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Sep 20, 2023 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Rafael Barker

Beginning with their 2018 self-titled debut, West Virginia-based outfit Hello June have honed a sprawling and resonant blend of Americana, folk, and indie rock. Singer/songwriter Sarah Rudy says she saw that first album as a series of abstract poems, but the band’s forthcoming sophomore effort Artifacts sees them expanding outward, showing new stylistic shades and revealing a more open and vulnerable form.

Rudy uses the band’s new album to explore newly intimate narratives of addiction, grief, home, and human connection. As she explains, “If you were to take little bits of my life and put them into mason jars on the wall, it would feel like this album. These are stories from different pieces of my life. I was just allowing the songs to define the journey.”

The full album is out next month on October 6th, and Hello June have already shared the record’s lead single, “Interstate,” followed by another new track earlier this month, “Honey I Promise.” Today, the band are back with their third single from the album, “Sometimes,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Sometimes” acts as the record’s opener and finds Hello June settling into an easygoing groove, delivering reflective confessions amidst steady drum work and winding guitar lines. Meanwhile, Rudy’s vocals bring out an understated magnetic luster, shrouding the track in a smokey timbre and plaintive ambiance. The track lyrics find Rudy penning a message to her newborn nephew offering a heartwarming roadmap of life’s good and bad days. Though the track is warm and empathetic, it arrives there via world-weary wisdom rather than carefree ease. Rudy sings, “Sometimes they’ll break your heart and sometimes you’ll break your own / Sometimes it’s an idea that we’re after.”

Rudy says of the track, “The moment my sister told me she was having a baby, I immediately knew that I had experienced something life-changing. Any negativity experienced before that moment instantly blew away. It didn’t take my brain long though, to start counting all of the ways that I could potentially let down this new little human. I don’t have kids of my own - the most responsibility that I have is for my cat and my rock band, ha - what if I’m not good at being an aunt? What if I let him down? ‘Sometimes’ started off as a letter to my nephew, but I think it’s also a reminder to myself that you’ll never know what could be if you don’t step one foot in front of the other and at the very least, try.”

Check out the song below. Artifacts is out October 6th via 31 Tigers Records.