Future States, a five-piece indie rock band with two members from Centretown, call their sound “psychedelic pop.” But they credit many influences for their unique sound, and now have a major local music festival completed after their recent performance at Ottawa City Folk.
The band got together three years ago in Montreal. Brodie Conley, who’s on guitar, and Chuck Bronson – vocals and guitar – knew each other from high school in Timmins, Ont., then moved to Centretown together just prior to forming the band.
Keyboardist Nicolas Hyatt, David Lacalamita, and the “recording engineer” of the band, Daniel Gelinas, are all from Montreal.
“At the core, our music is indie rock.” said Bronson. “But for me, personally, it’s a lot of experimentation. It’s trying to do something that you haven’t really heard before, or a twist on something familiar.”
To make their unique sound, they said it’s key for them to dabble in different genres. Each member specializes in a different kind of music.
“We all came from different musical backgrounds. Dave and Nick studied it on a classical level, Brodie and I have more of a pop focus, and Dan studied jazz,” said Bronson. “Combining all of those features, I’ll admit, it does make kind of wonky songs, but it ends up with a really cool dynamic.”
Over the past year, Future States’ popularity has grown, with the bands’ late-night gigs drawing bigger and bigger crowds at local venues such as the Clocktower Brew Pub and at Live on Elgin. And they’ve celebrated a few milestone moments. Last October, they released their EP, which led to attention from professionals in the Ottawa and Montreal music industry.
Ottawa CityFolk – formerly the Ottawa Folk Festival – was held at Lansdowne Park from Sept. 15-18. Members of the band said they were treated like true professionals, and that it was nice for them to let the others do the organizing for once.
“Performing at CityFolk was a really great experience for us,” said Conley. “The CityFolk organizers are fantastic with local bands playing the festival and trying to provide them with the same experience for larger acts. It meant a lot.”
Conley said he loved playing in his city where many close friends and relatives live.
“With relatives, being invited to showcase at a festival like CityFolk is great, as it allows them to come to our performances while avoiding the bar-type venue that we usually play,” said Conley.
After performing for three years, mostly on small stages at late-night gigs, Future States recently caught the attention of Golden Brown, an indie recording label in Portland, Oregon.
Thom Sunderland, a Golden Brown representative, said the label was intrigued by Future States’ unique way of combining different genres and making it into smooth, consistent music.
“The constant movement in their songs combined with their excellent vocal harmonies really add to their exciting sound,” said Sunderland. “Their songs really stick with you.”
“To be approached by a label in the States, it’s good motivation for what we’re doing,” said Bronson. “We play a small show here, a small show there, with a couple of bigger shows in between; it just gives us an extra boost.”
After recording their first full album with Golden Brown in an empty church in Timmins this past summer, the Ottawa release party will be Oct. 15 at Bar Robo.