Future Islands is a synth-pop band based in Baltimore that arrived on the radar of many fans after their 2014 appearance on the “Late Show with David Letterman,” where they performed their single, “Seasons.” Lead singer Samuel T. Herring gained a lot of notoriety for his dance moves and magnetism.
A few months earlier, the official video for that song debuted, and it was directed by filmmaker Jay Buim. Interestingly, Buim decided not to feature Herring and the band in the music video, opting for a narrative about love in the American Frontier. Below is a lightly edited version of our conversation with Buim.
3&L: How did you get introduced to Future Islands?
Buim: I think the first time I saw them play was maybe 2005-2006 in Brooklyn. They were opening up for Dan Deacon at Death By Audio, which was this incredible venue that no longer exists, sadly. That was a really, really special place and a really special time.
I just talked to them after the show and we started becoming friendly. I put on a couple of their early Brooklyn shows at my place or my friend’s place. We just became friends through that.
3&L: How did the music video for “Seasons” materialize?
Buim: I’d always told them I’d love to make a video for you. I made a video for “Tin Man” for them, and then for “Balance.” And I did a video for the song “Grease.” We just found that we had a really good working relationship, so we just continued to do it.
That was when they were self-releasing stuff and they were on Thrill Jockey. And then this opportunity came around for “Seasons,” which was a big deal because it was the first record that they put out on 4AD. They’re a band that works really hard. I think harder than a lot of other bands. And just to see them have this opportunity where they’re going to be on this label, where their profile will be raised, it was a really big deal. I felt the pressure. I wanted to do right by them. I wanted to make them something that could match the power of the song.
3&L: How did you choose the rodeo concept for the music video?
Buim: Well, that’s one thing I love about working with them – it’s mostly like, “Here’s the song, what are you thinking? What do you got? What is coming to you?”
For example, for “Balance,” when I heard that song, I was like, ‘I just want to capture that feeling of the endless summer, not wanting the summer to end.’ For “Tin Man,” it was more like examining who they are based on the places that they’re from and trying to capture that abstract concept.
And when I heard “Seasons,” I was like, this is just such a beautiful love song from such a masculine perspective. And at that time, I was just really kind of obsessed with the concept of like the American cowboy, like the archetype that exists in so many things. And I was just like, ‘Well, what does that look like in practice? What does that look like in reality? What does it look like when a man loves a woman?’
Future Islands are, in many ways, an unlikely success story. On paper, they don’t make much sense, a frontman who looks like the love child of Henry Rollins and David Brent with a dance style inherited from the latter, a penchant for ’80s synth sounds and almost no guitars in sight. However, with the release of the 2014 album Singles – particularly the leading track ‘Seasons (waiting on you)’ – and helped by a performance on David Letterman, Future Islands became one of the most interesting bands in recent years.
Seemingly appearing from nowhere and earning themselves a level of popularity and credibility almost instantaneously, Future Islands have provided some of the strongest pop music in a particularly competitive field. Though ostensibly an overnight sensation, the reality proved in excess of a decade of hard work, which saw the Baltimore-based quartet reach their current level of commercial success, honing their craft over the course of three previous albums as well as numerous musical side projects.
However, the band likely peaked with their truly inspirational song ‘Seasons’ and that performance on Letterman. Sometimes musical moments can swell through the grass of a generation, lifting the ground to new expectations and other moments hit like meteorites, this song, and that performance, was most certainly the latter.
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