Story / Maddie Browning
Photos / Alex Green
If The Wldlfe could choose just one song to represent their sound, it would be “Ruby” off of their latest album Revolver, 2026.
“Ruby” is laced with sweet nostalgia, bright strumming and synths, and ROLE MODEL level yearning. It’s the ultimate lover boy song about a woman you lost but can’t seem to move on from.
“You don’t need a hand to hold/But Ruby if the road runs cold/I’ll be waiting on the other line/Couldn’t forget you if I tried,” lead vocalist Jansen Hogan sings.
The Wldlfe crafts alternative indie pop rock infused with playful romance and a sprinkling of Jonas Brothers and 5 Seconds of Summer energy.
“ We’ve joked about being a boy band a lot,” said bassist Jack Crane. “I think we meet the qualifications. I guess I don’t know about the choreography.”
“No choreography,” added guitarist and vocalist Carson Hogan.
Originally formed in Indianapolis, Indiana, the band now resides in Nashville, Tennessee. The Wldlfe has been through a few iterations since their debut EP New dropped in 2016, but post pandemic, the band is composed of brothers Carson Hogan and Jansen Hogan as well as Crane.
I chatted with Carson Hogan and Crane on Zoom as they prepared to tour Revolver, 2026 which was released on October 2. The Long Way Home Tour kicked off on October 17 in Orlando, Florida, and Carson Hogan’s to-do list for the day included working on lighting design.
The Wldlfe takes inspiration from ‘80s rock, Top 40 pop, and alternative and indie music, marketing themselves as “your favorite band you’ve never heard of.”
In developing Revolver, 2026 the band listened to a variety of artists.
“ I looked at that playlist that we were referencing not too long ago, and it was a lot of Parachute — I think there was some John Mayer on there — Sam Fender, The Killers, Goo Goo Dolls,” said Crane. “We were just trying to reference a lot of things that felt band-y, alive, timeless…I think we’re now at the point for the first time where we’re — especially for Jansen and Carson singing songs that were written when they were 18, 19 — like, ‘Okay, let’s start writing songs that feel good so that when we’re maybe 35, it’s still connecting.’”
The band wrote the album together in sessions in Nashville and Los Angeles with Jansen Hogan also writing on his own.
“ We tend to not dive into all of the sonics and stuff until we know that we love the song just with the lyrics and acoustic guitar,” said Carson Hogan.
While much of their music is high-energy with addictive melodies, The Wldlfe isn’t worried about being mainstream.
“ I think everybody goes through the point where you do what you think you should be doing, and hopefully you like it, but you’re trying to appease the market. But there’s nothing worse than when that doesn’t work,” said Crane. “ With anything we’ve done on the last record and this record especially, [we’re] having the conversations of, ‘Obviously you want people to connect and you want people to like it, but in a world where no one likes it, I like it.’”
Crane explained that their previous album Heaven is a place, 2024 revolves around Jansen Hogan falling for his now wife. They enjoyed the personal process of developing the record. Then when it was time to create a new project, not much had changed in their lives.
“ So you go, ‘Well, do we make another record about the same thing?’” Crane said. He recalled Jansen Hogan wanting to challenge himself to write stories that weren’t connected to his life. Jansen Hogan wrote “Ruby” and pitched centering the album around characters rather than direct memories.
“ It’s still pulling from our same life experiences. It’s kind of a coming-of-age love story,” said Crane. “It’s not a concept record, but there is this narrative through-line.”
“Revolver” delights in a deep devotion to a partner – it’s inherently romantic.
“ I hate to be like it’s just universal, but I think it is. It’s kind of an inevitability,” Crane remarked about the band centering love in their music. “I do think it is maybe, for the masses, one of the first real, deep things that might happen in your life, barring loss or anything like that. Those strong emotions usually are what come out creatively.”
Carson Hogan added that it traces back to the roots of their music.
“ We’ve all been writing since we were teenagers. Before you write music for your band that has a fan base and it’s your job, you write music to express yourself and your emotions,” he said. “And when you’re a teenage boy, a lot of that’s going to be heartbreak. That’s true from when you’re a teenage boy all the way up through adulthood.”
I asked if they remember writing any embarrassingly angsty tracks in their teen years. “ Yes and no one will ever hear them,” Crane replied as Carson Hogan laughed. “They don’t exist on any hard drive, thank God.”
One of the standout songs on “Revolver” is the punchy, galactic track “Saturn.”
“ We were out in LA, and we ended up in a last-minute session with a guy named SAINT KID, and we had never met him before, but he’s incredibly talented and just a great vibe,” said Carson Hogan. “He had this little cigar box amp — it was almost like a toy guitar amp — that I plugged one of his guitars into and started jamming and came up with that riff that you hear in ‘Saturn’ that just carries through the whole thing.”
The band threw out lyrics for an hour, typing down ideas in their phones until they had a full song. “ I actually have a voice memo of probably half of the song coming together, just us shouting ideas at each other,” added Carson Hogan.
As The Wldlfe prepared for their upcoming tour, they were most excited to simply be back onstage.
“ We haven’t even played a show since August of last year, so it’s been a minute since we’ve even done it,” said Crane. “When you play the same songs over and over, it does kind of start to lack a bit of zhuzh, if you will. So the fact that we now have so many songs to throw in the arsenal is always super exciting.”
The Wldlfe understands the grind of building a professional music career. Carson Hogan worked at Starbucks and delivered food for DoorDash at the start of the 2020s. For the past few years, the band has been able to pursue music full-time.
Listeners can feel their love for the craft and dedication to capturing the whirlwind of emotions that comes with romance and heartbreak. With support from Landon Conrath, The Wldlfe is traveling across the country through December 4 and ending back home in Tennessee.
