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The Wldlfe Drift Into New Territory With Dreamlike New Single “Saturn”
Updated: Sep 8
Nearly a decade into their career, Indianapolis alternative outfit The Wldlfe are sounding increasingly comfortable with ignoring what they are supposed to be and leaning harder into what actually feels right.
The trio of Jansen Hogan, Carson Hogan, and Jack Crane have built their world somewhere between alternative, indie, pop, and the larger-than-life pull of classic ’80s rock, but their latest single, “Saturn,” pushes that identity somewhere noticeably different.
Synth-drenched, atmospheric, and deliberately dreamlike, “Saturn” captures the strange emotional aftermath of a relationship that once felt permanent. Instead of approaching heartbreak through pure devastation, The Wldlfe give it a sense of distance, like looking back at something beautiful and realizing you no longer completely understand what it meant.
At the center is a brilliantly simple image: stealing one of Saturn’s rings and putting it on someone’s hand. It is romantic enough to feel almost cinematic, but knowing the relationship has already fallen apart gives the idea an entirely different weight. The contrast between cosmic imagery and painfully human disappointment is where “Saturn” hits hardest.
The song also represents a genuine creative detour for The Wldlfe. Hogan recalls bringing the original Saturn lyric into a writing session in Los Angeles, where its sci-fi quality encouraged the band to experiment with a sonic direction they had not previously explored. That willingness to follow an idea rather than force it into an established formula feels particularly important at this point in their career.
After years spent independently building a loyal audience, surpassing 90 million global streams, selling out shows across North America, and releasing their 2024 album Heaven Is a Place, The Wldlfe have entered a period where experimentation feels earned rather than calculated. Their partnership with Riser House Records has also given them more space between release cycles to write, revise, and figure out exactly where they want to go next.
“Saturn” sounds like the result of that freedom. The Wldlfe are not abandoning the emotional immediacy that brought listeners to them in the first place. They are simply finding a bigger, stranger universe to put it in.
“Saturn” takes a more experimental, sci-fi-inspired direction than much of your previous work. What did stepping outside your usual sonic instincts unlock for you creatively?
We have always loved trying new things and stepping outside of our comfort zone sonically - the approach to Saturn was no different. It’s all about exploration and seeing where it takes you. It’s always super fulfilling creatively to feel like we are bridging the gap between something that still feels like us and something we feel we haven’t done before.
The image of stealing Saturn’s ring and putting it on someone’s hand is incredibly romantic, especially within a song about love falling apart. Where did that specific image come from, and what does it represent to you now?
A version of that line had been floating around for a while; we just hadn’t found the right song for it. The day we wrote Saturn, it just felt like a very natural place for that idea to go. I don’t know if it represents anything different to us now, but that sort of grand gesture is something I think a lot of people can relate to in one form or another.
You’ve talked about finally having more space to experiment instead of constantly moving through the write, record, tour, repeat cycle. How has slowing that process down changed the music you’re making?
It gave us a bit more room and time to experiment, try some new things, and really figure out what kind of record we wanted to make. I think having more time allowed us to be a bit more thoughtful creatively, and we’re all really happy with what came out of that.
After building The Wldlfe independently for nearly a decade, what have you learned about protecting your identity as the band enters this next chapter with a larger team around you?
It’s much easier to bring people in when we have a clear understanding of who we are as a band. We know what we are trying to achieve creatively, sonically, visually, etc., so expanding the team is more about how we achieve certain goals and less about discovering what kind of band we are and where we fit. It feels more focused than it might if we hadn’t had the time to figure out who we are.
With a new album and tour ahead, does “Saturn” feel like an outlier on the record, or is it a glimpse into a bigger evolution listeners are about to hear from The Wldlfe?
There’s a lot of variety on this album. Nothing else really sounds like Saturn, in my opinion, but there are a lot of songs on this album that feel like new territory for us sonically. We are always growing and trying new things, and I think that’s all reflected on this album.
