The Hails are back — and 2026 finally gets its first taste of the Miami-bred, coast-scattered indie darlings with their new single “Story of You and Me.” Produced by Brandon Shoop (Role Model, Junior Varsity), the track marks a deliberate return to the band’s roots: four guys in one room, chasing the kind of creative spontaneity that once birthed fan-favorites “Younger” and “Stay.”

To make it happen, Robbie Kingsley, Franco Solari, Dylan McCue and Zach Levy — currently split between Miami, DC and Brooklyn — rented a house in South Florida last summer with a single-minded goal: build a space to write and record as a unit again. “We missed the creative spontaneity that comes only from playing in the same room with other people,” the band shared. “For too long we were unable to create in this way and we felt creatively starved because of it.”

You can hear that hunger on “Story of You and Me.” The song bounces between the frustration of playing the hand you’re dealt and flashes of stubborn hope that everything once promised might still be within reach. It’s personal and societal all at once — the perspective of college kids who are now grown and staring down the real world with plenty left to say.

“‘Story of You and Me’ portrays a relationship through the lens of film genre,” Kingsley explains. “Truth that can only be found in comedy, playing the roles that we’re cast, and how we react when stunts don’t go to plan.”

The accompanying official video, filmed at Brooklyn burlesque haunt The Slipper Room and directed by Stephen Konnovitch of Cultivision, leans into that theatrical framing. “Working on this video with the Cultivision team was sublime,” Kingsley said. “They held a mirror to our brains and amplified how we feel about our project and our band. In a way, ‘Story of You and Me’ and its video create a narrative for our career to follow going forward. The life we want to live on any stage, big or small, is only helped or hindered by ourselves and our own ambitions.”

Stream “Story of You and Me” here: https://open.spotify.com/artist/45kotIfGF5RXlZE0dGKPvv

The single arrives alongside big news for fans itching to see the band live: The Hails have announced their headline Duckpond Tour this fall. The run kicks off October 25 in Atlanta and rolls through Brooklyn’s Elsewhere (October 29), LA’s Echoplex (November 14), and a homecoming two-night Florida victory lap in Miami (November 20) and Tampa (November 21). Tickets go on sale Friday at 9 am local time.

UPCOMING TOUR DATES
Oct 25 — Atlanta, GA — Purgatory at Masquerade
Oct 27 — Carrboro, NC — Cat’s Cradle
Oct 28 — Washington, DC — The Atlantis
Oct 29 — Brooklyn, NY — Elsewhere (Hall)
Oct 30 — Cambridge, MA — The Sinclair
Nov 2 — Chicago, IL — Lincoln Hall
Nov 5 — Denver, CO — Marquis
Nov 7 — Salt Lake City, UT — Metro Music Hall
Nov 10 — Seattle, WA — Barboza
Nov 11 — Portland, OR — Mission Theater
Nov 13 — San Francisco, CA — Rickshaw Stop
Nov 14 — Los Angeles, CA — Echoplex
Nov 16 — Phoenix, AZ — Valley Bar
Nov 20 — Miami, FL — ZeyZey
Nov 21 — Tampa, FL — The Orpheum

Following 2023’s debut LP What’s Your Motive and last year’s standalone singles “Different Guy” and “Cut the Swarm,” The Hails are quietly gearing up for their second full-length album, expected later this year. If “Story of You and Me” is any indication of what’s coming, hopeful disillusionment has never sounded so danceable. Stay tuned.