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 below.
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.
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