Future STates
Future States is a psychedelic pop band who make music that rewards repeat headphone listens as much as it inspires fevered dancing. Their music is built on layers of weaving keys, woozy guitars, and sampled sounds, paired with a propulsive rhythm section. On top of these dense textures sit pristine pop melodies and reverb-soaked harmonies.
Based out of Montreal and Ottawa, Future States consists of Chuck Bronson (Guitar, Vocals), Brodie Conley (Guitar, BV), Daniel Gélinas (Drums, BV), Nicolas Hyatt (Keys, BV) and David Lacalamita (Bass, BV). Their unique sound emanates directly from their collaborative ethos. The band draw from varied musical backgrounds and educations—experimental composition, psych/prog, jazz, indie rock, and folk—working diligently together until each song becomes more than the sum of its individual parts. This process is aided by Gélinas, who acts as the band’s in-house recording engineer. The result is a tapestry of musical influences, put together like a puzzle that yields a satisfying whole.
Recorded over a two week period at a church in Northern Ontario, Casual Listener, their first full length LP, sees Future States charting a path between two poles of their musical interest — pop songcraft and improvisation. The arrangements for Apostolic, Lulu, Wish You Well and Violencia highlight the former, with carefully orchestrated melodic and rhythmic ideas, and meticulous attention paid to instrumental layers. In contrast,You Got It All Wrong, Regress to the Mean and the album's multiple interlude tracks showcase how the musical relationships within the band play out in real-time, with loose arrangements made possible by the freedom to improvise together and record late into the night in the church-turned-studio.
The quiet album closer Sudo Su pairs Bronson’s abstract lyrics with delicate vocal harmonies, eerie church organ, an ethereal ringing bell, and pizzicato cello performed by Christine Bronson, sampled and carefully re-arranged by Hyatt into Norman McLaren-esque percussive pops. Together, the songs on Casual Listener are testament to the venn-diagram that is Future States’ music—experimentation that feeds into polished pop.