The truth is out there. So is a new David Duchovny album.
It may surprise fans of “The X-Files” to know that its star has yet another career, as a singer and songwriter. (He’s also a novelist.) His second album, “Every Third Thought,” is due out Feb. 9.
It’s a collection of roots-rocking originals from someone who first picked up a guitar only six or seven years ago to pass the endless hours in his on-set trailer while filming Showtime’s “Californication.”
“I always loved music and I wanted to be able to play the songs I grew up with,” Duchovny, 57, tells The Post. “I chose guitar because it’s portable. A piano is hard to lug around.”
The native New Yorker learned to appreciate performance in his early 20s, when he tended bar at Radio City Music Hall. It was there he saw Marvin Gaye, Bette Midler and Prince, among many other greats.
The first tunes he learned to pick out on guitar? “Broken Arrow” by Robbie Robertson and “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1” by the Flaming Lips.
Duchovny says making music not only helps keep boredom at bay, but gives him something he can’t get in acting.
“I get to write my own words and have control over what’s coming out of my mouth,” he says.
Many of the songs on the guitar-forward, mid- and down-tempo “Every Third Thought” tackle “love, loss, death and my dad.”
“Sometimes I’ll have a subject in mind, sometimes an image,” Duchovny says. “It just spins out.”
The creative control must be welcome to someone who says he once auditioned for all the lead roles in “Full House” — and was turned down for all of them.
Duchovny doesn’t actually play on the album, which was recorded at a studio in Brooklyn. He says his guitar work isn’t yet sharp enough. Instead, he’s been concentrating on his singing, taking lessons and doing 25 minutes of voice work a day.
He wrote his first song a few months after picking up the guitar.
“I was looking for the easiest songs to play, and I was noticing certain progressions,” he says. “It was like, ‘Not all songs are like [those by the band] Yes — they don’t have 60 chords … why can’t I come up with a melody?’”
The result was “The Things,” a track on his 2015 debut “Hell or Highwater.”
“I felt so proud of myself,” he says. “I recorded it on my GarageBand app on my phone.”
Duchovny is well aware that there will be some eye-rolling at the thought of yet another actor coming out with an album.
“I’m under no illusion that I’m not using my celebrity in another area to draw attention to this. It’s a great opportunity to get the music out there,” he says. “My heart is pure as far as music is concerned. I’m not telling you I’m Pavarotti. I’m just trying to make some beautiful songs.”
Duchovny also has music to thank, at least in part, for his latest gig — another shot at playing FBI agent Fox Mulder on “The X-Files,” which was brought back in January for an 11th season.
Like “Will and Grace” and “Roseanne,” it’s been revived for a renewed life on TV.
“I think [the trend] started with music — bands started getting back together and touring as big as they used to,” Duchovny says. “As our generation has aged, they like to revisit their youth. That would explain some of the appetite.”
Duchovny will soon launch a tour in Australia and New Zealand. He’s pretty sure it won’t be as cushy as his life on the set.
“It’s Ubers and taxis, and it’s not easy,” he admits. “It’s not Bon Jovi.”
Other voices
Actors have been releasing albums since well before Don Johnson detected a “Heartbeat.” Here are a few A-listers who rock ’n’ rolled.
Billy Bob Thornton: Thornton lent a raspy, two-pack-a-day voice to several albums of singer-songwriter tunes. He even wrote one (“Angelina”) about then-wife Angelina Jolie, containing the lyrics, “They said we’d never make it, two crazy panthers on the prowl.”
Ryan Gosling: Before he played a starving musician in last year’s “La La Land,” Gosling was a not-so-starving musician who released a 2007 guitar-driven track called “Put Me in the Car.” We’ll deny we ever said this, but it’s not bad.
Gwyneth Paltrow: The Oscar winner sang on several singles, including one with her then-husband’s band, Coldplay. She toyed with releasing a full country album in 2011 after appearing in the film “Country Strong,” but her ridiculous $1 million asking price to sign with Atlantic Records was too steep, The Post reported.
Russell Crowe: Through the ’90s and ’00s, Crowe moonlighted in his rock band 30 Odd Foot of Grunts. NME ripped the group as “charisma-free” and said Crowe’s songwriting “sucks.” Someone’s head might have an appointment with a phone.
Lindsay Lohan: The former child star released a 2004 pop album called “Speak.” The song “Rumors” had her wailing, “I’m tired of rumors starting, I’m sick of being followed, I’m tired of people lying.” Some songs are timeless.