An Interview with: Future Islands

Why aren't Future Islands famous yet? The band are constantly on tour across North America or Europe (they are currently in between touring the two continents opening up for Dan Deacon's ensemble), and have an energetic live show worthy of such an opening spot. Though the band utilizes electronic drums to back them up, it's pure rock and roll. We recently sat down with the band before their Brooklyn gig with Dan.

So you guys have almost completed this tour with Dan Deacon, probably playing bigger venues than you're used to, what's that like? How does it differ from previous tours?
Sam: It's pretty interesting, but it definitely takes some getting used to. We love playing big spaces to lots of people; we feed off that kind of energy. It just kind of blows us away that it's every night. It's weird; it's really weird. We're not really in control of things on this tour. We're at the whims of what's happening with Dan and Dan's people, and we're happy to do that. I hope that when we get back, and we start to tour again that we aren't really bummed out that we aren't playing these gigantic spaces to lots of people. We love the big crowds, but we still really love DIY spaces. It is a weird transition, but it's a transition we thrive with.

William: There has been DIY spaces also on this tour, smaller shows. I guess we did play a lot of big venues and sold out smaller shows. It felt really good to play in front of that many people. Most of the people didn't know who we were, but it was really exciting when they did.

Your album, Wave Like Home, was released on Upset the Rhythm. is that just in the UK or is that available in the US?
Sam: There's distribution [in the US]. You can get the record out here. I don't think it's at import prices, so that's good. But it is basically distributed throughout Europe more than it is here, which is awkward.

You guys just came from Europe before this tour, and are going back with Dan soon? How was that?
Sam: It was amazing. I wish I had prepared myself, because I felt like we had tricked somebody the whole time we were over there. [It was] like we had pulled the wool over someone eyes and tricked them into letting us come to Europe, but [I] realized we actually had a fan base there, which was strange and amazing. We played some shows in Germany where there were people singing along to our songs, and that doesn't happen when we go out west. Nobody [in California] knows our music, but in Germany there's people, who's second language is English, singing along to our songs. That was a huge ego boost--I shouldn't say ego boost, but it was--confidence booster. It made us feel like we were doing something right and making music that people all over loved.
William: It didn't make any sense to us that we were going to Europe. Then we come back, and it's surreal. It seems like it didn't happen. We're not used to it.
Sam: They really care about artists and musician over there, and made us feel great about what we are doing.

Have you guys been approached by any labels? Or pursued it?
Sam: We've sent out demos in the past. Very seldom and very few.
William: I think Wham City Records is going to release the next album, and that's the US label we're going to working with.

You're originally from North Carolina, so how did you get involved with the whole Wham City thing?
William: Our friend, Jim, books shows in North Carolina. He booked this tour for these bands, and he asked us to play the last date of Dan [Deacon]'s first tour. [Dan] said a lot of the shows really sucked; they were weird with not a lot of people there, and that our show was the awesomest one of the tour. He kept touring. The next month he'd come back and then the next month. We were like "Who is this guy? He's always on tour!" We became fast friends. A year later he took us tour for like two weeks, down to New Orleans, Chicago, and around. He told us that we should move to Baltimore, because it's awesome, and that we could play DC, Philly and New York all the time. After school, we couldn't pick a town in North Carolina to move to, so we moved to Baltimore.

How long have you been in Baltimore now?
Sam: About a year and a half.

What's going to happen when you make your next record? You guys tour all the time, I can't imagine you even have time to work on one.
Sam: The next album is gonna be huge; it's going to crush the world...Those are my dreams. We've written five songs for the new album, and we have two or three unrecorded tracks that we don't play anymore but are floating around. The plan is to write the second half of the album in the last two weeks of June when we get back from Europe, and then we have the first week of July to record. I know we've got a lot of ideas. I feel like we've grown a whole lot since we've been in Baltimore, and constant touring has made us more creative when we sit down and write. I feel like being on the road and playing these songs over and over again, just makes us want to write more songs so that we can stop playing these songs. (I say that facetiously, but it is true.) We always write songs in groups, so I'm excited to see what the next batch of songs will sound like. The first half of the album so far is a lot darker than anything we've done in a long time, a little more down tempo. I don't know what the next half is going to be like. When we wrote those songs, we were going through some personal changes in our lives and I feel like that affected the music. At this point, we're exhausted, touring in Europe, and this tour with Dan which has been amazing. We're just feeling great about what we're doing. There are people that really give a shit about what we're doing. I think this next album is going to be really heavy.