Please Don't Call Him A Drunken Muppet: An Interview with Future Islands' Samuel T. Herring

Future Islands MySpace/Frank Hamilton

Comprised of lead singer Samuel T. Herring, bassist William Cashion, and synth/electronics wizard J. Gerrit Welmers, Baltimore's Future Islands have steadily gained momentum over the last few years for their unique sound and cathartic live performances. Dense, synth heavy soundscapes, New Order worthy basslines, and Herring's one of a kind voice, which sounds like a sometimes angry, always lovelorn English aristocrat, have separated them from their peers. A year and a half after their breakout album, last year's stunningly gorgeous In Evening Air, they have returned with On The Water, an equally affecting album that sees the band continue along their creative plateau.

Future Islands play early on Saturday (1:20 pm to be precise), and we highly recommend that you go and see them. We had the great pleasure of talking to Herring over the phone before the band set out on tour to discuss the band's work, his voice, and who they look forward to catching at Fun Fun Fun Fest.

Your new album, On the Water, just came out recently. There was a very quick turnaround between this album and In Evening Air. Was there any specific reason for this either personally or artistically?

I think it's important to create music and get it out to your audience just to keep yourself relevant, especially with the way music is these days. We went into the studio to record and we thought “maybe we'll come up with an album.” What came out of it was a lot more material than what we went in with, and Thrill Jockey was excited about pushing for a release. We felt that everything fit very well together. There was no reason to wait another 6 months or a year to ruminate over this material or try writing anything new.

On the Water was recorded in North Carolina, which is where you guys are originally from. Do you believe that this shaped the overall tone of On the Water than if you were to record it in Baltimore or somewhere else and how so?

I think with this album we went there with knowing that Thrill Jockey was going to be behind us, We did it with the comfort to be able to just go somewhere and record, to be away from any stresses in our lives, be away from the city, and just be in a place where we could just walk around and feel things out. And being in that atmosphere, it just made it really easy to sit back and enjoy ourselves. We talked about it since then, about how nice that process was, and about doing that in the future. We're not sure where but it’s just an idea.

A lot of your lyrics seem to be extremely personal and confessional, yet this album seems to reflect more on dealing with heartache and letting go than many of the songs on In Evening Air. Was there any sort of shift in your personal life that affected your lyrics?

The first band that William, Gerrit, and I started together was a concept band called Art Lord and the Self Portraits. In that band, I played a character who was the self-proclaimed “lord of art.” Playing a character, I could play it up to a much bigger level while still dealing with come certain things I might have felt. It’s pretty funny because early on in Art Lord, I was quoted as saying that I would never write a love song. [laughs] With the shift to Future Islands, I still think that some of the early Future Islands suffered from some of my own personal problems I had going on, as far as lyrics. As we started to work, as In Evening Air started to pop out, I was starting to understand who I was again. I just feel like it's all I can really write about and know.

In terms of the lyrics for On the Water, it seems they are a lot more reflective than those from In Evening Air. Was there a shift in your personal life that caused you to write lyrics that reflected that at all?

The very first song we did for On the Water was the title track. At that time, I started seeing a girl, the first girl I'd seen since my big breakup with the girl who inspired all of In Evening Air. It was all wonderful at first, but I only knew her for like three weeks and then I went on the road for two months. There's other songs I love from this album because of the certain struggle it took to write them, but that song just came out effortlessly. It was really like the summation of the end of my last relationship and understanding it, and me speaking to this new person in my life and saying to this person, "I won't let that happen to us."

Your singing voice is immediately distinguishable. Have you always sang like that, or did you just decide to sing that way over time?

It definitely just kind of happened, I mean my voice deteriorated a lot through music making and touring and everything. When I was young I had a great voice, but I didn’t know how to use it. As I’ve grown older, I’ve lost my voice, but now I know how to use it because I’ve gained my own voice. The beauty of a voice is how we can use it. It’s where the passion is. Of course, people will fight over how I use my voice and there are plenty of singers out there who will get shit for their voice. As long as we’re the ones who stick out a certain way, then it doesn’t bother me. It makes me laugh when people say I sound like I’m a drunken Muppet, although it hurts a little bit, and the Dracula thing is getting a little old. [Laughs]

You all spend a lot of time on tour, and many times you guys are in a different city every night for a month straight with little to no rest. How are you all able to keep the energy level so high night after night?

Well, to be crass . . . I guess I’ll say tequila. [Laughs] I mean, if you're getting paid to play music and you’ve got a crowd out there, you better perform. The truth is that there's so much more work in everything that happens off-stage, being on-stage is the fun part. It's just like running a marathon in a weird way. I just keep going, that's what you have to do. There have been plenty times when I felt like I was going to pass out on stage, but I'd much rather hurt myself or rip my pants than for it to be said in a review that I didn't give it my all. I don't look 27, that's what the road does to you, but as long as you're writing music that you believe in and you're writing music that has that passion, it's near impossible to not perform it with passion and energy. We're going to put out whatever records we want, but when we come to your town we're going to play a power set and destroy your brain.

I think it’s safe to say that you are one of the most charismatic front men around right now, and from seeing you live I can tell that you put everything you have into your performance. Have you always been as cathartic and theatrical onstage or did it take time to kind of evolve your stage presence?

With Art Lord, it was about theater, so it allowed me to be this kind of grand character but it lacked that kind of high energy. Then when we started Future Islands, we added a friend of ours named Erick Murillo on the drums. He was a bassist in this really amazing band called the Kickass, an instrumental metal trio who at their best they sounded like Tortoise. It was awesome for us because Erick was an amazing technical metal bassist and he would always be front row at our Art Lord shows and dance his ass off. He'd be like, “I love you guys, if you ever want a drummer I'd love to play for you.” When we started Future Islands, we lost an old member and then Erick came in and joined the band. It really changed the complexion of what we were doing. It wasn't really our intention to change styles. We went from being this cool, weird, dance-pop band to be like a sytnh-punk band. And because of that, it really propelled me in a different way.

Fun Fun Fun Fest will be the band’s first Austin festival appearance. What do you guys like about performing in Austin? Who are you all looking forward to seeing at the festival?

We’re taking a day off the day after our performance at the festival, which we're really excited about. We have a ton of good friends that are going to be down there. We've been doing this for a long time, but we're still a young band and we're just going to have a good time. We're going go out and kill it, and then we're going to see some music and hang out. We’re not one of the big bands, so it’s one of those things where I'm excited to see who wants to come and see us play. Whoever comes to see us play, they're going to enjoy themselves and we're going to put on a good show. I'm definitely going to watch Slayer on Saturday, and I know that Gerrit will be there. When Gerrit found out that we were playing at Fun Fun Fun Fest and found out that Slayer and Danzig were going to be performing, he said, "I could die after Fun Fun Fun Fest and my life would be complete." Austin is always a fun time. There's so much good food, so much music, and just good people. And great record stores too! I feel like I’m in heaven when I'm in Austin. We love to travel, we love to go everywhere, but Austin is definitely one of those cities that is a pleasure to be in.