'Simulation' / Future Suck [Interview]
Verve speaks to heavy rockers Future Suck about their debut album ‘Simulation’
Hardcore punk band Future Suck bring us their highly anticipated debut album Simulation out via Rack Off Records. The release is laced with hard hitting riffs, crunchy bass lines and explosive vocals delivered by fiery front-woman Grace Gibson that will get you out of your seat and have you wishing that you were in the room with them as they pummel through the album in a live setting.
We speak to band to find out about their recording process, how many pre show beers is the perfect amount and the exciting album launch they have planned.
Throughout both the writing and recording process, was there anything in particular that you found yourself consumed by? Are there any noticeable influences that any of the Future Suck lineup may have brought to the record?
Rhys: This is tricky given the 'writing process' spanned probably 12 months so its hard to pinpoint anything at the time we were overtly consumed by, but my rubbish memory doesn’t help. I know Grace pulls some lyrical inspiration from various country artists, and I love her tip of the hat to Billy Joe Shaver on Hell For Leather. I don’t know exactly where George pulls his inspiration from but I think his guitar playing on the record is unreal so I'd like to get to the bottom of it. I remember playing 'Hocus Pocus' by Focus to George and Kayley one smoko while recording. Not really an inspiration but it rocks.
Take us through your pre show ritual as a band, is there something that you find yourself doing to build the hype and energy that each of your live shows bring?
Rhys: we are a bit all over the shop with this one. A few of us really like to have a practice earlier in the day to make sure things are ticking along nicely, where as I try my best to avoid it. I don't really know why, I just like to do other stuff so when I play it's the first time I've heard the songs for the day and I'm fired up and full of beans. It's the same if I'm seeing a show, I hate listening to the band I'm seeing earlier that day. Grace is always super lively before and while we play - she makes it so easy for us to follow suit.
Kyle: George talks about how many beers a band is - that’s how many beers you can have before playing to get the perfect amount of settling the nerves but not too many where you start losing coordination. I think he says Super-X (George’s other band) is a 2 pint band, but FS is 1. I’d agree, for Rhys FS is maybe a 2-3 pint band, Kayley maybe a 1 (nalgene bottle of water) and Grace maybe 4 cans and 1 bottle of passion pop.
Within this record was there anything different you brought to the table that you potentially hadn't explored before, whether that be something conceptually or musically?
Kyle: compared to our demo i think the production side of things has changed a bit. That was more or less just us putting mics up and playing almost every song we had at the time. We were all in the same room, Grace was the only one with headphones (to hear herself) and other than backing vocals we might have done one guitar line overdub? The demo was bigger budget than an iphone recording at a practise sure (figuratively), but it still was pretty basic and quick. I think at the time there was a sense of urgency to get something out because we were a new band. This time round we had a bit more patience and a number of lockdown influenced years, so it gave ideas a long time to develop and change (and get axed). This time round I think we did 4 days of recording, 2 with Fuller, we enlisted Maxime from Chateau Vergogne Studio to master it and had Mon, Spider, Ben and Nash all contribute unreal ideas and work for the art. I think maybe the other main difference came from not wanting to repeat ourselves and instead do something bigger and better than the first release we did. That’s a big part of why we got a few different people involved in the recording process (and art for that matter). This time we went big budget (comparatively). Went to a real studio, got actual press photos, double tracked guitar parts - real rock shit.
With each member in Future Suck playing in other bands, how collaborative has the process for ‘Simulation’ been compared to your Demo Tape from 2019?
Grace: It was actually really collaborative and was probably even more so because of Covid. Because we were all locked down, no one was playing gigs in their other bands and spent a lot of time writing riffs and parts for songs that we could bring together whenever lock down lifted slightly and we could get together.
Kyle: from the start we’ve always been really collaborative. Everyone brings in their own unfinished ideas and we go from there together. No one brings in finished songs or having written parts for someone else. Its nice, everyone contributes. I think it helps keep things cohesive as well. I don’t want this to be a band where you can go “oh that’s a George song, that’s a Rhys song”. Everyone has input. Everyone has a voice. No voice is louder than another (figuratively). As Future Suck has always said, “the bottom-up approach to band management is superior to top-down”.
Talk us through a day in the studio with Jason Fuller during the recording process for ‘Simulation’ ? In particular were there any take away experiences that stand out from that process as well?
Rhys: It was a really positive experience recording at Goatsound. We crammed a fair bit into two days in the studio, but Fuller made the whole process really smooth. He had reasonably recently moved into a new space, and the set up was unreal. He’s got so much great gear he graciously let us muck around with too. Also, Jason is a great guy, and it was just nice hanging out for a couple days. His signed copy of Tres Hombres was really cool too.
Kyle: its also nice not feeling so rushed recording. It felt like such a luxury to actually listen to the sound coming from the mics and adjust as we wanted rather than previously how we’d just put up mics, hit record and worry about the rest later. That and having a neutral opinion we all trusted stood out for me.
The lyrics on this album are absolute killer and I love the way the vocals are delivered within every track, super upfront and brazen! Especially on ‘Harley’ there’s some wicked one liners in there!! Is there any stand out lyrics on the record that you want to give the spotlight to or any great recording memories that made the take extra special?
Grace: Thanks so much! Writing lyrics is really fun. I think I tried to get a bit of balance of this album between funny, dumb lyrics like on Harley and Thunderbolt combined with some more serious ones on Magnolia and Paydirt. I really like the line “If you won’t hold me, I won’t hold you back” in the song Hold Me Back. That song’s a story of someone trying to hang onto a relationship that they’re just kind of getting strung along in and when I came up with that line I was like…. sick…
I think in recording it’s really funny because normally no one else in the band can make out what i’m singing about and there’s so many misheard lyrics that once the song’s recorded everyone’s like…. Wait, I thought that song was about something completely different. In Iron Fist there’s a line that Kyle always swore was Stuart Little, Backstreet Boys. Always a few surprises in there when the rest of the band finally takes notice of what I'm carrying on about after months of playing the songs together!
With the debut record coming out on the 5th of August, what can we expect from the next string of live shows that Future Suck have lined up in 2022?
Grace: We’re launching the album at Colour Club with Hacker, Alien Nosejob and The Clinch on the 20 August which will be a super fun show. We’ve never played at Colour before and are really excited to play with the other bands so that’s definitely one to come to. We’ll be playing the whole album with a couple of oldies from the demo thrown in there too.
A week after that we’re playing a free arvo show at The Gem with Stepmother and have another lined up in September that hasn’t been announced yet before we take a bit of time off over October while Kayley is in Canada.
Super excited by everything that you’re doing in both Future Suck and Rack Off Records can’t wait to hear what’s next! Is there anything you can tell us about the process of putting your own record out on the brilliant Rack Off Records?
Grace: Thanks so much! Rack Off Records is just the most fun thing to do. I love working with Iso and we’re both just so stoked to put out music that we love so much. It’s been funny with Future Suck because obviously I’m in the band and am normally the band member that does all the admin for us so I’m kind of doing double the work haha but everyone’s chipped in on organising the release and it’s come together really smoothly. I think the hardest thing has been writing promo kind of stuff about Future Suck on behalf of Rack Off. Where normally it’s super easy to bang on about what you love about the album you’re releasing, it’s a lot harder when it’s your own and you’re super critical of it at the same time. Iso’s been the best at making that as easy as it could be though.
Stay up date with Future Suck here Instagram, Rack Off Records, Bandcamp, Facebook and Spotify
And head to their Album Launch, Saturday the 20th of August at Colour Club!
Article and interview by Evie Vlah (@cherrygarcon)
Photos By Ben Hudson (@distorted.youth)
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