Future Death is Alton Jenkins (drums), Jeremy Humphries (bass), Angie Kang (vocals), and Bill Kenny (guitar), a frenetic, experimental, punk, weird, noisy, and pop band based in Austin, Texas. Last year they impressed a bunch of nice people with their debut album, Special Victim. The successor of the impressive debut full-length arrives with a brand new EP, entitled Cryptids. It was about this new EP that we talked with the band.
As far I know you guys live in Austin, but you are not originally from Austin. How did you meet and how did Future Death come to be?
Bill: The internet.
Angie: Yeah, they put out a post online and I responded to it.
Alton: Yeah, Angie found us on a post and Bill found me through YouTube. He founded a buddy of mine that had posted a video and then we got in contact. I already knew Jeremy.
This new EP seems to experiment more with the sound of the band. Was it a thought out intention before starting the writing process?
Alton: There’s not a whole lot of thought. Bill and I just kind of go and just vibe of each other. We’ll put our phones out and press record and just kind of start jamming. We’ll find moments that feel good and then it will come together and we’ll end up demoing and bringing the demos to Angie and then she basically brings the songs to life with the vocals. So, we write the instruments and then she basically brings the blood and the heart to the music.
I remember reading that Special Victim was recorded in only four days. How was it with this new EP?
Alton: We decided now that we want to take more time. We were in a particular situation, we did the LP and we were on a deadline and luckily we were ready to make it done, but now we want take out time and really refine the sound a little bit more in the studio. We’re still on the studio working on some more stuff and hopefully we will make some more announcements later in the year.
Did you feel more comfortable working with more time on your hands?
Alton: Definitely. I think so… I mean, it depends. When we were crushed with time it’s like you have to get it done and so you get it done but, at least from me, it has been pretty cool to have more time to experiment and work it out. We’re still creating a window time for ourselves because I’m sure we could spin forever if we want it to. But it’s definitely nice to spend more time mixing and that kind of stuff.
I would like to talk about “Creeper”… I can’t help thinking that it is one of the most important elements on Cryptids, a kind of centerpiece if that makes any sense. What’s your take on it?
Bill: It’s kind of just like keyboards and little drum machines. I don’t know, I guess I was more excited by the fact that it kind of sounded kind of shitty, recording wise, which when we started to put this one together we talked about having those kind of elements. Some lower fidelity and obviously there’s a lot of samples and cut-up stuff that kind of ties tracks together. It’s kind of a point from the book of these powerviolence bands of when I was younger. The records would jump from this obviously really frenetic, crazy blastbeats and stuff. And then we kind of throw these almost kind of RZA (Wu-Tang Clan) inspired little instrumentals and stuff like that. That was the intention. I don’t know if that’s how it comes off.
“… with time I appreciate our music more, but it’s one of those things that when you are in the middle of it, it’s hard to separate yourself from it and think about it from a different point a view…” Alton Jenkins
I saw recently the video for “Basements”. How involved were you on creating the concept for it?
Angie: We actually weren’t very involved at all. We gave the concept to the guy who did the video, Eugene, and he kind just ran with it. He would throw at me an idea and I would be like, “Yeah, let’s do that.”
I know that you’re already planning to make more videos. Is it something that you guys want to explore, as much as possible, in the future?
Angie: Yeah, but it’s really time consuming so it’s just a matter of finding time to do them.
Ok, the cover of this new EP. Can you walk us through the concept behind it?
Alton: The guy on the cover is a friend of mine named Matt. We were trying to decide on an album art and I just thought it was a really awesome looking picture, and being that the album is named Cryptids we kind of thought of these two heads with this thing connecting them in the middle kind of represented, in some sort of way, a really odd creature type thing. [laughs] But also for us, we feel a need to desensitize kind of like the visual of two men kissing or anything that kind of represents something like that, for that type of imagery.
Angie: I always see it as a black tongue and not a piece of tappy. [laughs]
Bill: It’s something about the image that’s obviously provocative. It’s kind of linking in this like mutated sense and it’s also kind of intimate.
Angie: It’s like an innocent intimacy, which is what I like about it. But you know that people will be upset by it. [laughs]
Does your perception about your music changes with time?
Alton: Definitely with time I appreciate our music more, but it’s one of those things that when you are in the middle of it, it’s hard to separate yourself from it and think about it from a different point a view, I guess. But yeah, it evolves. My thoughts about it evolve, especially when it comes to play live shows. There are some songs that I get tired of playing it live and later I want to play those songs again… It does definitely evolve, like the emotional connection to some of these songs. It does change, but I can always recall what emotion each song kind of derived from.
Do you find yourself rediscovering old songs? I mean, finding elements that you haven’t noticed in the past?
Alton: Definitely. Like I said, more so when we play songs. Just recently we started to play some of the songs of the songs from our first EP [self-titled], we decided to play those again live and I’m definitely noticing more things about it and I’m able to kind of be part of the song more when we play it live than before. Because it’s much easier to play them now.
How’s the local scene in Austin like?
Bill: The Austin scene is nice. It stays busy all the time, and I think right now there’s a lot more experimental, punk bands, and electronic bands coming out. I guess that scene has kind of been lacking over the past few years. I like it here, but I think we all prefer to spend more time on tour than in just one place.
Angie: We get booked regularly, which is nice. I don’t feel that we go too long without playing a show in Austin. Our shows have been getting better too, I think.
How did your music end up on the film Night of the Babysitter?
Anton: A friend of mine is an actress and she actually put together this movie – the production, the funding, and everything for this movie with her buddy Louis [Edward Doerge, director and writer of the film]. She’s a friend of mine and she loves our music and she asked us to come up to Iowa and do a scene in the movie. So, we went up to Iowa and played a local show there and we also did like a party scene where we’re playing “Familiar Tremors” [off the new EP] during a particular scene on the movie.