The Hails Release Untethered New Single 'Different Guy'
Listen to the new single from The Hails.
By: Josh Sharpe Feb. 20, 2025
The Hails have released “Different Guy,” the first single since their 2023 debut album What’s Your Motive. With the five band members geographically spread out across Miami, DC and Brooklyn, the new track came to life across numerous home studios as well as Fraser Sound Studios in New York. Albeit an untraditional approach, The Hails have found their pocket in not allowing their music to be bound to any one style or location. This is closely mirrored in the song’s air of premeditated haphazardness and the freedom that comes with ignoring fear.
Co-produced by the band’s Franco Solari and Dylan McCue alongside GRAMMY Award-winning recording and mix engineer Phil Joly (Daft Punk, The Strokes, Nile Rodgers, Lana Del Rey), “Different Guy” is danceable and careless. Vocalist Robbie Kingsley’s signature falsetto takes moments to dip down low as his tongue-in-cheek lyrics swerve across lanes. With the once looming pressure of the debut album lifted, The Hails can take swings without any fear to restrain them.
“I’m trying to be bolder than I’ve been before,” shares Kingsley. “‘Different Guy’ was born out of a week-long jam in a Jacksonville, FL, rental house where we embraced our roots as a band that embodies the spirit of wide-eyed kids in a garage ready to grab life and run.”
He continues, “The boldness of bands like The Police and Bloc Party took over my mind as we crafted this song. Pushing through feelings of fatigue and living life unabashedly is a theme for us as we enter a new era of music after our first album — we’re not afraid to die, as the song drives home.”
Kicking off tomorrow, The Hails will be joined by fellow indie band Never Ending Fall for a co-headline North American tour. Until the end of March, the two bands, with rotating openers The Thing With Feathers, Parrotfish and REMYZ, will travel together from coast to coast, making stops in major cities including Los Angeles, Miami, Brooklyn and Washington DC. See all upcoming tour dates here and below.
UPCOMING TOUR DATES
February 21 - Boston, MA - Brighton Music Hall*^
February 22 - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Made*^
February 23 - Washington, DC - Union Stage*^
February 25 - Columbus, OH - A&R Bar*^
February 26 - Ann Arbor, MI - Blind Pig*^
February 28 - Indianapolis, IN - Hi Fi*^
March 1 - Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall*^
March 2 - St. Louis, MO - Duck Room at Blueberry Hill*^
March 4 - Kansas City, KS - Uptown Theatre*^
March 6 - Denver, CO - Meow Wolf*^
March 8 - Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court*^ (2 shows early and late)
March 11 - Seattle, WA - Neumos*^
March 12 - Portland, OR - McMenamins Mission Theater*^
March 14 - San Francisco, CA - The Independent*^
March 15 - Los Angeles, CA - Teragram Ballroom*^
March 16 - San Diego, CA - SOMA*^
March 18 - Phoenix, AZ - The Rebel Lounge*^
March 21 - Austin, TX - Empire Control Room*^
March 22 - Houston, TX - House of Blues Houston*^
March 23 - Dallas, TX - House of Blues Dallas*^
March 25 - Atlanta, GA - Purgatory @ Masquerade*^
March 27 - Orlando, FL - The Social*#
March 28 - Tampa, FL - Crowbar*#
March 29 - Miami, FL - Gramps*&
*coheadline with Never Ending Fall
^with The Thing With Feathers
# with Parrotfish
& with REMYZ
All tour info here
The Hails spent a good portion of 2024 out on the road. After releasing What’s Your Motive (Deluxe) in February, they embarked on leg two of the tour for their debut album with sold out shows across North America, with a few sold-out support dates with fellow-Floridians flipturn mixed in. Over the summer, the band performed at Governors Ball and were then asked to join Quarters of Change on another tour run. The Hails have remained an indie favorite with recognition from Billboard, Consequence, Paste and more. They also released a live session with Audiotree and were featured as a HotStar by Pollstar.
ABOUT THE HAILS
Following a string of encounters too strange to be coincidence, Robbie Kingsley, Franco Solari, Dylan McCue, Andre Escobar and Zach Levy came together to form The Hails. Despite first playing in an insular Miami high school music scene, the band officially formed at the University of Florida in Gainesville, turning the tattered carpeting and beer bottle lined shelves of their sty college house into a distinct, refined sound that is now synonymous with their name.
After graduation, the group made the pilgrimage back to their home of Miami, the city that directly influenced the sound of their early shimmering singles “Younger” and “Stay,” debut EP He Seems Upset (2020), and the subsequent Alive in Strange Ways (2021).
Now with their debut album What’s Your Motive out in the world, The Hails have created their own unique style of collaboration with band members living in Miami, DC and Brooklyn. Recent highlights of the road include holding court at festivals like Governors Ball, III Points and Okeechobee, interspersed between sold-out headline shows and tour support for Quarters of Change, The Beaches, flipturn and the moss. This year will see The Hails releasing new music and touring across North America with Never Ending Fall.
Photo credit: Rachel Lane
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