{"id":28315,"date":"2015-10-20T12:53:35","date_gmt":"2015-10-20T17:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=28315"},"modified":"2015-10-25T19:12:23","modified_gmt":"2015-10-26T00:12:23","slug":"futurebirds-land-in-oxford-for-proud-larrys-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/futurebirds-land-in-oxford-for-proud-larrys-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Futurebirds Land in Oxford for Proud Larry’s Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been two years since Athens-based alt-country band Futurebirds released their sophomore album, Baba Yaga. And now the band is back with their third full length album, Hotel Parties, which has already received rave reviews from the likes of Paste, Stereogum, and USA Today. Just a few weeks into the album promotion tour, the band will be making their stop in Oxford for a performance at Proud Larry\u2019s on Thursday October 22nd. In anticipation of their upcoming performance, I had the privilege of chatting with Futurebirds\u2019 singer\/guitarist Carter King about the new record, the evolution of the band, yard golf, and more.<\/span><\/p>\n

How did the band come together?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

We all got together in Athens, Georgia. That\u2019s where it all started. We were all just friends and hanging out together before we realized we all played music. And we were all in other bands that weren\u2019t doing too well, or weren\u2019t what we were looking for and we got together and magic started happening.<\/span><\/p>\n

Futurebirds is a really unique band name. What\u2019s the story behind it?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

I came up with that name in the middle of a poetry evaluation class that I was taking at the University of Georgia. The professor was telling us a story about all the different cultures that use the patterns of migrating birds to predict the future. And the name just kind of came to me. I thought it had a nice ring to it.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s been two years since Baba Yaga<\/i> was released (2013) and now you\u2019ve just released your new album, Hotel Parties<\/i> (2015). How do you feel like you guys have evolved, sound-wise, between the two albums?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Baba Yaga is really washy and ethereal, with lots of reverb and layers of guitars and sonic texture. And this new record is more stripped back and to the point. And I think that just came from the songs we had. They\u2019re a little more to the point lyrically and have a running theme. \"1022.ProudLarrys.Futurebirds.RecordCover\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

You released the last record on Fat Possum. Why did you guys decide to go with Easy Sound Recording Company for Hotel Parties<\/i>?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

They were just the right fit. We were looking for a specific kind of partner for this record and we had a lot of long talks with them. And they saw things the way we did, so we had a shared vision for how we saw the record coming out and how it would see success.<\/span><\/p>\n

Upon the release of Hotel Parties<\/i>, one of the album tracks, \u201cTwentyseven,\u201d came in at number six on USA Today\u2019s<\/i> \u201c10 Best Songs of the Week.\u201d Congratulations! What was the reaction when you guys found out?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s great, because we spent so long recording this record. And after we were done, we had to sit on it for a while, as we were figuring out what to do with it. So to finally put it out, two plus years after recording it, when good feedback starts coming it\u2019s immeasurably rewarding.<\/span><\/p>\n

I definitely picked up on the idea that a lot of the album is written about being on the road, what else inspired you to write this album?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

A lot of it has to do with coming to terms with growing up a little bit. And we\u2019re still chasing this thing that a lot of people see as a childish dream and we\u2019re coming to grips with keeping that a real thing and being smart about what we\u2019re doing and being able to mature, become adults, and live a little more settled down lifestyle but still be doing this. It\u2019s a balancing act for sure. We\u2019re talking about it from one perspective, because it\u2019s the one that we know. It\u2019s a pretty universal thing that people have to deal with in all different forms whether it\u2019s how hard you\u2019re working, or how many hours you\u2019re spending at the office and balancing out what it is you\u2019re passionate about with what you have to do to get by. <\/span><\/p>\n

My favorite track is the title track, \u201cHotel Parties.\u201d Do you have a favorite track from the new record?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

You have to love all your children equally, right? So I don\u2019t know if I can pick a favorite, but \u201cHotel Parties\u201d is a heck of a song to play live!<\/span><\/p>\n

While listening to the album, I was feeling some Ryan Adam vibes circa 2007. What artists inspire you? <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s a tough question! But yeah, Ryan Adams is great and such an awesome songwriter. But we have so many, and we listen to all sorts of artists in the van.\"Futurebirds_byDavidMcClisterPhoto1\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

What are you listening to right now?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

We listen to a lot of Grateful Dead, Neil Young, and Rolling Stones. The Charleston music scene has a lot going on right now. Our buddies that we\u2019re playing some shows with on this tour, Susto, are just fantastic!<\/span><\/p>\n

I saw the video for \u201cDeadbeat Hitz\u201d\u2014which is a very catchy song, by the way\u2014and I noticed you guys play a lot of golf, as well as seeing mention of disc golf on your twitter. Is golfing somewhat of a band hobby for you guys?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Yeah, I actually made that video from footage I filmed while we were doing demos and recording for the record itself. We did all the demos out on this farm outside of Athens. It was Thomas [Johnson]\u2019s family\u2019s property that had an old, vacant house on it. So we just camped out and set up the studio. So when we needed to take a break our bassist went to the Goodwill and bought a few one dollar golf clubs and a big bag of balls. And so we played yard golf. A few guys in the band are actually real golfers, but me, not so much. But I enjoy playing every once in awhile.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s next for Futurebirds?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

We took it pretty easy this summer as far as touring. We\u2019ve got the horse blinders on and that is all we\u2019re focused on doing. We\u2019re back doing what we\u2019re supposed to be doing and it feels good!\u00a0\"The<\/a> <\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been two years since Athens-based alt-country band Futurebirds released their sophomore album, Baba Yaga. And now the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":247,"featured_media":28318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[7326,7329,6064],"class_list":["post-28315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-shows","tag-concerts","tag-futurebirds","tag-proud-larrrys"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/FuturebirdsFEAT.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/247"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}