Future of the Left
Interview by Lou Wright
Photography by Jonny Black

Future of The Left made their New York debut at Coney Island’s Siren Festival – these fuckers hit the ground running. Beating mercilessly through a set that lit a fire under even the most comatose of the heat-stricken crowd, the band knocked out the songs of their first full length, Travels with Myself and Another (4AD), as well as some older material. The members’ former projects, mclusky and Jarcrew, were most definitely recalled, but it was clear to everyone that something new and powerful was afoot. Before the blast hit, however, ‘SUP spoke with guitarist Andy Falkous, bassist Kelson Mathias, and drummer Jack Egglestone on the dirty, windy boardwalk behind the festival’s Stillwell stage. The conversation touched upon the stupidity of rock n’ roll revolution, horrible concept albums based on the life of a fly, and the brilliance of Wire. Refusing to be pigeonholed at every turn, Future of the Left made a great case for the normal guy who’s just way too pissed off to shut up about it.

So there have been rumors coming in that the Future of the Left is trying to incite some sort of rebellion and riot in the youth of this and other countries.
Andy: Really?

Is this true?
Andy: No. I wouldn’t want to do anything that sounds so… fruity and prescriptive.

It’s just what the rumors are saying.
Andy: Well, no. I think Groucho Marx said, ‘I wouldn’t want to be a member of any club that would have me.’

Sounds right.
Andy: I wouldn’t want to be a member of any revolution.

So we can feel safe.
Andy: If by loud rock music and slightly sarcastic remarks–if that constitutes a revolution, then, I guess. But the last time I checked it’s a more fundamental dismantling of state apparatus.
Kelson: Can I ask what grapevine you heard this through?

The usual channels, the streets.
Andy: The street? Are you tapped into the street?

‘SUP is tapped in, we hear things from different quarters.
Andy: I think those channels might be autistic.

They are, a little bit. They’re not trustworthy, but we take what we can get. Alright, what do you think is the biggest difference between what you’re doing now in Future of the Left and what you were doing in mclusky [Andy and Jack] or Jarcrew [Kelson]?
Kelson: It’s very little. Still chaotically organized.
Jack: Sounds right.
Kelson: Everything breaks. Maybe in general we’re about half an hour earlier for shows.
Andy: It’s pretty hard to quantify, really. In general a band, you know, plays songs, sets up shows, plays shows, sweats. That’s about it.

Well if it’s pretty much the same, what do you think is bringing more attention to this than to mclusky and Jarcrew, with people like NME blowing you guys up, etc.?
Andy: I have no idea, really. In the specific case of NME, though, it may just be that there were fans of the band who were not writing for that periodical, who are writing for it now. Aside from that, I’ve no idea really.
Kelson: I think it’s a time thing as well. If a band’s been around for so long, and people haven’t been listening for the first, you know, six or seven years, maybe once you hit ten years, maybe they’ll start listening.
Jack: Maybe it’s just because we haven’t given up and gone away, which some bands probably would have, or have.
Andy: It’s a mass appreciation of stamina.

It’s an attrition thing.
Kelson: Yeah, we’re in it for our health.

What’s the story behind the video for “The Hope that House Built”? It seems like a pretty good approximation of the band, casting you guys as the weirdest bar band ever.
Andy: It was set in a pub in Cardiff called the Vulcan, which has been purported to be closing down for like the past eight to ten years. It’s in the center of big gentrification. It’s something in itself of a lost cause. Ironically, it’s still got three years on its lease. But there’s a lot of new developments around it—
Kelson: Carparks and stuff…it’s kind of a weird place.
Andy: Yeah, it’s a standard kind of weird place, so it’s a kind of crusty old lost cause, kind of the way we are.
Kelson: Alright, speak for yourself, man, we’re not—
Jack: We’re not crusty and old yet.
Andy: I’m crustier and older so I can get away with saying that.

It sort of fits into a whole unified aesthetic, between the record covers and the posters and the video. Who’s doing the artwork?
Kelson: All the artwork and the posters were done by Aesthetic Apparatus, from Minneapolis. They did a poster for mclusky a couple years ago when mclusky played, and basically contacted us saying, ‘If you ever need any posters…’ to which then, we approached them and said ‘Do you want to do some artwork?’ Which they did, and they did a great job. The video itself was done by two guys back home with us in Cardiff called KC and Ewan. KC did a seven-inch artwork design and a UK poster for us, and then shot the video. It’s nice that they link up.

There’s definitely something putting them all together, they all have a sort of For Whom the Bell Tolls aesthetic. Speaking of which, is there a story tying the songs together?
Andy: No, I don’t think so.

They’re just sort of dissociated songs about similar things?
Andy: Well a lot of them have a theme, yeah, but there are a couple songs where it’s difficult even for me to pick out what they’re about. But there’s not really a theme tying the songs together.
Jack: It’s not like we’re doing a concept album.

Good. They tend to suck.
Kelson: Our concept was to get it under 34 minutes.
Andy: When I was in college, there was this guy, and he was going out with a girl called Mercedes, who later changed her name to Flame. And he invited me and this guy Dave over to his flat once because he wanted to play these songs he had written on acoustic guitar for us. It turned out that it was a concept album about the life of a fly. And we got three songs in, you know, you’re polite when someone plays you their music, but we got three songs in before we started laughing openly at him. Pointing and laughing at him. But we got through the whole of what I guess was side one and he said ‘I’ll play the rest for you next week when you guys are cerebrally open enough to hear it.’

Oh shit.
Andy: Maybe that, for me, has colored what a concept album is.

Yeah, that would.
Andy: Basically, it’s the medium of pure toss.

Total self-indulgence.
Andy: Yeah.

Well, then, if there’s nothing connecting these songs, is there a reason why a lot of your songs, with mclusky as well, will be really intense-ass songs with names that make no sense and are really goofy? Is it an intentional contrast, or just for the fuck of it?
Andy: No, and I take care that the song titles don’t appear to be too goofy. You should be not sure, not entirely sure, whether it’s serious or it’s a joke. Like the title of a song I wrote for mclusky called “The World Loves Us and Is Our Bitch”. Originally it was hugely ironic because we were watched by, you know, seven people a night. The world patently didn’t love us and so wasn’t our bitch. But, you know, sometimes you come up with a title, and it’s funny, but it’s a little too much, so you rein it in a bit. But hopefully the imagination which goes into the song titles reflects the imagination which goes into the music itself.

Are you taking inspiration from anything specific these days, or just the same stuff?
Andy: Same stuff. Films, books.

Well, can you tell us about it?
Andy: Well I watch a lot of DVDs, I don’t particularly listen to music unless it’s Wire, but just the usual stuff. The stuff you’d anticipate: the really good dramas, really good comedies. You know, I forget the specifics.
Kelson: You’re into Chris Morris aren’t you?
Andy: Yeah, Chris Morris is a British comedian who you wouldn’t be too familiar with over here. And then, if you go back in the day, people like Bill Hicks, which, again, he’s probably more famous in Britain than he is over here. But there’s no particular source for the music. I mean the music I write, I can’t speak for the other guys, but the music I write is the music I want to hear, and I write it because I don’t see any of that music. It just sort of exists.
Kelson: I write the music I don’t want to hear, and just put myself through this horrible task every single night of playing it. I’m self-punishing.

Is it working?
Kelson: No. Well, kind of.

You think you’re redeeming yourself for some sins?
Kelson: Possibly, just by putting myself through this horrible task every single night.

Just flogging yourself with the songs.
Kelson: Exactly.

You mentioned Wire, is that a big thing for you?
Andy: Yeah, in general. The first three records, especially Chairs Missing, are to me, probably, the best modern music recorded.

They’re pretty fucking amazing. Pink Flag is probably one of my top five albums.
Andy: I like Pink Flag, but it’s very much of its time.

It’s a very specific idea.
Andy: The other two records are so [pauses] willfully eclectic, but they managed to carry it off, which is a rare talent. I don’t know if you have the phrase here, ‘jack of all trades, master of none’?

Yeah, we do.
Andy: Well usually when a band does that, that’s the way they come across, but they really seem to have mastered everything.

They were definitely way ahead of their time.
Andy: Yeah, and very underappreciated in their time. But their records will sell for years, and hopefully ours will do the same.

Hopefully. So what’s the plan now? You guys have another two and half weeks of tour, and then what?
Kelson: Yeah, I think we’ve got two weeks. We’ve got a couple more club shows in the east, and then we shoot to the west, play a festival in Seattle, and finish off in LA at the end of the month. It’s at Spaceland?

Yeah, I heard about that. I might see you guys out there.
Kelson: And then pretty much just go home. Maybe finish off the album touring at the end of year with Europe, maybe Britain.
Andy: And then hopefully get back here. It’s been going well enough here so far, that that could well happen, but we’ll see.

Have you been getting a lot of good feedback out here?
Andy: Yeah, fantastic.
Jack: Better than Britain.

Really?
Andy: Definitely.
Jack: I mean that reflects with the amount of festivals we’ve done in Britain over the summer. We’ve got a couple of small ones, we haven’t gotten any of the major ones.
Andy: We did do Reading and Leeds last year. But our profile hasn’t really, from a music-industry-centric point of view, our profile hasn’t really justified the festivals again this year. I mean, we do well in Britain now after having toured it five times, but there’s an instant enthusiasm and report here. Which is partly represented in the sheer amount of merchandise we’ve been selling. Which has been ridiculous.

Really? That’s great.
Kelson: Ridiculous for us, anyways. Maybe not for other bands.

Selling any decent amount of merch is ridiculous to begin with.
Andy: Yeah, we’ve been making a lot of money doing that, so hopefully the tour will break even, or do better than that, and if that happens, then we’ll hopefully come back. Maybe on a support tour, but maybe with some headline gigs as well.

And are you planning on doing another record, or just laying low, looking at other projects?
Andy: Well we are planning on doing another record, but even though we’re very proud of the record, it was fucking exhausting to write, and so, it’ll happen when it happens.
Kelson: I mean, we’re only at the start of the touring for this record. Who knows when it’ll be.
Andy: I think good bands, bands that are smart enough to step back from the record they’ve made, they usually release records in two year cycles. Hopefully we’ll be able to keep that up for the new one as well, which will not be a concept record.

Ok.
Andy: Or maybe I need to reclaim the concept record, reclaim the concept of the fly.

Maybe it’s time.
Andy: 2011 is the Mucus Year. I don’t know.