The essentiality of the X Ambassadors

Recover the essential to return to greater and personal depth: this is how the X Ambassadors worked for their new one album, “Townie”released April 5.

Self-produced by the band itself, formed by Sam Nelson Harris together with Casey Harris and Adam Levin, the album marks a new chapter for the group, which returns to his New York roots through twelve introspective and intimate songsin which he creates an intricate portrait of the most everyday aspects of his hometown.

“‘Townie’ was born out of a desire to try to re-identify myself now, as an adult. And trying to come to terms with some of the things I've struggled with since I was a child growing up in upstate New York, including feelings of insecurity and the sense that one day I would become invisible,” Sam tells Rockolfor which he also recorded a video live version of the single “No strings”.

In presenting the new “Townie”, the X Ambassadors frontman adds:

“I had to mentally go back to me as a kid to understand some of those things. And I ended up becoming obsessed with trying to find a way to make an album that represented the state of New York, that felt like where Casey and I were we have grown.”

He is echoed by Adam Levin, who underlines:

“I also think the record is essential production-wise and songwriting-wise. It's the most personal thing we've ever done. A lot of songs from our past albums and songs we've released are extremely personal, but this one is even more personal. And I think that's what we do best, but with a different kind of style, closer to when we started the band, where it was just guitars, drums and vocals.”

The New York band exploded onto the music scene in 2015 thanks to the success ofdebut album, “VHS”especially for the singles contained in it, “Unsteady” And “Renegades“. On the first record, I followed “Orion” of 2019 and “The beautiful liar” of 2021, as well as “Belong EP” of 2020 and the project with collaborative singles, “(EG)” of 2023.

Reflecting on the essence of the New York formation, which over the years has collaborated with numerous artists, some emerging, others more established such as Lizzo and Machine Gun Kelly, Levin continues: “We've been a band for a long time and have made very successful pop records. And now we are trying to do something more natural, which is closer to our beginnings, before 'Renegades' and 'Unsteady'. We were just a bunch of guys with instruments, and we then explored the more pop side. Now we go back to our roots and origins with, I think, our best record yet“.