X Ambassadors—brothers Sam Nelson Harris and Casey Harris along with Adam Levin—unveil another taste of their new music today with “Your Town”. Listen HERE and watch/share the official video HERE.
Written and produced by the band, “Your Town” introduces us to Sam and Casey’s childhood music teacher, Todd Peterson, who played a vital role in the band’s origin and passed away tragically in 2021. The track is a powerful representation of this new era for X Ambassadors, as they pay an emotional tribute to those who shaped them, both as artists and people.
Of the track, Sam shares: This song is dedicated to my teacher, mentor, and friend Todd Peterson who passed away in 2021. I owe so much of who I am to Todd. He was the first person to ever get me up on a stage to sing in front of a crowd of people. I was 9 years old, a microphone clutched in my trembling hands, singing “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” (a song meant for someone well beyond my years and experience to sing) and the whole time he was there, side-stage, giving me his signature I-told-you-so look. He knew I could do it before I could. He taught me how to carry myself with confidence, encouraged me to be big when I felt small, pushed me to be vulnerable when I was a steel-trap of adolescent inscrutability. And my story is not unique: Todd had a similarly profound impact on so many of us and was a pillar of the Ithaca community.
After I left town, he would often bug me about not calling or texting him more, or not responding to his comments online, or wanting me to come back home for Belle Sherman kickball tournaments. I would laugh it off and roll my eyes, but underneath it I think I felt a creeping sense of guilt. So I started avoiding his attempts to reach out. I screened his calls, left his texts on read.
The last time I heard Todd’s voice was a voicemail he left me after hearing a new song of ours. He scolded me as usual for not calling him more, but there was something else in his voice; he sounded fragile, vulnerable. I listened to it and immediately texted him back, apologizing for not reaching out sooner and that I’d call him as soon as I could. But I never did. He passed away two months later. His voicemail is what you hear at the end of the song. This is my chance to thank him for everything he did. And to thank everyone else in my life who nurtured and raised me, who taught me never to forget where I came from.
My friend Danny and I shot a music video for this song back home in Ithaca, revisiting all the places where I remember Todd the best: the halls of my elementary school, Bell Sherman; in the Ithaca High School Auditorium where he used to bust my balls in choreography rehearsals; at the Stewart Park pavilion, where he held court to hundreds of summer-camp attendees who worshiped the ground he walked on; and the streets of Ithaca where I guarantee you can’t go 10 feet without meeting someone who knew and loved Todd.
“Your Town” is out now. For my town. For Todd.
“Your Town” is from the band’s much-anticipated upcoming album, Townie, set for release April 5 via Virgin Music. Self-produced by the band, Townie marks a compelling new chapter for X Ambassadors as they return to their upstate New York roots. Across these 12 deeply personal tracks, including lead single, “No Strings,” the group crafts an intricate portrait of their hometown’s most mundane aspects and the community that molded them.
The new music follows a move from their hometown of Ithaca, New York to Brooklyn, an explosive debut album, extensive global touring, huge hits “Unsteady” and “Renegades,” as well as recent work with massive artists such as Lizzo, Rihanna, The Weeknd and SZA, and multiple songs penned for major motion pictures.
Reflecting on the project, Sam shares, “A gas station glows in the night, two miles from the Tompkins County line. It cuts through the bleak, winter night like a grotesque, twenty-first century lighthouse. To the east— the college town of Ithaca, NY. To the west, everything else. The air is cold and unforgiving. The landscape every shade of grey and brown on the color-wheel. A couple of teenagers loiter in the parking lot, plotting their escape. Most of them know they won’t ever leave this town, so tonight their escape is a temporary one. Rollies and half-drank liters of Mountain Dew. Grapefruit blunts and chapped lips. Their baggy clothes full of restlessness and longing. This is Townie.”
In support of the new music, the band is currently in the midst of a tour across the UK and Europe, and will kick off their extensive North American tour April 5 with stops in New York, Los Angeles, Nashville, Chicago, Denver, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Seattle, Austin and more. Complete list of dates below. The shows will see support from New West and Rowan Drake in the US, and Noah Gundersen in Canada.
Townie adds to a renowned career for X Ambassadors, who exploded onto the scene in 2015 with the success of their Platinum-certified debut album, VHS. The record featured singles “Unsteady” and “Renegades,” which have since garnered more than 1.3 billion streams on Spotify and led the band to a three-year long world tour. VHS was followed by ORION (2019), the Belong EP (2020), The Beautiful Liar (2021) and (Eg) (2023), a series of collaborative singles featuring artists such as BRELAND, Teddy Swims & Jac Ross, Medium Build and PAMÉ.
Recently, the band released “Deep End,” which was written for and featured in the new movie, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. The track is just the latest contribution the band has made to major films, with other works including “Torches” (Transformers), “Great Unknown” (The Call of the Wild) and “Sucker for Pain” (Suicide Squad) among others.
| TOWNIE TRACK LIST 1. Sunoco 2. Smoke on the Highway 3. Your Town 4. I’m Not Really Here 5. Rashad 6. (first dam) 7. Fallout 8. Women’s Jeans 9. Half-Life 10. Follow the Sound of My Voice 11. Start A Band 12. No Strings |
