The Darcys are a decade into their career, but if you ask the duo made up of Jason Couse and Wes Marskell, they're just now hitting their stride.

Following radio success with their recent single "Running for the Hills," the Canadian pair today is releasing a new track called "Washed Away," and it plays somewhat like the sibling to "Running," with its brooding verses and splashy, radio-friendly hook.

"It's just another one of those validations to just stop paying attention to what everyone else expects of you all the time," says Marskell of their recent climb, speaking with Variance ahead of the new song's release. "People were like, 'It won't get played on radio, people won't like it, it won't!' And it's just like, all you know is nobody knows anything and you just gotta make sure you're really happy with it. And so I feel the same way about 'Washed Away,' which is I feel like maybe a bad cycle to just be like, 'No one else likes this song, so it's gonna do well!'"

He quips: "It's pretty rewarding and exciting and like, it would have been nice if this all happened, you know, 10 years ago, but we'll take it now!" 

For the Darcys, it seems as if they've been caught up in the perfect storm, not only with radio success but being more independent and trusting themselves as they start playing live again and "reframe" what it means to be The Darcys.

"It's like, smaller shows, more stripped back performances," adds Couse. "But we're kind of going back to our roots of—the love of it, the blood, sweat and tears kind of aspect of it, which is helping us fall back in love with why we started doing this in the first place and it's kind of exciting to think that, with a pivot point, where we might go from here."

Surprisingly, despite the longevity of their band, Marskell and Couse still write and record their own material. "It's like the most 'us two' it's ever been," says Marskell.

The band says running lean in this sense does certainly mean every little success and every benchmark is just that much more rewarding, because they recognize the work and sacrifice it took to get to those moments. But that independence also means it can also be pretty "scary" too.

"Because every success matters more," says Marskell. "Because you need it more and you're not in this machine that can just make it work."

For now, the duo is definitely working on a new album, but like so much in the music industry right now, it's still up in the air as to when it will be released. In addition to "Running for the Hills" and "Washed Away," they have plenty more material up their sleeves. 

"We need like the full total vision to commit to the next album," says Couse. "So I think for now it's really fun to just be writing a lot and exploring different spaces, different sounds and seeing what really gets us excited. And finally to be back on stage to be able to try new stuff and get that kind of human feedback again after the last couple of years.