Interview with Future Thieves

“Future Thieves is comprised of Elliot Collett (vocals and rhythm guitar), Gianni Gibson (drums), Nick Goss (bass), and Austin McCool (lead guitar), are one of Nashville’s most exciting emerging acts. The American rock band, formed in the fall of 2013, and have accomplished a lot through their musical journey with their distinctive sound and catchy music.

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ME: How did the band meet and form?

Nick: Austin and I went to grade school through college together in Indiana. When we move to Nashville, Elliott’s girlfriend was working with us at the time and we met up with him and at that point we were getting out of other bands while Gianni was going through the Northeast US, London and he landed in Nashville and met Elliot through a mutual connection from LA.

Elliot: I think I’ve known Nick and Austin for four years but we met at a country club that we are all working together at. I worked there for about a year and a half. And then we meant Gianni six months before we started the band so I mean we’ve been a band technically for three and a half years.

ME:You guys played a show two days ago in Brooklyn, how was it?

Austin: The show last night was great. We met super cool folks and the crowd enjoyed the show, it was awesome.

ME: Do you prefer playing in front of a completely new crowd or hometown crowds?

Nick: Nashvilles great because our friends and family there and I support us for forever so it’s easier to build a crowd there. It’s nice to have friends and familiar faces at the shows, they come out, bring their friends and their family and it’s great to meet people on the road. The more friends and family the better but playing to new people is also exciting and exhilarating to share our music with them.

Elliot: It’s nice when you play in the big festival with lots of people in the crowds and then you see your dad and mom to have them know we’re going places and doing something we are all passionate about.

ME: Highlights and memorable moments that stick out in this year?

Gianni: I think for me and Gianni here Forecastle Festival was a highlight, probably my favorite festival this year.

Elliot: Yeah Forecastle Fest was definitely my favorite. I am from Kentucky so it was cool to get to play there. SO many awesome people and it’s a well run festival and a lot of bands we love were there. It was the best!

ME: Do you have a dream festival you’ve always wanted to play?

Gianni: Oh yeah! Governors Ball for sure, Coachella, Lollapalooza, Glastonbury, Reading. Any U.K. festival.

Elliot: Isle of Wright.

Nick: Madison square seems to be the max. If you’re doing MSG, you’re amazing.

ME: What stands out and makes Nashville music scene unique?

Nick: It’s in the middle of the country, so it’s easy to tour out of. There’s a lot of bands, bands from Austin in LA New York that seem to be relocating there. The thing about Nashville is that everyone is super nice to each other and support. It’s definitely a tight community. Everyone supports and shares mutual respect and love for one another.

Elliot: Nashville has so many talented musicians so you gotta be good and you are around so many great artists and bands so that’s good. Everyone is super chill, you don’t get snobby musicians and no one has time or energy to deal with that either.

Gianni: Everyone is super authentic and genuine doing music for music. Also, if you’re being mean or whatever people will talk and it’ll get around the two mile radius that is the music scene and everyone will know and you’ll just be done because no one is going to deal with someone like that.

ME: In most great music scenes, there is definitely a popular music trend or sound coming out from a certain location. How do you manage to build that distinctive sound and music you have?

Elliot: Just play with what feels good to you instead of seeing what other bands are producing and strictly going off of that. I used to worried about what other musicians would think versus what fans of the music would think. Once you get pass that you stop writing stuff just to try to sound cool to your musician friends.

Nick: Our engineer, Alex Jarvis has a very distinct method of how he mixes and runs stuff through for overdubs and he’s actually a very big pop guy. He goes with big sounding vocals and we went with it. He’s definitely a big part of our creating process.

Elliot: It’s different sometimes. We write in various parts of the country sometimes like I grew up on a farm so we would sometimes go back to my farm house and wrote in Kentucky. We will just set up all the equipment and start jamming and when something feels good, we’ll just go with it and I’ll start humming some melody and lyrics. Or somebody will have an idea home by themselves and bring it to the band. It varies for sure. We like going outside of Nashville to write a lot. We go to a lake house in middle Tennessee and just start jamming. It’s just a matter of getting away and not worry about what is around you, whatever comes to mind and go with it.

Nick: Our first record we produced in Nashville in our basement downstairs and produced some of our friends records while we were still forming so that was nice as well and going places to write and jam is great too.

ME: You guys are signed to TKO Management (Toby Keith’s management), which is amazing!

Gianni: It’s great. The best thing I think about any creative demeanor is when you have someone or team that take some stuff out of your hands that isn’t creating music is nice because you have less to think about. You’re more focused on the creative part than the business side of things. You want to be smart and on top of things but it’s nice to have something and someone to rely on.

Elliot: Instead of bombarding your parents about these things, you can talk to those management folks like Taylor who genuinely care about you and your music and are in it for the right reasons. He found us organically and liked what he heard so it’s awesome.

Nick: They take care of things and if we need anything he knows that we’ll give me a call and vice versa. It’s definitely a relief to have people backing you up.

ME: Favorite song you’ve written?

Elliot: I think like most bands, we like the newer stuff than the old stuff. But you really get to the point where you want to challenge yourself and come up with the newest and coolest thing that you’ve done. I think Nightmares is my favorite song we’ve made. It’s got a lot of depth or it, it’s spooky, cool and feels good playing it live.

Gianni: Everyone agrees haha!

ME: Coming out soon is Live at Blue Rock,can you tell us a bit about it?

Gianni: Well the release date is January 13.

Austin: We were down in Austin for SXSW. We are playing the whole week, just hang out in the city and then got some studio time out in Blue Rock. They streamed it live on YouTube. We play for an hour exactly, just live one take and it sounded awesome. The entire experience was great we decided to release it as a new album with 4 new unreleased tracks.

Elliot: And a lot fans say, we love your album but we love see you live. So I think it’s nice to have that out there for fans.

ME: Before my last question, what is something you wish you had invented?

Gianni: Squatty potty.

Elliot: A juicer, juices are way too expensive.

Austin: A whisk.

Nick: Pants and tell no one about it so it’s like it never happened, it never became a thing.

ME: Like Donald Duck who just never wears pants and only towels.

Nick: Yeah! There’s documentaries on that of certain cartoon characters that never wear bottoms just towels and then the rest of the times they’re just naked.

ME: To conclude our interview, what are upcoming plans for Future Thieves?

Nick: December will be on the road for about a week and a half. That includes a Nashville date that we are doing a Christmas on the 16th. Then January and February is relax and writing time then SXSW in March and tour a bit and record the album around that time. In May, we’ll be off to Europe for an entire month, a ton of Germany dates. In the summer, we will hopefully release the new studies album. Hopefully, a lot of festivals as well, and just staying out on the road.