Austin indie folk band The 4411 offer a radiant meditation on distance and devotion with “Sweet July,” a warm, honeyed reverie that finds meaning not in holding on forever, but in learning to cherish what’s fleeting.

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Stream: “Sweet July” – The 4411

Where we dance with the flames and burn with the embers / Sing with the waves ’til the sun, it surrenders / Making bets with the days that I hope I’ll remember by December…

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Time doesn’t always announce itself when it changes things.

Sometimes it slips by unnoticed, measured not in milestones but in missed birthdays, postponed plans, and the growing realization that the people who once shaped your every day now live at a distance you can’t quite close. Growing older often means learning how to live with that ache – the strange loneliness of loving people deeply while seeing them less and less. That tender, bittersweet truth sits at the heart of “Sweet July,” a radiant new folk-pop gem from The 4411, one that captures the warmth of connection and the quiet grief of time passing in the same gentle breath.

Sweet July
You always leave with time
The morning’s quite
And it bleeds into the night

Take me down to the place
Where you know that I’m dying
And I’ll wait for you

Released January 21^st, “Sweet July” arrives as the latest single from Austin, Texas-based indie folk band The 4411, a four-piece rooted in friendship, shared history, and quietly resonant songwriting. Formed by lifelong friends Cogan McBride and Tomas Gerlach before expanding into a full band with the addition of guitarist Alan Holmquist and bassist Nick Speer, The 4411 have spent the past five years honing a warm, lived-in sound that blends folk intimacy with melodic indie-pop sensibility.

Following their 2024 debut EP We Killed the Sun and a steady run of sold-out shows and national touring, the band enters 2026 with growing momentum – and “Sweet July” feels like a natural next step, both emotionally and artistically.

There’s an immediate sense of peace to “Sweet July,” as if the song itself were sunlight spilling across a hardwood floor.

Dreamy acoustic fingerpicking lays the foundation, soon joined by lush mellotron textures and radiant harmonies that bloom slowly and naturally around Cogan McBride’s golden, honeyed vocal. The arrangement is soft but intentional, immersive without ever feeling heavy, drawing the listener into a soundscape that feels outdoorsy and alive. Even the birdsong that flutters in at the song’s close feels purposeful, grounding the track in a reconnection to the natural world – a reminder of stillness, presence, and the comfort of simply being.

Where we dance with the flames
and burn with the embers
Sing with the waves
’til the sun, it surrenders
Making bets with the days
that I hope I’ll remember by December
Sweet July, could you stay here forever?

At its core, “Sweet July” is about time separating people who once felt inseparable. The band traces the song’s origin back to a summer spent reconnecting with friends from their hometown, when scheduling time together felt unexpectedly difficult and goodbyes carried extra weight. “We started feeling like we only see our friends that we grew up with once a year in the summer and as you grow up and life gets busier you see your friends less and less,” they share. It’s a sentiment many listeners will recognize instantly – the quiet reckoning that closeness doesn’t disappear, it just becomes rarer.

That feeling is woven delicately through the lyrics, which read like snapshots from a fleeting season you’re already afraid of losing. “Sweet July / You always leave with time,” McBride sings, capturing the way summer memories are often marked by their impermanence. Later, the refrain aches with longing: “Making bets with the days that I hope I’ll remember by December / Sweet July could you stay here forever?” It’s not just nostalgia, but awareness – the painful clarity that these moments matter precisely because they don’t last.

Sweet goodbyes
Hurts a little more each time
We laughed and cried
That redwood tree has died

Take me down to the place
Where you know that I’m dying
And I’ll wait for you

Vocally, McBride leans into restraint, letting softness do the emotional work. “When we were recording it, I wanted to try singing extremely soft and delicately,” he explains. Drawing inspiration from Jeff Buckley’s more intimate performances, the result is controlled yet deeply vulnerable, as if the song were being sung just for one person sitting across the room. That intimacy allows the emotion to land without spectacle, trusting the listener to meet it where it is.

The warmth of “Sweet July” also reflects who The 4411 are at their core – a group of best friends from Austin, Texas, making music rooted in shared history and genuine connection. The band’s name itself comes from the street address of their drummer’s parents’ house, where they first rehearsed and wrote together, and that sense of origin still lingers in their sound. Influenced by artists like Hozier, Fleetwood Mac, Bob Dylan, and The Backseat Lovers, they’ve learned to lean into sincerity over grand gestures, allowing songs to unfold naturally rather than forcefully.

Where we dance with the flames
and burn with the embers
Sing with the waves
’til the sun, it surrenders
Making bets with the days
that I hope I’ll remember by December
Sweet July, could you stay here forever?

Ultimately, “Sweet July” is a song about gratitude – for the people who shaped us, for the seasons that held us, and for the fleeting moments that stay with us long after they’re gone.

“I hope listeners take away a sense of gratitude for the time they get to spend with the people they care about,” Cogan McBride shares. “Maybe you’re having your ‘Sweet July’ right now and don’t even realize it yet.” In that way, the song becomes both a comfort and a quiet call to attention: To hold close what you can, while you can, and to honor the beauty of moments that are already becoming memories. In its warmth and simplicity – in the glow of its harmonies, the hush of its melodies, the way it seems to breathe rather than rush – “Sweet July” feels like a small pocket of sunlight you can return to, again and again, whenever the distance starts to ache.

The 4411 recently sat down with Atwood Magazine to talk about friendship, growing older, and the strange loneliness that inspired “Sweet July.” Read our full conversation below, and spend some time with this beautiful, bittersweet song wherever you stream music.

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:: stream/purchase Sweet July here ::

:: connect with The 4411 here ::

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Stream: “Sweet July” – The 4411

A CONVERSATION WITH THE 4411

The 4411: If someone was just discovering The 4411, I’d want them to know that we’re a group of best friends from Austin, Texas. At the end of the day, we just want to be great musicians and write and create authentic music that genuinely resonates with people.

The 4411: The name The 4411 actually comes from the street address of our drummer’s parents’ house, where the band first formed. That’s where we started rehearsing and writing our first songs.

The 4411: Some of our musical north stars right now include The Strokes, The Backseat Lovers, Hozier, Bob Dylan, Fleetwood Mac, and honestly too many others to name – we really just love music. One thing we love about the music we’ve been making recently is that it feels very real and complete. It’s a collection of our inspirations and the things we’ve been through. It might sound cliché, but it really feels like we’ve been able to lean into who we are and what we want this band to be.

The 4411: The song came to us about two summers ago after spending some time with friends from high school back in our hometown. It was strangely hard to schedule time when everyone was available, and after saying our goodbyes, I remember feeling like it would probably be at least another six months before I saw any of them again. These are people I grew up with for the better part of 15 years, so that feeling really stuck with me. That’s what sparked the initial inspiration for the song.

The 4411: I really appreciate the compliment. When we were recording it, I wanted to try singing extremely soft and delicately. A big inspiration for me was some of Jeff Buckley’s softer songs, where everything feels controlled but still very intimate.

The 4411: The song is truly about time separating people. I think we’re just in a period of our lives, being in college and in our early twenties, where time really starts to create distance in some of our longest relationships.

The 4411: I hope listeners take away a sense of gratitude for the time they get to spend with the people they care about. Maybe you’re having your “Sweet July” right now and don’t even realize it yet, or maybe it’s coming in a few months – that moment when you finally get to see someone you’ve been missing. It’s important not to take those moments for granted, and I think making this song has helped remind us of that too.

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:: stream/purchase Sweet July here ::

:: connect with The 4411 here ::

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Stream: “Sweet July” – The 4411

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