Future Generations – Landscape: track by track

Five friends who all live together in Brooklyn, Future Generations have just dropped their second full-length album, Landscape. We asked them to talk us through it, track by track:

Stranger

The oldest song on the record, Stranger sat in our demos folder for a couple years. We knew the potential of the song but we just had a hard time figuring out where it should go. After a long day at the studio where many of us had to leave for work, Eric and Mike stayed behind with Justin and transformed the ending of the song into what it is now. It was the first real peak into the true potential of the direction of this album and therefore automatically secured itself as the first song.

Landscape

There’s a cautiously optimistic energy in Landscape. Throughout the emotional period that this album was made, we all still felt a certain sense of optimism. Sort of to say the confusion and heartaches and uncertainty you’ve been feeling are actually going to be worth it in the end. This song captures the energy we had in the studio and that’s why we named the album after it.

Caught Me By Surprise

The message behind Caught Me By Surprise is one of reflection. The things you go through are what make you who you are, and this song recognizes that fact. The process behind the lyrics matched that of the process of the music as well. Upon reflection we challenged ourselves to improve on our songwriting and we feel like we grew a lot with this song.

Suddenly

It’s funny how sometimes things just come together. This song was written and recorded in one day. From start to finish, things just clicked. And that’s really the meaning of the song, too. It’s about recognizing those moments when things are just working out and taking full advantage of them.

All The Same

In sharp juxtaposition, we had a hard time figuring this song out. The message behind the song had been clear, the melody was there, the sounds were great, but it just didn’t have the attitude. That is, until one late night when Dylan sat in the drum room for 6 hours straight and found it. For many of us music is a way to release stress, and this song really is just a stress reliever.

Out Loud

The one that almost didn’t make it, Out Loud is a song that we were worried about putting on the album. It’s a very different song for us, but ultimately that is why it made the record. This whole album is about growth, and this song is definitely a reflection of the things we were trying and doing in the studio.

Take Me There

Take Me There is a very typical Eddie and Mike collaboration. A lot of our songwriting starts with Eddie bringing a batch of synths and melodies to Mike so that he can apply his impeccable feel to it. This one felt so good, it was originally about six minutes long, and although we wouldn’t mind a six minute version of the song, shortening it gave us an opportunity to experiment.

Hurry Home

Despite your best efforts, occasionally your emotions can get the best of you. It seems like the act of missing someone would be a waste of time and energy, especially when there’s nothing you can do about it, but sometimes it’s involuntary. Musically, we had a lot of room to work with on this song. Because the lyrics were so few, we had to portray feeling through the arrangement of the song, and again we wanted to challenge ourselves. Fun fact, this is the only song we’ve ever written with a time signature change.

I Never Knew I Was Lonely

We had an absolute blast making this song. There is a true passion amongst the band for making unique sounds. In order to do that, we use technology in crass ways sometimes. For example, the “electronic t-rex” sound, as we like to call it, throughout the choruses came from us recording a guitar through a feedback loop made from a cell phone that was then fed through a Roland sp-303. Fun stuff for a buncha nerds.

Tear You Down

From the release of our first album to the making of this one, we had a large influx of percussion-heavy influences. Those influences can be heard all over Tear You Down. We used our own samples in conjunction with the Fun Machine, as well as recordings of the backs of chairs, coffee tables and couch cushions as drums.

Incomplete

A large part of the optimism from this album comes from Incomplete. After the long summer of uncertainty, there was finally something that seemed concrete. Incomplete is an ode to looking forward and seeing the potential that life offers and jumping in head first.

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Buy Landscape here and keep up to date with Future Generations on Facebook.