JW Francis is currently 25 days into hiking the Appalachian Trail, but that ambitious journey was hard earned: In addition to surviving a full year of being cooped up in his apartment due to the pandemic, the New York–based songwriter also wrote and recorded a full album documenting that claustrophobic experience. The result is WANDERKID, which will arrive October 1 (presumably he’ll be done hiking by then—he’s got a release show scheduled at Elsewhere for the following week), and today we’re hearing the first single, “John, Take Me with You.”
While there’s a sense of jittery unrest to the tune, it’s far from a recreation of the bleak outlook we were experiencing a year ago at this time. “I just wanted someone to take me by the hand and get me out of where I was,” he recalls of how he felt through most of 2020. “WANDERKID is an album about escape. It’s supposed to be a gut punch of a record about an anti-hero named Wanderkid who wants to get out—out of his living situation, out of his head, out of his life. This album is like looking out the car window with an urgent desire to be on the other side. It was finished during the most recent global pandemic, so hopefully folks find it relatable.”
The track also arrives with a visual combining scenes of the much-pined-for outdoors and a colorful interior playfully decorated with stuffed animals sure to ease the Groundhog Day repetition of the past year (and check out his psychedelic corduroys!). Watch the video below, and pre-order the album here.
