Indie Rocker 'Surprised' By Song Going Viral 20 Years Later Thanks To 'Heated Rivalry'
- - Indie Rocker 'Surprised' By Song Going Viral 20 Years Later Thanks To 'Heated Rivalry'
Jason BrowDecember 29, 2025 at 10:25 PM
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Photo by Jim Bennett on Getty Images
If you're curious as to why you can't escape Wolf Parade's "I'll Believe In Anything"—especially if you've recently been to a minor league hockey game at your local "boy aquarium"—look no further than Heated Rivalry.
Even Spencer Krug, who wrote the twenty-year-old song, can't believe how it's taken off after being featured in Jacob Tienery's hit television show.
Based on Rachel Reid's Game Changers sports romance novel series, Heated Rivalry follows Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Iyla Rozanov (Connor Storrie) as they take their on-ice rivalry out of the hockey rink and into the bedroom. "I'll Believe In Anything" played during a heated moment in Episode 5, when Scott Hunter [François Arnaud] comes out as gay by inviting his boyfriend, Kip Grady [Robbie G.K.], on the ice for a passionate kiss.
Letting Heated Rivalry use his song was an "easy" decision, Krug told The Globe and Mail. "For one, the premise of a sexy, gay hockey show sounds fun. And two, Jacob Tierney is someone we're familiar with as a band. I met him before, years ago, when he was first starting up. We talked a little bit then about me doing music for one of his projects."
"I'll Believe In Anything" is part of Wolf Parade's 2005 debut album, Apologies to the Queen Mary. And Spencer Krug found out about its placement in Heated Rivalry from a friend who is "obsessed with the show."
"[She] came over and said, 'You're such a big part of this.' She wrote out Heated Rivalry for Dummies notes for me, and we watched episode five. And it is a big moment. More instances of this kept happening," said Krug.
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But he can't believe how much the song has benefited from that scene: it's reportedly up 3,000% in Spotify streams. It is, by far, Wolf Parade's most popular song, with over 24 million streams on Spotify alone. "We had no idea that the song would trend the way it is, or that it would be such, like, a main character in that last episode," he said.
Krug also said that it's wild that, after two decades, a whole new generation is relating to it. "To be honest, it's like another person wrote the song, because it was so long ago," he explained. "I don't really connect with my 25-year-old self anymore. We're all reading work that someone else did. I've always had the philosophy that once you record a song and release it into the world, you let it do its thing. It's interesting to watch. I'm not going to try to control anything."
As Stereogum pointed out, Krug has a Patreon set up where he's gone into the history of "I'll Believe In Anything." He shared a snippet of the making-of on Instagram.
But good news, Heated Rivalry fans: you will be able to hear the song if you catch an upcoming Wolf Parade show. "We almost always play it live. I'm curious how this changes the reception of the song. It's all very surprising," said Krug.
This story was originally published by Parade on Dec 29, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
