FUTURE ISLANDS are a new-wave dance band from North Carolina, now residing in the fertile “music capital of awesome”, Baltimore. Future Islands play a terse yet passionate music wrought from a stripped back palette. Gerrit Welmers’ cartwheeling synthesizer melodies tumble across the austere wilderness of William Cashion’s post-punk bass pulse, driven ever forward by ecstatic electronic rhythms.

Samuel, William and Gerrit had been writing songs together since 2003 in the guise of absurdist party project Art Lord & The Self Portraits, however it was with the arrival of Eric Murillo on drums that the band rid themselves of the mythology and masks, taking on a new motive and the name Future Islands. With the change their sound became exponentially faster and surprisingly powerful. They quickly wrote and recorded an EP entitled ‘Little Advances’ in time for their first tour late 2006 and haven’t looked back since.

Photo by Jenn.