Hello Chaos fans!
Big day today. Big day. So let’s skip the ado and get right into it!
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On with the show! And speaking of…
HIT SINGLES
Hit Singles, the much teased New Thing, is out today. God, that’s a surreal thing to write. It’s out now. It’s finally out.
You can hear the whole thing over at Audible, all twelve episodes dropped this morning. You can buy the show a la carte, or if you have an Audible Plus membership, you can listen to it at no additional cost. And if you happen to still have a free trial for A+, well, you can listen to the show for free for thirty days!
For anyone who’s hearing about this show for the first time, Hit Singles is a modern romcom audio fiction series. It follows the story of Faith, a young DJ who comes to New York for the summer, looking for some time away from herself and her regular life. She instantly meets David, a bartender who’s picking up the pieces of his own… somewhat shattered life, and the two immediately spark a connection. Neither of them are enormously interested in dating - least of all the person who’s only around for a few weeks - and yet… well, there’s something there. And as the two of them try to figure out just what the heck they’re doing, their three closest friends, Tori, Ginah, and Matt, try to figure out their own lives - everything from dating problems and secret crushes to artistic pursuits and the surprise responsibilities that life throws their way.
In my last newsletter, I described the show as… Friends and You’re the Worst and High Fidelity all put in a blender along with some choice Urbina-isms. Pretty good description, except that I forgot Community. Community belongs in that blender too. Really, at its heart it’s a show about that wonderful, messy period in your mid-20’s - when you’ve moved to a big city but haven’t made it big, when your friends are there to help you through every sharp turn, and all of your bad decisions are kind of good bad decisions.
And a lot of that is drawn from my own life, truth be told. For most of my early and mid-twenties, almost all of my romantic relationships were ones that took place in strange, liminal places. Someone would be around for a few weeks one winter. Someone would move to a city a few months before the other person was moving out. Someone would be visiting, or returning, or in transit. And in those brief windows, a connection would happen.
It’s an amazing, disorienting thing, that sort of relationship. We know it’s just going to be for a little bit, you tell yourselves, so it’s okay to let your guard down. It’s okay to go fast. It’s okay to let yourselves just be. But then sometimes you let your guard down and you fall all the way in love. It’s a fascinating dynamic, and one that I hadn’t really seen dramatized. Well, aside from Before Sunrise maybe, but that was all compressed into a single night. I hadn’t seen it spread out over a full season of episodes, with things really given a chance to grow. (And/or fester, as the case may be!)
Meanwhile, as I went through that tango over and over again, I was seeing everyone around me grow in all kinds of different ways. People would change career paths. Folks would move away from the arts, and others would discover them. And friends started to make big discoveries about what they wanted, who they wanted, and who they were.
I filled half a notebook up with thoughts about this in the summer of 2016, during the mid-season break for Wolf 359’s third season. There’s a show here, I thought to myself. Something funny and charming and postmodern. Maybe it’ll be the next thing we do after Wolf’s done.
Well, it wasn’t. It took a lot longer than that to make it. I’m 34 now, and, if anything, very nostalgic for the dysfunctional hurricane that led me to wanting to make this show. But it’s finally made. And I think it might be the best thing I’ve ever worked on.
But don’t just take it from me! Here’s a quick early review from one of the first people to listen to the show now that it’s out:
(Thank you, Lauren - means the world coming from you.)
And speaking of music - that’s another part of the show that I’m inordinately proud of. We got an amazing soundtrack for this show. When I first started writing the pilot, I had a completely unreasonable wishlist in my head. All my favorite artists, indie and otherwise, that I’d love to get on this show. “Oh, I’d be amazing to get a Venus Hum song in here,” I thought to myself. “And Summer Camp. And Overcoats. And Chamber Band. And STS9. And… and… and…” A nice dream, I thought, and got ready to let go of it.
Well, a bunch of miracles happened. And not only did we get nearly every song I dreamed about - we got Jeremy Warmsley, one half of Summer Camp (one of my favorite bands ever), to make the original score for the show. How lucky can one guy get? With this show, I’m finding out.
For those who want a quick taste of what Hit Singles’s music is like, here’s the soundtrack playlist. It’s maybe the best mixtape we’ve ever put together.
That’s enough for now, so let me just close with this: this is a very special show. Practically everyone that worked on it, even for a moment, felt it. And now that it’s out, I think everyone that hears it is going to feel it too. So please check it out, and - if you do love it the way I think you will - please tell the world about it. Rate it on Audible. Tell your friends. Hell, tell your enemies! (They need good audio fiction shows too.)
We made you a big, sprawling, funny, messy, very very personal series. We hope you enjoy it.
All right, Hit Singles is the big thing right now, so let’s just wrap up with a couple of QUICK HITS!
Earlier this week I finished writing a full season of another audio fiction show, which will be going into production soon. And a bit before that, I got some great news about a new show I’ve created. All that’s still a bit top secret for a bit longer, but it’s looking good for lots of new Gabriel things coming out soon.
Once the dust settles a bit on Hit Singles’s release (and once you’ve had a chance to listen to it), I want to do some talkbacks/livestreams about it, reflecting on my experiences with the series more in depth. (And with spoilers turned on.) So keep an eye out for those!
What Have I Been Listening To? Honestly? This week it really has been that Hit Singles Soundtrack playlist. It says a lot that after listening to this show 562 times in post, I still want to go back and spend time listening to these songs!
All right, chaos lovers, that’s all for now. Go check out Hit Singles. Rate it on the app. And then come back here and tell me what you thought of it.
Talk to you all soon!
Gabriel Urbina
04.10.2025
Thank you, thank you! Hot singles was beautiful, the actors were superb and the story engaging and surprising! And the music!! Wow! Perfect!