Future Islands

The Far Field

       ^{Future Islands — The Far Field (April 7th, 2017)}★★★   New Wave~inspired indie/electro trio led by unabashedly crooning frontman Samuel T. Herring. American synthpop band based in Baltimore, Maryland, and signed to 4AD. The band is composed of Gerrit Welmers (keyboards and programming), William Cashion (bass, acoustic and electric guitars), and Samuel T. Herring (lyrics and vocals). Future Islands formed in January 2006 in Greenville, North Carolina.
Location: Boise, Idaho, U.S.
Genre: Pop, Indie Pop, Synthpop
Album release: April 7th, 2017
Record Label: 4AD
Duration:     45:32
Tracks:
01 Aladdin     4:14
02 Time On Her Side     3:39
03 Ran     3:27
04 Beauty of the Road     4:10
05 Cave     3:53
06 Through the Roses     3:16
07 North Star     3:36
08 Ancient Water     3:57
09 Candles     3:58
10 Day Glow Fire     3:50
11 Shadows (feat. Debbie Harry)     4:06
12. Black Rose     3:26
℗ 2017 4AD
Personnel:
★★★   Gerrit Welmers (keyboards and programming),
★★★   William Cashion (bass, acoustic and electric guitars), and
★★★   Samuel T. Herring (lyrics and vocals).
♠•♠  The Baltimore trio shot to prominence after a Letterman performance went viral. Now fifth album ‘The Far Field’ sees them going beyond new expectations.
Review
Jamie Milton
★   It’s May 2014, and Future Islands frontman Samuel T. Herring is about to board a 6am flight to Barcelona. He’s running on empty. The night before in Vienna, he skips dinner, gets drunk after a show, meets up with a lon~lost friend and stays up reminiscing until 4am. Standing in line at the airport, he starts to experience a panic attack. Trying to distract himself, he fixates on a German mother and her son in the queue. “His mom was fixing his shirt and combing his hair, while he was swatting away at her. She was crying. It was like he was leaving home. I’m watching this guy like, ‘Fuck this guy! Give her a hug! I wish I could hug my mom right now!’”
★   “I’ve got these panic waves hitting, top of my head to my toes,” he continues. “And I just turn our tour manager and go, ‘Hey, I’m about to pass out.’ I’m stripping off my bag and taking off my coat. And then bam. I hit the ground. I immediately come to, stand back up and hit the ground again straight away.”
★   By 2014 all three members of Future Islands were ready to collapse. A Late Show with David Letterman appearance of Seasons (Waiting On You), their first televised performance, exploded online, hundreds of thousands sharing footage of Herring’s signature dance moves — somewhere between a velociraptor on the prowl and Marlon Brando doing karaoke, for those who haven’t seen it. These relative old~timers from Baltimore, who’d be touring non~stop for years with everything on their terms, were catapulted into another world. What followed isn’t a miserable tale of underdogs being ruined by the big time. In fact, new album The Far Field, the band’s fifth, is the opposite of a group caving into pressure. But bassist William Cashion admits that their entire world changed. “Everything got bigger. The stages got bigger, the crowds got bigger, the expectations got bigger.”
★   Since finding unexpected success, there hasn’t been a story quite like theirs — a band who’d carved their own niche, suddenly being placed on a huge platform by simply doing what they always do. Overnight success doesn’t tend to happen, especially not to an art~rock group from Baltimore.
★   “To me, we’ve been successful for years. Since 2010,” argues Herring. “We were already living off of our art. To me, that was success.” But with 2014 album Singles, they became a different band, adding touring drummer Michael Lowry to their entourage and playing huge slots on the back of that Letterman performance. What was intended to be one year on the road soon became two. “We’re used to steady touring,” says Cashion, but 2015 saw them spending a handful of days back home before flying off to another festival, week~in, week~out. This was anything but steady.
★   “The road” has been a sticking point on all Future Islands’ records, both in a literal and metaphorical sense. Before The Far Field, the group’s relationship with life on the road changed, and the following record documents this. Standout track ‘Beauty Of The Road’ finds Herring looking back on the time he sacrificed his love life in order to tour. Writing the latest record, he became uncomfortable with not being on the road. “I missed it. It became a nostalgic point. I’m pretty deeply invested in my love of the road. But I don’t know if that’s because I’ve completely lost my mind,” he laughs, eyes widening. He looks to his bandmates. “That does scare me, because these guys have wonderful people in their lives and are settling down. I’m like, ‘What happened to me?!’ I’m still lost out here on these roads. I’ll fly to LA just to stay in a hotel room because that feels more at home than being at my house.”
★   A lot of those drawn to Herring’s dancing found appeal in someone putting their insecurities to one side and just going for it. Others simply found it funny. Gifs of Herring’s moves became a strange, low~key meme that threatened to forever follow the band. But the real appeal of the frontman’s stage prowess is how much commitment he gives. You see it in the dramatic chest thumps, or when emotion overwhelms and he begins to cry ~ he’s all in. “Being at home and realising I’d got everything I set out to get,” he reflects. “I’d fulfilled all my goals: to be a musician. I didn’t have to do anything but make music. And if I wasn’t making music or touring, then I could just be. I didn’t need to worry about working another job. And I found myself in 2016 with that situation exactly, and I felt so lonely.” He says all this with a smile on his face, and it doesn’t help that he’s been doing interviews for three days straight in Paris, Amsterdam and London. But he’s being deadly serious. “I’d accomplished my goals and I was as lonely as I was when I started! It’s like, ‘You sacrificed love for your art, you found out where that took you. Time to reset’... I had to go one way or another, though.”
★   “Me and Gerrit [Welmers] also get totally stir crazy,” adds Cashion, who booked the band’s first 500 shows on his own (they hit the 1000 milestone in 2015 with a gig in North Carolina). You can’t prepare anyone for the phenomenon that hit in 2015, but being a motivated, self~starting band since 2006 helped put Future Islands in the driving seat when heads began to turn. “There’s too many people who wait around for a label and a booking agent. If you wanna do something, just do it. We prescribe to that fully,” states Herring, although Cashion stresses that “you need to work with others” when opportunity knocks. “But I would say, people can do everything on their own completely. So if there’s any young bands reading this, go for it. Don’t wait for anybody else.”
★   It’s this self~sufficient ethos that informs The Far Field, a record that paves new ground ~ they collaborate for Blondie’s Debbie Harry on ‘Shadows’, for instance ~ but still sticks rigidly to a signature sound developed over the previous four albums. One thing’s clear: for all the exhaustion, loss and longing that’s defined the last couple of years, Future Islands don’t want things to go back to normal. They’re driven by playing to bigger crowds and winning over new fans. Herring cites a conversation with current label 4AD, who took the band on before they released Singles in 2014. “They said, ‘You’ve done all of the hard work. And we love what you do. We don’t want to change anything you’re doing, we just wanna give you a bigger platform.’ They let more people know we existed, and that’s all we needed.”   ★   http://www.independent.co.uk/
Lyrics:
RAN
1.) Ingest, where it goes, nobody sees but me
So perfect and so sweet
But the rest, feels incomplete
Like the rabbit’s foot I keep
In the locket, with no key
2.) And I can’t take it, I can’t take this world without
This world without you
I can’t take it, I can’t take it on my own
On my own
———
Refrain: On these roads
Out of love, so it goes
How it feels when we fall, when we fold
How we lose control, on these roads
How it sings as it goes
Flight of field, driving snow
Knows the cold
Ran round the wailing world
———
3.) And what’s a song without you?
When every song I write is about you
When I can’t hold myself without you
And I can’t change the day I found you
———
Refrain: On these roads
Out of love, so it goes
How it feels when we fall, when we fold
How we lose control, on these roads
How it sings as it goes
Flight of field, driving snow
Knows the cold
4.) Out of love, so it goes
How it feels when we fall, when we fold
How we lose control, on these roads
How it sings as it goes
Flight of field, driving snow
Knows the cold
Ran round the wailing world
★★★   Future Islands have announced a new album called The Far Field. The follow~up to 2014’s Singles is out April 7 via 4AD. Along with the first offering from the album, “Ran.” The Far Field has string and horn arrangements by Patrick McMinn and is the first Future Islands record to feature live drums from member Michael Lowry. Blondie’s Debbie Harry makes a guest appearance on “Shadows.”
★★★   The band began writing the album last January, and later in the year, performed the songs at a series of secret shows under fake names. They recorded the album with producer John Congleton (Sleater~Kinney, David Byrne, St. Vincent, Cloud Nothings) in Los Angeles at Sunset Sound (where artists like the Beach Boys and Prince have recorded).
★★★   Future Islands will tour in support of the album this year, including sets at Coachella, Panorama, and Bonnaroo. Find the full itinerary below. They’re also scheduled to appear on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on February 9.
Bandcamp: https://futureislandsmusic.bandcamp.com/releases
Twitter: https://twitter.com/futureislands/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FutureIslandsMusic
Website: http://www.future-islands.com/ © Illustrated credit: Elena Johnston
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Future Islands

The Far Field

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