For Mitchell, "Familiar Stranger" is a progression beyond what can be heard in his previous work: "I don't sit and listen to alt-country and folk music all day anymore… if I had made another record with the same sort of musical pallet as the last two I would have been forcing it." Mitchell further explained that Goldfrapp, Santigold, Wilco and Spoon were some of his musical interests during the creation of the fourth album. Triple J announcer, Richard Kingsmill, previewed "Familiar Stranger" on 3 February 2013.