X Ambassadors' new song "Ahead of Myself" is the first single from the band's forthcoming album, the follow-up to 2015's VHS. Speaking with ABC Radio, frontman Sam Harris says the song "speaks to a lot of my own personality traits."
"I tend to jump into things very quickly without thinking," he explains. "I have a bit of an impulsive side, and that gets me into trouble sometimes."
On "Ahead of Myself," Harris sings, "Thought I was rock steady," a line reminiscent of the XA hit "Unsteady."
"I always talk about instability in my songs...I'm not a very stable person," Harris laughs.
While the lyrical themes may be familiar, the band feels that musically, the sound of the new album will surprise listeners.
"There is a connection to the sound from [VHS], the sound that we've had for awhile," says keyboardist Casey Harris. "But we've really branched out, and we've really, in a lot of ways, gone back to our roots of the types of music that we love and that really inspired us throughout the years. I think that's gonna be a completely new...fairly surprising sound for people to hear."
Sam adds that the new album will contain elements of songs like "Renegades," "Unsteady" or "Jungle," while also "covering new ground."
"I think we've come up something that is an identity-defining record for us," he says. "[It] feels like [it], at least."
The new X Ambassadors album is due out in 2018.
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