Behind The Tracks: Famous Strangers - As Your Leader (Single) (2026)

THE ORIGINS:

"As Your Leader" is one of the oldest songs in the Famous Strangers catalog. The music existed before the band did.

JEFF KITTLITZ, GUITAR: It's one of the very first songs that Beej and I had written before we were even jamming with Braden. It hasn't really changed too much since we originally wrote it. Amanda came in and added her vocals to the structure we had. Braden learned the meat and potatoes of it and added his flair. And over time, we made it more Famous Strangers than just us.

BRADEN SUSTRIK, BASS: It's one of the older, older songs musically. Jeff and Beej had even worked on the music before I was playing with them. The song stayed in the repertoire, stayed in the stable, as they say. And we've been playing it at most shows ever since then.

BRIAN "BEEJ" JOLLY, DRUMS: As Your Leader was written by Jeff and me a bunch of years prior to the band getting together. It didn't really have a lot of direction back then. It didn't have lyrics, but once lyrics were put on it, it gave it direction. I love it because it's about society today being controlled by the media and government. Everybody's got their faces stuck in their cell phones, and we're trying to break free of that cycle and take back what's ours. It's got a strong message. It's a banger.

THE SOUND:

Musically, it's a fast-paced song with a density and weight that separates it from the rest of the album. Jeff points to the East Vancouver heavy scene as a key influence on the writing.

JEFF KITTLITZ: I'm a huge fan of Cam and Shane Clark from Punch Drunk. I love that band. And Strapping is a huge influence. That whole East Vancouver scene. When I wrote the verse riff, it always kind of reminded me of those guys. It was my inspiration from them for sure. And I took that and made it my own." There's an Iron Maiden-inspired section in the middle of the song that nearly didn't make the cut.

BRADEN SUSTRIK: Just before we were getting ready to put it on the album, we were trying to decide, should we cut that part out? Is there a purpose? Is there a reason? And ultimately, we decided to leave it in. And now that I listen back to it, I think that was the right move.

Braden also points to a small moment that quietly changed the song.

BRADEN SUSTRIK: One day, I just threw an extra note in, and they were like, dude, that's the right note. It sounds way better. What did you do differently? I'm like, I wasn't playing the right note there ever. I'm glad we figured that out. Luckily, that happened a long time before we hit the studio. Maybe that's why we kept the part in the song, because if I wasn't playing the right note there, it might have been cut.

THE LYRICS:

Lyrically, "As Your Leader" marks a departure for Famous Strangers. Where much of the album leans into personal and emotional territory, this track turns outward.

JEFF KITTLITZ: We're not a political band in any sense of the way, but this is what some views are. This is kind of what we think about greed and power and how things can sometimes go in this world. And the song speaks for itself after that.

AMANDA KIERNAN, VOCALS: It's one of the heavier songs that we have. The guitar tone is really cool and unique, and heavy. The bass and drums just mesh together in this cool, unpredictable way. It is somewhat of an angry song compared to all our other uplifting songs.

The title itself tells the story.

AMANDA KIERNAN: I think the whole title is 'As your leader, I promise to...' but it just became 'As Your Leader.' That's the point. How many times has someone stood up on that podium and said, 'As your leader, I promise to,' and then they make a bunch of promises and it's just never ending. The same thing happens. They make promises, and they break them." But Amanda is careful to frame the song not as a political statement, but as something more personal.

AMANDA KIERNAN: I made the mistake of going down the rabbit hole a couple of years ago, and I'm glad that I pulled myself out of there, because if I were still in there, I don't know how my mental health would be. So like I always say, if you can't say it, sing it. I no longer post online about current events, and it doesn't mean I don't care. I just prefer to talk about it face-to-face with people. I have much better conversations and civil ones when I talk to people face-to-face about these things.

The song also touches on something the whole band connects to: the way technology has reshaped daily life.

AMANDA KIERNAN: It touches on how we all live through our phones now. Life doesn't feel real anymore because we're looking through the lens of the phone. I was blessed that I grew up without phones and without the internet. I know what it feels like to live a life completely free. And it's okay to be bored. When you're bored, that's when creativity comes about. Imagination.

THE COLLABORATION:

One of the song's pivotal lyrics, "the devil is their crown," came from drummer Brian "Beej" Jolly.

BRADEN SUSTRIK: As Amanda was writing the words, she was looking for some inspiration or help, and Beej came up with that line. It kind of set the mood and set the tone. I think Amanda adjusted a lot of the other lyrics in the song that had come before that. It was the first time, at least that I was aware of, where Beej and Amanda were collaborating lyrically on things. And it's grown a lot since that early song. They're definitely co-conspirators when it comes to working out how to say the right thing in the right song.

THE HOPE:

Despite the weight of its subject matter, "As Your Leader" ultimately lands on hope.

AMANDA KIERNAN: I do have faith in humanity. I really do hope that we all get through this. All I want is for all humans to have one love, world peace, and for humans to just live a healthy, happy life. Even with all the different beliefs, everyone could sit down at a dinner table and talk about what they believe in without any judgment, and people could listen and communicate. I wrote this song to be able to put my opinion out into a song. The message seems to get out better that way, and to the masses, instead of me ranting online.

THE VIDEO:

The accompanying music video was an immediate instinct.

ART SZABO, CREATIVE DIRECTOR / VIDEO DIRECTOR: When I heard the song for the first time, I had a vision for the video right away. I confirmed it with Jeff, and we were on the same page. We wanted something that was a cross between KMFDM's 'Drug Against War' and Pink Floyd's 'The Wall.' It borrowed from each, but it was its own creation.

The video is fully animated, rendered entirely in black and white. The first half plays in white on black, cold, industrial, mechanical. At the lyric "the power is ours," the palette inverts to black on white, and the entire visual world shifts from machine to something organic and alive. The concept is built around scale distortion, the feeling of being impossibly small in a world built for giants, drawn from a shared childhood experience between Jeff and Szabo with Alice in Wonderland Syndrome.

Producing a fully animated video on an independent budget is notoriously difficult, but Szabo's fifteen-plus years as a professional designer and music industry creative led to a proprietary technique combining generative AI with custom code to achieve the rough look the song demanded, which was then completed and finished in After Effects with a human touch.

ART SZABO: The song goes through a journey. It's not your typical 'bad guy loses at the end.' It's about hope. Towards the end of the video, when it turns to white, you can see the small people amalgamating into one to be able to take on the giants. They don't win in the end, but they definitely hurt the giants. And the giants know they're around.

TRACK: "As Your Leader" (Track 4)

ALBUM: Famous Strangers (Self-Titled Debut)

SINGLE RELEASE: July 17, 2026

ALBUM RELEASE: August 21, 2026

LINEUP: Amanda Kiernan (Lead Vocals) // Jeff Kittlitz (Guitar, Backing Vocals)

Braden Sustrik (Bass, Backing Vocals) // Brian "Beej" Jolly (Drums, Backing Vocals)

MIXED BY: Joel Wanasek

MASTERED BY: Maor Appelbaum

VIDEO DIRECTED BY: Art Szabo

FROM: Sherwood Park / Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

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