The unparalleled multi -platinum chart-topping band AJR return with a new single entitled “I Won’t.” The song is AJR’s first to be released in the new partnership between the band’s AJR Productions label and Mercury/Republic Records last Friday, July 29.
Listen to “I Won’t”—HERE.
The defiantly catchy anthem doubles as a passionately thrown middle finger to conformity and the requirements and empty expectations of our social media-obsessed society. Teetering between plinking piano and artful beat-craft, it teems with punk energy on the epic and engaging chant, “Put your hands up, ‘cause I won’t. Raise a glass up, ‘cause I won’t. Get your ass up, ‘cause I won’t. I must’ve missed the hype, but maybe that’s the way I feel.”
“We’re trying to dial in on exactly how we felt about the world,” Ryan notes. “We were fed up with authority, so we wrote our own version of a punk ‘F-you’ song. We found an interesting way to frame it. You’re at a party, and this DJ is telling you how to live, but you’ve had enough. In our political climate and within the landscape of social media, everything is marketing and branding yourself to fit into a political or TikTok trend. It gets exhausting. You lose yourself in fitting into a subsection of culture. In our show and our music, we’re about figuring out what makes you unique. The message is, ‘Be yourself.’ However, we know it’s much easier said than done. We wanted to make a song that inspired others, but also ourselves to be who we are.”
The band performed the track for the first time on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Known for their incredible production on tour, the band delivered a massively impressive performance that had the audience and Jimmy Fallon in awe.