Based out of Brooklyn, hunter & wolfe are the duo of Michael Maffei and Sundeep Kapur. The band formed back in 2011, releasing their self-titled EP the following year, before taking their time over two further records, 2014’s long-player, Days and Works, and 2017’s acclaimed EP, Late Than Never. Six years on, the band are set to return later this year with their new album, I Deserve This, an album, “written during sleepless nights about sleepless nights” and recorded with co-producer Asher Kurtz. Ahead of the release, today the duo are premiering the first single from the record, Famous Friends.

Discussing Famous Friends, hunter & wolfe have suggested it is a reflection of the album as a whole, bringing to the fore, “both the seriousness and self-awareness to never take themselves too seriously”. Musically, Famous Friends starts off like a swooping slice of piano-led Americana in the vein of Wilco, before taking a turn towards something more, a Richard Hawley-like ballad reimagined through a wonky-electronic flourish BC Camplight would be proud of.

Lyrically this is a track of jealousy and realism, of watching those around you soar and shine and not being sure if you even want to compete, “all my friends are rich and famous they deserve it and I hate it, somethings come so easy to some people, they just fly”. Within that Michael seems to struggle with comparisons, “I am getting older, I’m just killing time”, yet ultimately he knows it could be worse, as he almost sighs, “guess I’m doing fine”. Whether this is that breakout moment for hunter & wolfe, only time will tell, for now, there’s just the music, and they’re doing more than fine, they’re thriving.

I deserve this is out later this year. For more information on hunter & wolfe visit https://www.hunterandwolfe.com/.