Future Islands have discussed how they feared “losing the dream” after the release of their 2017 album ‘The Far Field’.

‘The Far Field’, which the band now call a “condescending” album, preceded the band’s new record ‘As Long As You Are’, which came out yesterday (October 9).

During a new interview with the Guardian, frontman Samuel T. Herring said that the band “played the game” after the viral success of their David Letterman performance of ‘Seasons (Waiting On You)’ in 2014, which catapulted them to fame, and that “we lost ourselves” in the process.
“[‘The Far Field’] is condescending because I wasn’t honest in my writing,” Herring said, with bassist William Cashion adding that the band racing to meet an album deadline in order to have the record out by the time they played a high-profile slot at Coachella 2017 was “fucking embarrassing”. “Rushing to make that deadline was bullshit,” Cashion added.

“We’ve dealt with that fear of losing the dream we’d worked so hard to achieve,” Herring added, saying that the band “put art before commerce” on their new album. “It’s us being open to the possibilities of personal growth, and not being constrained by what people think we are. That’s where real art comes from.”

Herring also said this week that he has only recently “come to terms” with the band’s viral Letterman performance.

Months after the band’s live slot, Herring told NME he was stung by the reaction. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a joke as long as it’s not a joke to everybody,” he said at the time.

Now, he told the Independent: “It’s taken me six years to come to terms with Letterman. People saw us as this overnight success but I didn’t want to be seen that way. We were ready for that moment.”

“These days, you’re bombarded with what everybody else thinks. It can really affect how you feel about yourself, and it did for years, but now I know that performance meant a great deal to a lot of people. I can’t dispute the fact that it revolutionised our careers. It did so much for us, I should see that as a positive.”

Reviewing Future Islands’ new album ‘As Long As You Are’, NME wrote: “‘As Long As You Are’ maybe an unexpected handbrake turn for Future Islands and it may not be as hit-laden as its predecessor, but it’s a refreshing record in its own right and one that throws up plenty of existential quandaries.”