Ithaca, New York-based X Ambassadors make passionate, dark, electronic-based pop centered around the throaty, soulful vocals of Sam Harris. Formed in 2009, X Ambassadors originally featured Harris' keyboardist brother Casey Harris, childhood friend/guitarist Noah Feldshuh, and drummer Adam Levin. Initially calling themselves Ambassadors, they released a self-titled EP in 2009. To the bandmembers' surprise, their song "Litoist" garnered online buzz and was eventually put into rotation on Virginia's 96X radio station. Another song, "Unconsolable," also drew listeners, and the attention helped score the group a management deal and recording contract. In 2013, the newly minted X Ambassadors released their sophomore EP, Love Songs Drug Songs, on Interscope. They then joined Imagine Dragons and Jimmy Eat World on tour. The following year, the band received wider exposure when "The Jungle," a collaboration with Jamie N Commons, was featured in a commercial for Dr. Dre's electronics/headphones company Beats. On the heels of this success, X Ambassadors released their third EP, The Reason. In 2015, they released their debut full-length, VHS, which featured production from Alex da Kid and included the hit singles "Renegades" and "Unsteady." The album reached number seven on the Billboard 200 and was re-released as a special edition in 2016 with five additional songs, including an appearance by Tom Morello. That same year, they were featured on the Knocks track "Comfortable," and on the double-platinum "Sucker for Pain," the all-star collaborative effort for the Suicide Squad soundtrack that found the band alongside Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa, Imagine Dragons, Logic, and Ty Dolla $ign. Also in 2016, Feldshuh left the group in what was described by the members as an "indefinite hiatus to deal with some personal issues." In the fall of 2017, the band returned to Ithaca to co-headline the inaugural Cayuga Sound Festival alongside the Roots. They also debuted several singles including "The Devil You Know," "Torches," and "Hoping," the latter of which worked as a charity single, with proceeds going to support the American Civil Liberties Union. That March, they also joined other artists at Los Angeles' Roxy Theatre for a benefit for Planned Parenthood that coincided with the International Women's Day March. They rounded out the year collaborating with Machine Gun Kelly and Bebe Rexha on the track "Home" from the soundtrack to the Netflix film Bright. In 2018, they returned with their own single, "JOYFUL." ~ Matt Collar

Billy Raffoul’s anthemic debut single “Driver” serves as a potent calling card for the 22-year-old singer, songwriter, and musician. His signature sound is a roughhewn, low-timbered rock and roll that nods to the likes of Jeff Buckley, Neil Young, and Joe Cocker, and is powered by Raffoul’s gravelly, soulful voice and deeply felt lyrics. “That’s one thing for me — a song needs to be about something I’ve experienced or something someone close to me is going through,” Raffoul says of his sources of inspiration. “I find myself going back to moments of time from the past, picking apart these little experiences and building them into bigger things. I want people to know that the songs are genuine, that they've been lived in.”  “Driver” is one of those lived-in songs. It was inspired by his family picking up a hitchhiker one night after Raffoul and his musician father Jody played a gig on Pelee Island in the middle of Lake Erie. “This guy was really out of it, so he ended up staying with us for a few hours,” Raffoul says. The following weekend Raffoul told his story of the hitchhiker to songwriter Simon Wilcox and songwriterproducer Nolan Lambroza during a writing session in Los Angeles. “We turned it into something a little more sentimental, in that maybe I’m not singing about someone being lost on the side of the road, but maybe someone lost in life who doesn't know where they’re going or what they’re supposed to be doing,” he explains.  Raffoul has been fairly certain of what he wanted to do with his life from a young age. He grew up in a creative family in the small farming town of Leamington, Ontario — “the tomato capital of Canada,” as he puts it. His mother is an artist, writer, and teacher and his father Jody Raffoul is a solo artist and hometown hero who has opened for everyone from Joe Cocker to Bon Jovi. Raffoul’s earliest musical influences come from his dad. “The Beatles were like Jesus in our house,” he recalls, adding that he also listened to soul singers like Otis Redding and Sam Cooke. On his tenth birthday, Billy received a ‘British Invasion’-inspired guitar with a Union Jack on its front from Jody and started teaching himself to play. By 16, had bought his first real guitar — a 1968 Gibson Les Paul Black Beauty. “It’s the same model and year as the only one Jimi Hendrix was ever photographed playing,” Raffoul says.  When Raffoul was in high school, he watched his dad headline a show for 4,000 people at his school’s stadium. “I remember in that moment thinking, ‘This is cool,’” he says. “I had appreciated music and written songs up until then, but I didn't think I wanted to be a live performer until that one show.” Raffoul’s first paying gig was playing to long-haul drivers at a local truck stop. “For the next three or four years I just put everything into it, playing out four and five nights a week in bars from Leamington to Detroit and back.”  Every so often Raffoul would get a gig singing demos for hire. “Just getting paid hourly to be the vocalist,” he explains. “One day I went into the studio to sing on some Kid Rock demos. The guys heard my voice in the booth and asked if I had any original stuff. I played them two acoustic songs. They shot an iPhone video and sent it to my now-manager, who used to work with Kid Rock. The next day we drove down to Nashville.” Raffoul now splits his time between Nashville and Los Angeles where, in between playing shows, he has been collaborating with other songwriters and slowly but surely assembling his debut album. “Since it’s my first record it feels like I’ve been writing it my whole life,” he jokes. In addition to “Driver,” Raffoul is proud of another new song called “I’m Not A Saint,” which emerged from a conversation Raffoul had with his co-writer Julia Michaels. “We were talking about things we do or that we shouldn’t do, like swear too much, smoke too much, lie too much, and it just flowed from there,” Raffoul says. “Forty-five minutes later it was done.”    As he gears up to finish his debut album, Raffoul is also eager to tour and see the world. “I’m putting everything into this record," he says, "but I want to build my career on the live show. I want to be a true working musician." He knows that makes him sound like a traditionalist and he's fine with that. "It’s more of the old school way of doing things," he says. "But I think that even in this ever-changing music business there will always be a thirst for live performance and that’s what I want to do. That’s always been the goal. Connect with people, one room at a time.”