X Ambassadors to make Alaska debut at state fair

WASILLA — X Ambassadors musician Casey Harris says fans should know: the band’s live performances are not to be missed.

At 7 p.m. tonight, Aug. 26, the New York-born, Los Angeles-based rock band will make its Alaska debut at the State Fair in Palmer — one of several fair gigs on the docket for X Ambassadors this year.

In a phone interview on Wednesday, Harris said he “had no idea there were as many state fairs as there are” until this summer, when the band started getting offers from fairs all over the country.

So far, he said, it’s been a positive experience.

“They’re like little festivals,” he said. “It’s pretty cool.”

Harris said he’s heard good things about Alaska’s fair — as well as its landscape — from previous performers, and had “high hopes” for the upcoming show.

“We’re really excited,” he said.

The Alaska show is part of the band’s “VHS 2.0” tour, featuring songs from its first full-length album, which was released last summer.

As a studio album, VHS is designed to play like a home movie, with clicks and whirrs sounded between songs and before interludes of real recordings from the band members’ young lives. While that provides a unique listening experience for many fans, it doesn’t compare to what X Ambassadors can do live, Harris said.

“I don’t wanna be too egotistical, but I think we put on a damn good show,” he said.

Tickets for the Alaska performance can be purchased at the door or online at www.alaskastatefair.org/site/concerts/ and X Ambassadors merchandise — including an “exclusive item,” according to press contact Lindsay Bailey — will be for sale in the Kendall Toyota Borealis Theater, where the concert takes place.

A pre-concert party, where concert ticket holders can enter to win a chance to meet the band, will be held under the Borealis Tent from 4 to 6 p.m. before the show.

About the band

Harris and his younger brother, frontman Sam Harris, are at the core of the quartet, with Adam Levin (not to be confused with Maroon 5’s Adam Levine) on drums and Noah Feldshuh on guitar.

Most X Ambassadors songs reflect specific experiences in the members’ 10-year journey to find themselves and navigate life — as young men and professional musicians — including hits like “Renegades” and “Unsteady.”

The latter song, for example, is known as a soulful depiction of the Harris brothers’ parents’ divorce.

“We were really happy with ‘Renegades’ … but ‘Unsteady’ is especially near and dear to all of us,” Harris said. “I’m so happy that we’re reaching people with that song.”

Though the story of “Unsteady” is a sad one, Harris said both his parents have always been supportive of the brothers’ musical careers — before he was born, his mother was a professional singer and his father spent a few years writing songs in Nashville.

“They’re both music lovers,” Harris said, and “tolerated” the band’s teenage practices in their not-so-soundproof basement pretty well.

“Bless them for having put up with that,” he said, chuckling.

Making a difference

“Renegades,” like “Unsteady,” is highly personal for the Harris brothers. While the lyrics describe the band members pursuing their big break, the official music video for “Renegades” also pays homage to Casey Harris, as someone who is legally blind.

According to an August 2015 interview with The New York Times, Harris has Senior-Loken syndrome, a genetic disease that affects his kidneys and vision. He told the Times that he can’t read anything on paper, and would need to blow up digital text so large that it’s not really worth reading online. He said he received a kidney transplant from his mother about six years ago, and has since been in good health.

In the hit video, shots of the band performing in a home-like setting are interspersed with clips of visually impaired youth and adults doing everyday activities, from walking to skateboarding and lifting weights.

“I don’t know if I’m the poster child for visual impairment, but I’m down to do anything I can to help people,” Harris said. “That’s why I’m here.”

Although the band is “still pretty new to this being successful thing,” Harris said, it’s given the members opportunities to spread awareness about the social justice issues they’ve always been passionate about.

“We finally have a platform to talk to people about what we think needs to be done in the world,” he said.

In addition to playing small shows and doings arts and crafts with schools for the blind, Harris said they’ve also supported veterans, the poor and homeless, as well as the #BlackLivesMatter movement on social media and speaking out against police violence.

“We just wanna try our best to make the world a slightly better place in any way we can,” he said.

What’s next

Harris said X Ambassadors is planning to wrap up the VHS 2.0 tour this fall and start some more focused work on the next album. He said he and his bandmates have been “writing pretty actively” since the release of VHS, and plan to rent a studio house after the tour for concentrated polishing of the new material.

“I almost feel like, VHS was a culmination of work over several years, and in order to produce equal caliber writing, we need to spend some time really dedicated to (the new album),” Harris said.

Harris is also still in the process of moving from New York — he took a call during the interview to confirm delivery of a washer and dryer — which has been fun, he said, but slow.

“We’ve kinda been doing it in stages because … we’re usually only back for two or three days at a stretch,” he said.

Harris said he hopes to see a new X Ambassadors album completed by next summer for the 2017 touring season.

Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.