X Ambassadors' music-release strategy: Hold the album, keep the singles coming
Almost three years have gone by since the release of the X Ambassadors' “VHS,” the album that thrust the Ithaca, N.Y., group into the pop spotlight behind the hits “Renegade,” “Jungle” and “Unsteady.” However, fans haven't been left empty-handed while they wait for a follow-up project. The band has released six singles over the past year.
It’s an interesting way to follow up a breakthrough album, and it may be the wave of the future, especially for major-label acts: New music is first parceled out via a series of singles, while an album is delayed until some to-be-determined point. Perhaps it's not released until a single starts making noise online, at radio or on a streaming service, or perhaps it's held back to create excitement over an upcoming tour.
Whatever the strategy, X Ambassadors keyboardist Casey Harris is fine with the change. He said it suits a group like X Ambassadors that always has new material in the works.
“We’re always writing material, and we always just want to put out material for people to hear,” he said. “We have so much material that we’re sitting on that it was practically leaking out our ears. We sort of had to release tracks to relieve a little bit of the pressure. But we also want to find out, to be honest, what people like. I feel like the best way to do that is to write tracks that we like and release them and see what people think.”
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Harris also thinks putting out singles aligns with how music gets heard these days.
“With everyone listening on streaming services and on their phones, and as important as radio still is, I would say the singles-focused market is purely driven by streaming because of playlists and (the way) people jumble (them). People are really listening to single tracks by different artists. It’s, in a way, really powerful because you have a higher chance of at least getting some of your material heard if it happens to be on a what’s new playlist or what not.”
Of the singles that were released last year — “Hoping,” “Torches,” “The Devil You Know” and “Ahead of Myself” — only the latter track made much of a chart splash. It went top 10 on Billboard's Adult Alternative chart and top 15 on the Alternative Songs and Rock Airplay charts. Now the band is waiting to see whether either of the singles released this year — “Joyful” in January and “Don’t Stay” in February — will build on the momentum of “Ahead of Myself.”
Meanwhile, the next X Ambassadors album remains on hold. Titled “Joyful,” it is essentially finished, with 13 songs in place. Harris said the title song and “Don’t Stay” will be on the album, but the four singles from 2017 don’t figure to make the cut.
He's quick to note that though singles have been the first priority, the group hasn't abandoned the notion of making albums and creating songs that together make a cohesive artistic statement.
“We always have the album in focus whenever we’re thinking about releasing singles or what not these days because the album is really the centerpiece of our writing from the past year or so,” Harris said. “When we release it, we’re excited to see what people think of it and are pretty proud of it.
“The songs (on “Joyful”) do sort of run a story arc,” he said. “I don’t want to give away really what it is because it should be obvious when you listen to the album itself. It definitely ... is of a theme.”
Harris didn’t offer many clues about how “Joyful” compares to the hip-hop-inflected pop-rock of “VHS,” but he seems confident fans of the previous album will like what they hear on the new one.
“I would say, as much as I love ‘VHS’ and still really love playing that material live, this (“Joyful”) album, I think, is musically and songwriting-wise and performance-wise and production-wise head and shoulders above where ‘VHS’ was.”
Fans liked “VHS” just fine as it was. The album went gold (sales of more than 500,00 copies), while “Renegades” was a platinum single and “Unsteady” went double platinum.
It was a nice payoff for a band that had waited a while for its moment in the spotlight. Formed in 2009 by brothers Sam Harris (vocals, guitar) and Casey Harris, longtime friend and guitarist Noah Feldshuh (who has since left the group) and drummer Adam Levin, X Ambassadors was initially based in New York City, where it gradually gained a local following.
In 2012, the band independently released a single, “Unconsolable,” which started getting radio play in Norfolk, Va., where it was heard one day by Dan Reynolds, front man for Imagine Dragons. Reynolds tipped off producer-songwriter Alex Da Kid to the band and soon X Ambassadors got signed to Kid’s KIDinaKORNER imprint, which is affiliated with major label Interscope. X Ambassadors then went to work on “VHS” with Alex Da Kid producing.
X Ambassadors didn't wait for the release of the “Joyful” album to get back on tour. For the current outing, which runs into mid-June, the group is changing its set list somewhat from night to night, playing a mix of songs from “VHS,” the recent singles and a couple of yet-to-be-released songs from the “Joyful” album. The core trio is joined by a touring guitarist and three backing singers, who will help bring the harmonies and backing vocals used in many of the group’s songs to life.
“It’s really incredible having them all playing with us,” Harris said. “I know if we had the money, too, we would be hiring on even more musicians because so much of this new album, we just went crazy with it. We weren’t thinking about how we would play it live when we recorded it. So, fingers crossed, in the future we might add even more people to the tour. But it’s really fun. I love having a full stage full of lots of people.
Harris, who has been blind since birth, is loving life offstage as well. In March, he married his girlfriend of five years, Olivia.
“It’s amazing. I honestly don’t know what I’d be doing with my life if I wasn’t in this band,” he said. “We’re all like family now. We know each other so well. We spend way too much time with each other, but we’re really close. ... I’m grateful that me and my brother get along so well. He’s my rock, you know, he’s the best, him and my wife, of course. Yeah, it’s pretty incredible.”
X Ambassadors
7 p.m. Sat.
The Fillmore Detroit
2115 Woodward, Detroit
313-961-5450
$25-$45.