Austin, TX trio Culture Wars announced the release of a new song, “Hunger,” from their upcoming EP teche which will be released later this year. The band, Alex Dugan, David Grayson, and Dillion Randolph have amassed over 7 million streams independently, inciting a flurry of activity on TikTok charting a top 30 on Alternative radio.
“Hunger” twists and turns through warbling bass, shimmering synths, and a hypnotic high register hook before dissolving into a cathartic drum and key freak-out punctuated by otherworldly guitar. It’s a surreal yet nevertheless satisfying track. “I was at a weird place in my life,” Alex Dugan admits. “For me, it was a release of energy. Retrospectively, ‘Hunger’ could be about distancing yourself from emotion in a relationship where you’ve had to disassociate due to dysfunction.”
Inspired by seeing New Order live in Houston, the band recorded a series of demos in 2016. Those demos eventually morphed into Culture Wars‘ self-titled 2017 debut EP. The lead single, “Lies,” eclipsed 2.2 million Spotify streams followed by “Bones” peaking at #43 on Alternative radio. In 2019, they retreated to the famed Sonic Ranch Recording Studio in Tornillo, TX, which sits on a massive pecan farm thirty minutes outside of El Paso directly on the Mexican border. Over the course of “drunk summer camp,” as Alex describes it, they brought teche to life with producer Caleb Contreras. The isolation, yet intimacy of the locale seeped into the push-and-pull of Culture Wars’ music. They recruited ten-time GRAMMY Award winner Manny Marroquin [Kanye West, Imagine Dragons] for mixing and put the finishing touches on the EP just as the Global Pandemic set in. Throughout the next year, they teased out teche. “Faith,” which Alex describes as “a rock song, an electronic song, and country song,” hinted at the scope of the project. Meanwhile, “Leave Me Alone” quickly approached 1 million Spotify streams as it generated a flurry of activity on TikTok fueled by videos from influencers such as Bella Poarch, Nessa Barrett, and Sienna Mae. Not to mention, it landed on the Bill & Ted Face The Music Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and ascended into the Top 30 at Alternative Radio.
