Future Islands with guest Zack Mexico

Led by crooning frontman Samuel T. Herring, the members of Future Islands started out making electropop music together in 2003 while attending East Carolina University’s art program. Over a decade later, the now Baltimore-based trio have earned their stripes as one of music’s most quixotic and emotionally involving performers while maintaining an admirable level of skill and pace, never slowing for the corners. Their sound is at once beguiling and irresistible. It’s one part melancholic, one part euphoric; full of animated bass lines, robust drum machines and questing keyboards, all set off by Herring’s remarkably distinct, soaring vocals.

Future Islands came to life after all three members – Samuel T. Herring (vocals), William Cashion (bass, guitars) and Gerrit Welmers (keyboards, programming) – had served their tenure in the overtly conceptual Art Lord & The Self-Portraits, a waggish band as comical as it was tender. With Art Lord they found themselves in a world of borrowed gear and frenzied house parties, spending endless hours booking tours in notebooks, burning CDRs in the van, Xeroxing sleeves. It’s the same DIY spirit that informs Future Islands to this day. Having toured tirelessly since the band’s inception, Future Islands have now played in excess of 1,000 shows, often touring with their friends, most notably Dan Deacon, Ed Schrader’s Music Beat and Talk Normal. Herring, Cashion and Welmers all hail from small towns so they’ve made it their aim on tour to play as many off-the-radar places as possible. It’s this dedicated groundwork that sets Future Islands apart from most, they’ve kept things traditional, converting people on the road, putting the time in, making friends first then fans. With each landmark album, they’ve been growing, loving, losing and leaving us wanting more.

The years since the release of their massively successful album, Singles, have been transformative for Future Islands, catapulting them from cult favorites to synthpop icons. As addictive songs like breakout “Seasons (Waiting on You)” turned the world on to sublime pleasures a loyal fan base already knew, this hard-touring band plowed forward, playing their 1,000th show in July 2015 and celebrating their 10th anniversary in February 2016. Now Future Islands returns at the top of their game with new album The Far Field, delivering 12 chest-pounding love songs and odes to the road as only they can.