Cambridge rock stalwarts Lonely The Brave are currently enjoying some well-earned downtime after finishing up touring for their sensational second album, 2016’s ‘Things Will Matter’.
However, guitarist Ross Smithwick has decided to dive headfirst back into the studio, and release new music under the name FutureLives.
The awesome debut track, ‘Ex Marks’, which you can stream exclusively with Upset below, marks the genesis for Ross’ solo project, which he has been waiting on launching for some time now.
He tells Upset: “I’ve got a lot of material that I’ve been working on, and some of it was even started before I joined Lonely The Brave [in 2014]. I’ve always been a full songwriter, so to speak, and I’ve constantly been working on bits and bobs for this without really having an endgame. When this break with Lonely The Brave came up, it just felt like the perfect time for me to get the tracks down.
“It’s not really a concept as such, but I’m really kind of obsessed with timelines; where you’ve been, where you’re going and what makes you who you are,” Ross says of the inspiration behind the project. “I guess this song’s about moving away from negative experiences with a person or a situation and how that has basically left its mark on you, how you move from that and grow and be a better person from those experiences.”
Playing everything but drums on the record, Ross checked into Anchor Baby Studios in Kent, where producer and friend Dan Lucas contributed beats and manned the mixing desk. Ross then took his work home, where he recorded guitars, bass, synths and even vocals.
“I had to set up a vocal booth in the hallway of my flat,” he chuckles. “I’m sure everyone could hear me while I was belting out my vocals!”
Although it offers similarly impassioned surges of melodic alt-rock, ‘Ex Marks’ is faster and somewhat more aggressive than the anthems that Lonely The Brave have been firing out. Ross believes that this punchier tone and pacier approach better reflects his personal sonic influences.
“I wanted it to have lots of energy, because I’m into some faster, punkier stuff that maybe doesn’t come out in my writing with Lonely The Brave, but I’m exploring a lot of angles at the same time. I really love the collaboration element of the band, but this is a totally different thing. There’s a lot of different opinions when it comes to writing music, and it felt really liberating to do this.”
As well as putting together a live band to start playing shows with later this year, Ross has four more “upbeat” tracks already recorded and is working on another six songs, which he hopes will eventually comprise FutureLives’ debut album.
And don’t worry one bit about Lonely The Brave: Ross reassures that the band will be back soon to start work on album #3.
He explains: “This isn’t anything to replace Lonely The Brave, I want to do this alongside that, so I didn’t really want to call this a ‘side project’. I’m really happy with how the songs turned out, so I’d like to see FutureLives have legs. It’s definitely something that I want to pursue, and I want it to go somewhere.”
FutureLives’ debut EP ‘This is Living’ is limited to 200 handmade copies, with limited edition artwork by Ross and Amber Doran – pre-order your copy here.
