Levi Hummon Debuts Catchy New Single ‘Rent Free’ (Exclusive Premiere + Interview)

Country star Levi Hummon has just debuted his brand new single, “Rent Free,” and PopCulture.com is proud to exclusively premiere the catchy new track. We also had the privilege of speaking with Hummon about the new song, and he told us that the early 2000s pop-rock vibes it gives off were completely intentional. “That’s exactly what we’re going for, country music meets almost Fountains of Wayne or Weezer, that kind of stuff,” Hummon said.

“I think this is a really cool song, especially production-wise,” he continued, “just because whenever I was in a songwriting session and people are like, ‘So, what’s the vibe now? What are you going for?’ I would be like, ‘Check out the song, “Rent Free,” because this is exactly who I am as an artist. This encapsulates everything that I’m chasing.’ And so this has been the teaser for every single co-write that I’ve been in recently.”

As for the song’s journey from idea to fully realized track, Hummon says it all started with the title. “I had the title, ‘Rent Free,’ just because that phrase to me was so funny. It was like, ‘Yeah, oh my God, it lives rent-free in my head.’ And that was just such an obvious song idea. But then it’s like, ‘She lives rent-free in your head.’ And then the other side of that, it’s like, you were living with a girl that literally left and didn’t pay rent or whatever, and she lives rent-free in your head. So all that was kind of around in my head.”

“Kind of a cool story to this song and the creation of it,” Hummon went on to reveal, “was actually, one of the co-writers is an artist named Rozes,” who has worked with a number of DJs and electronic music artists, including The Chainsmokers. “I had been trying to write with her for forever, and I literally just cold DMed her on Instagram. I was like, ‘I would love to write with you if you’re ever in town. Let’s make it happen.’ And we got together with my producer Eric Arjes, and we wrote this. It was our first-ever writing session, and it just turned out so cool. Me and my producer have been working towards that Fountains of Wayne, like I said, Weezer vibe, but she really stepped in and was just a badass, and I was just so pumped to write with her.”

As for the style and structure of “Rent Free,” Hummon explained that it represents a blending of his roots in country music — his father is country singer-songwriter Marcus Hummon — as well as the artists like Jeff Buckley and The Clash who his father introduced him to as a kid, and the rock bands he discovered as a teenager. “As I was growing up, teenage years, early twenties, I was really into skateboarding. And that kind of counterculture of skateboarding really defined what I listened to. That was Nirvana and Pixies and Ramones and everything else.”

“Then as I transitioned into professional music,” Hummon continued, “I just happened to be… Country music was in my DNA and in my blood, and just couldn’t get rid of it…. It’s like an amoeba of music that exists in my brain.” He then quipped, “It never makes any sense, but it’s an amalgamation of everything that I’ve always listened to.” Hummon added, “It’s really amazing, even stylistically and everything, my dad had a huge impact on me, but so did the whole world of skateboarding and just a little bit of rebelliousness within me, the whole genre of music and style, that I still try to chase to this day.”

Notably, this seemingly new sound for Humon is something he’s been working toward for a while. He revealed that he co-wrote the new Sam Tinnesz song, “Spaced Out,” which features Nick Wheeler from All-American Rejects. “I’ve always been kind of writing that stuff, but now it’s kind of making a resurgence,” Humon said of working on the guitar-driven rock track.

“I always really loved the Weezer type stuff, and especially Nirvana,” Hummon also shared. “That was so inspirational to me. And even Jeff Buckley, who’s not really scene stuff or whatever. But I kind of recently discovered Paramore and Pierce The Veil and these really… Warped Tour stuff that, I was a skateboarder, and I didn’t really listen to this stuff. I kind of rediscovered and it’s been kind of inspiring, especially The Band Camino and LANY and all this stuff. It’s almost like what’s old is new again, and they’re doing it in a really cool new way that I’m locked into and just love.”

Finally, Hummon teased what he has on the horizon and what fans can expect from him over the next several months. “I’m working on some cool collaborations as well, and have a couple other things that are in the pipeline. I’d definitely say I just love pushing the edge… writing only one thing for forever just gets boring. So, I always say the one thing I’m trying to do is just make music fun always. And so as long as music’s fun, then I’m putting out what I want to put out. And I think that I’m not chasing being super, super country because I’m just going to be authentic to myself. And that’s that version that existed from teenage years to early twenties and now is back again.”