5.

“Spiders & the Sun” was born during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I had a little Tascam 24-track (recorder) at home, which I hadn’t taken out for a long time, and I started writing songs,” he said. “Since 2020 I’ve written 140 songs. Half of them are crap like, ‘Let’s write something in 5/4 time.’ Yeah, no. Or ‘I’m going to write something with trumpets.’ But half of them were OK, there’s something there. And half of those, I thought, ‘These are actually pretty good.”

He started sharing them with musical friends — his Infidels’ bandmates Pete Drivere, John Hlumyk and John Koury as well as Chris Leonardi, whose bands include Slack Jaw and Dopamine as well as playing keyboards occasionally with Infidels.

“Chris was very influential in me doing this,” Lisko said. “He said, “These aren’t necessarily Infidels songs, but you need to do this, and I’d love to work with you.”

Lisko thought he had 30 songs worth recording. Leonardi expanded that number to 35.

Drivere, Leonardi and Lisko produced the album at Drivere’s Ampreon Recorder. Members of Infidels, 8 Balls and Smarties appear on the record, but Lisko brought in some new collaborators as well, including Don Yallech (music director with Easy Street Productions, former drummer with Psychedelic Furs), Jackie Popvec (The Vindys) and Ed Davis (former drummer with The Vindys and Red Wanting Blue).

“I’ve known all these people, great musicians who I like personally and respect their music, but I’d never played with or recorded with,” he said. “It was this cool idea of bringing in these great Youngstown people and letting them put their flair on it. It was never like, ‘This is the song, play this.’ It was, ‘This is the song. Play what you play and we’ll make it work.'”

Lisko had a couple less well-known collaborators as well. His children Sebastian and Sienna appear on the final song “Sebastian Sing.” It started out playing around with his kids, but Sebastian took it seriously. He said he needed a minute to come up with something that rocks and left the room. He comes back out and delivers the performance that inspired the song and gives the album its title.

He also may be the next generation of Lisko musicians. He recently informed his guitar-playing dad that he wanted to be a drummer.

“I said, ‘That’s great. I will encourage you to do whatever you want. But just remember, your dad has a lot of guitars. Like, a lot.’ And this is what my kid says to me, ‘But, dad, I’d rather be in a band with you.'”

One of those pandemic songs, “When the Clock Strikes 12,” leads off the new Infidels album “Never Forever,” and a couple others he may hold back for a future Infidels’ release.

When he started working with Leonardi, Lisko knew he wanted “Ordinary” (the only song included that was written before 2020), “The Other Side,” “Turn the Sun” and “Sebastian Sing” on the album. After that it was a case of figuring out which songs would be best alongside those.

Many of the tracks on “Spiders & the Sun” wouldn’t sound out of place among the well-crafted rock and power pop songs that are Infidels’ forte, but Lisko’s album also includes more experimental tracks like “Huminsanity” with its chaotic swirl of synthesizers and percussion.

Drawing inspiration from an article he’d read that songwriters should try writing on an instrument that they don’t normally play in order to break out of familiar patterns, Lisko started playing around with a synthesizer his father-in-law gave him. The sounds he was generating reminded him of a serial killer, but he also thought they worked with the lyric, “The grind of life chips away …” He considered it a throwaway song among the other songs he sent to friends, but Leonardi, Yallech and Tim Gilliland of The 8 Balls all singled it out as one of their favorites.

“They’re like, ‘It’s so different, but it’s interesting.’ So that’s how that got on there,” Lisko said. “An oddball song adds color.”

Lisko doesn’t envision doing any live shows in support of the record, but he didn’t rule it out. One thing is certain — Lisko’s solo debut won’t be his only solo album. Lisko was back home last weekend to work on that second album, which will feature appearances by Larry Kennedy of The Jellybricks and Paul Skowron, who was lead singer for Youngstown hard rock act Noisy Mama, which was signed to Atco Records.

“Spiders & the Sun” will be available to hear on all streaming services starting Sept. 5. The CD and orange vinyl physical release will be available through Bandcamp and area music stores.