It was released as their first physical single on September 3, 2014, seven months after their major label debut extended play Newtown under Ki/oon Music.

[1] Folks first formed in 2013 when former Galileo Galilei members Fumito Iwai and Kazumasa Noguchi moved back to their birthplace of Hokkaido to start a band.

[2] The group based themselves at their hometown of Eniwa, Hokkaido, and released their first extended play Take Off in March 2013, and performed at the Rising Sun Rock Festival, on August 17, 2013.

[8][9][10] After recording Newtown, the band found that they did not have any songs left in their stock, so spent February writing 30 new compositions over two weeks.

[11] While writing the song, Fumito Iwai thought more about how catchy melodies and sampled vocal sounds were for a wider audience than on Newtown.

[11][12] To promote the release, Folks appeared in issues of Musica and Rockin' On Japan magazines, as well as making radio broadcasts at FM North Wave and Air'G.

called "Hometown Story" "up-tempo with a sparkling clear-toned electro production, fused with a folky melody that can make you feel the spread of the continents", and praised the "grunge/alterna base" with additional electronic aspects in "Frenemy".