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Well, Futurebirds had me staring at the moon. So I decided to take them Staring At The Sun.
[REDACTED]: WHEW! SURE IS BRIGHT IN HERE. How do you describe your sound? I like "cosmic country," but frankly the way you shred on your cover of Sympathy for the Devil is all rock n roll.
FUTUREBIRDS: We’ve been described all kinds of ways, and explain our sound differently depending on who’s asking. When talking to the heady festy promoter, we're a psychedelic rock band, and when talking to the cops, we’re a country band.
[R]: Wanted to point out my favorite lyrics from my favorite song on the new album, Buffet Days: "Caught in some freakshow / Makes you feel some kinda low. / Got us dreaming of the buffet days / Where we once stood / But were they ever really all that good?"
When you think of the buffet days, what nostalgia do you have? I’m stuck on ping pong tables and the smell of modeling glue.
FB: When we were young, my mom used to bribe us into going to church on Sundays by saying, “if you come and don’t make a fuss, we can go to Shoney’s after.”
That’s not really what the song was about, just a nice buffet memory. The song came more from pining for “lost days” or a “better time." It’s a natural thing to do, and one of the beautiful parts of the human mind is that looking back, we tend to remember the good and ditch the bad bits.
Maybe it's just a survival tactic, but it's a nice lil feature overall in my opinion. Helps with gratitude and staying positive, but you don’t want to let a revisionist sense of the past override your aspirations or hope for the future.
LOVE A GOOD BUFFET!
[R]: How did all you folks meet? There’s something about a big band. Seems like it’d be fun to be onstage with six members all jamming out.
FB: We have seven now! We keep multiplying! The core four of us met in Athens, GA. The rest of the team was assembled from all corners of the earth (country). Florida, California, Iowa, and Mississippi.
This band is kinda like a cosmic magnet, and it brings who it wants into the fold. We have no real say in it sometimes it seems…
[R]: What’re your drugs/chemicals of choice when songwriting and recording? (We’re fans of many psychedelic experiences over here, including your music.)
FB: That's high praise! The 30,000-foot ideas of a song, or musical jams, interesting chords or melodies or rhythms, or juxtapositions — some of the major tentpoles of a song — can absolutely come from ... being out of your melon a bit.
It helps immensely to climb out of your head and you can do that in all kinds of ways — psychedelics, alcohol, meditation, exercise, highway hypnosis, playing with animals. We’ve dabbled in all over the years. Those little gifts of lightning come to you when you can clear out of your own way and give them the space to land.
But finishing a song… that is a feat of pure will, sobriety, and focus — a cage match with the mind! It’s a 40-cups-of-coffee, hand-cuffed-to-a-desk kind of party.
[R]: Any favorite venues in Georgia/Atlanta you care to shout out? Where can we go to see some good shows?
FB: We just played the Eastern for the second time in ATL. The place is super sweet. A well-designed venue that looks and sounds killer. The Georgia Theatre and the 40 Watt Club in Athens have always been our home zone as well.
[R]: Fela Kuti. Man that guy fucking rocked. The last time we chatted you keyed me into his album with Ginger Baker, and I’ve been listening to him ever since. Thanks for that hot tip. Listening to any other good tunes lately?
FB: I remember picking that album up on Compact Disc! Great record.
Silver Jews have been in pretty constant rotation for the last couple of years for me. It's pretty all over the map as always, but some random recent plays are Bill Callaghan, 2 Chainz, Carl Broemel, Lee Hazelwood, Rich Ruth, Teddy and the Rough Riders, Kikagaku Moyo, William Tyler, T. Hardy Morris, Chuck Johnson, Damien Jurado…
CLASSY PLAYLIST!!
[R]: Keeping things positive: What’s your favorite part about the apocalypse?
FB: It sure ain’t boring! I don’t really think the world is actually ending, not yet at least. Unless of course, it already did.
[R]: Why do we keep going, keep making music, even when it feels like the world’s constantly going to shit?
FB: That’s the best time to be able to create a little haven of joy. A little escape from all the drags that are out there for people. And it's the best time to create a place for people to connect over experiencing all the weirdness together. Light shines brightest in the darkness.
But it's not all shit, there’s a LOT of good out there. You just have to seek it out... by, like, going to a Futurebirds show!!
[R]: When you’re feeling good onstage – describe what that feeling’s like.
FB: There’s no better feeling! When the sound is right, you can hear everything like it's a record playing on a giant sound system and everyone is locked in, and the playing is surprising and the harmonies are buttery. It’s stupid how magic that is.
Sometimes those are the shows a small part of me hopes AREN’T being recorded in any fashion because that part of me just wants them to live in the shared memory of the experience.
THANKS FOR THE SHARED MEMORIES, FUTUREBIRDS!!!
AND GUESS WHAT, THEY’RE ON TOUR THROUGHOUT THE SOUTH ALL WINTER!!
GO SEE EM LIVE FOLKS!!
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