Features

Futurebirds: Group at Work

Plates clink in the background at the bustling Katz’s Deli in Manhattan’s Lower East Side—a foodie destination and New York institution. Thomas Johnson, the baby-faced, yet heavily bearded Futurebirds guitarist/banjoist/mandolinist/vocalist, is careful not to lose his food ticket as he’s heard stories from friends who’ve met the cashier’s wrath.

The Athens, Ga.-based band is touring in support of its new album Hampton’s Lullaby. In between bites of chili dog and sips of beer, Johnson says, “It sounds similar [to our debut EP] but we had a lot more time and money, and access to a little more gear—we made it more refined and it’s not as raw.”

The conversation is momentarily interrupted when bandmate Carter King calls Johnson’s cell phone, looking for the keys to the car, moments before showtime.

“One time we got described as ‘a rusty chainsaw dropped into a tropical fish tank’—I like that a lot,” Johnson says of the band’s sound. He also mentions an instance in Austin, Texas when a group of guys thought the band was singing a song called “Americore” instead of “A Miracle” because of their thick Southern drawls, which Johnson says, “was funny, but also a very good depiction of our music. We listen to a lot of country music”

Though his band has drawn a lot of comparisons to The Band, “I think it’s just a lot of the vibe instead of the actual sound,” he says of his six-piece outfit, which formed “two Novembers ago.” Some band members met in high school, others in college or at local shows—and all call Athens home.

While sitting in a University of Georgia poultry science class “down at the chicken factory in Athens,” King learned that Native Americans believed birds could read and tell the future—and the name Futurebirds was born.

Looking forward, “we’re just trying to play as many shows as we can, because that’s all we want to do,” Johnson says, musing about weird places the band has played like a barbeque restaurant with two Airstream trailers as backstage area that even had the local district attorney dancing. “Even if nothing else happens, this has still been an awesome thing we’ve gotten to do that most people don’t get to do in their lives.”