The Future Kings of Nowhere

Last week I went into the hospital thinking I had pneumonia and found out that I actually have Stage IV Lymphoma – cancer. Chances are good that I won’t be playing music for a while, as I go through the chemotherapy treatment and the sickness that will go along with it. Hopefully by this time next year I will have beat the cancer into remission. And even more hopefully, I will be able to finish the album during these down months.

If you want to stay abreast of my progress as I go through this, you can go to http://thismachinekillscancer.tumblr.com

I won’t be posting here again until I have news about the album or upcoming shows.

Thank you all for the wonderful support and love you’ve shown this band. I will get through this and play for you again soon.

- Shayne

I’m finally getting around to uploading some of the rough recordings I made this summer.  These are a few of the songs that will be on the upcoming album, except the album versions will have drums and trumpet and bass and all those other fun things.  Feel free to download and share these as widely as you want.  Your mom is probably looking for new music, why don’t you send her a copy?

There is also a place here to donate money.  Being a musician can be an expensive jobby (that’s “jobby (n): all the effort of a job, all the profits of a hobby“).  Clicking on the “Donate” link and donating a few dollars will help me get the new album recorded and printed, and I will be extremely grateful for that.  So, thanks in advance.  Also, if you donate even 1 penny and enter your email address, I’ll send you another song, a secret song, that’s not available here.

And now the songs (right click and choose “Save As…” to download these, or left click to just listen online):

Download all the songs in a ZIP file (careful, it’s 28.8 MB, so it’ll take a while)

-or-

Hibernating
Theme for an Unrepentant Bastard
The Doom Song (Everything is Wonderful)
Let’s Be Pirates!
Wicked
On Very Nearly Turning Thirty
My Turn
Charles Grodin, You’re My Hero

Hi folks!  I spent this weekend in Jay Murphy’s studio, getting some recordings together.  While I usually hold myself to pretty high standards when recording, I have been trying to put those (perfectionistic? neurotic? ocd?) tendencies to the side while doing this because:

a) it is just a demo of the real album to come later this year and

b) my schedule has made it so that I had to get the whole thing done this weekend if I wanted to get it out before August.

That said, Jay has managed to make my desparately quick live takes sound pretty good, and I’m excited to be able to share these demo versions with y’all soon.  Here is a list of the tracks we recorded.  Chances are good that they’ll all make it onto the demo (although probably not in this order).

• Hibernating
• Theme for an Unrepentant Bastard
• Everything is Wonderful (The Doom Song)
• Let’s Be Pirates!
• My Turn
• Wicked
• Charles Grodin, You’re My Hero
• On Very Nearly turning 30

All of this will be posted online once it is mixed properly.  They will be available to download with a pay-what-you-want kind of thing going on.  Also, there will most likely be a bonus song for folks that are kind enough to donate.  More info on that soon.

Plus, there will be some full band recordings coming out this summer:

• For the Next Girl I Meet (coming out on a split 7″ with The Never from Trekky Records)
• Gin and Tonic (coming out as an online release – details soon)

Thanks for listening!!

-Shayne

First of all, I need to extend a heartfelt thanks to everyone who has written to us, myspaced us, and approached me on the street over the last five months, asking us to end the hiatus.  Thank you!!!

When I decided that I needed to take this break last fall, it was partially because I had grown tired of all the work involved in being in a touring band: the booking, the promotion, etc, etc.*  I had hoped that taking a vacation for a few months would renew my energy, and I could reclaim the passion and drive that was there when I started this band.  Surprisingly, this plan totally worked!  After a few months I started to really miss being on the road, and found myself looking forward to each time that I got to perform in front of an audience (there have been a few shows during the hiatus).  Even more importantly, I found that I was looking forward to getting home from work each evening so I could bang away on my acoustic guitar in my bedroom, just like the good ol’ days.  I’ve been writing a bunch of new songs that I’m really excited to share with y’all soon.

However, I’ve had another surprising realization while I’ve been introspecting recently, and this one is a lot harder (and scarier) to deal with – I even went so far as to climb a small mountain nearby to gain some wisdom and perspective on the situation.  You see, I’ve been living in this area of NC for a long time – almost 20 years now – and it is long past the time for me to leave.  I’ve decided to try my hand at big city living, move to New York this summer, and take FKoN back to its solo roots for a little while.  It’s hard to think of leaving Durham.  This has been the most loving and supportive scene a musician could possibly ask for, and I’m glad to have gotten to know so many incredible musicians and music enthusiasts over the last few years.  I hope to see the first group when they come through NYC on tour and the second group when I tour back through Durham!

So, what does all of this mean for you, the faithful listener?  Several things:

- I will be touring again soon!  These shows will be listed as The Future Kings of Nowhere [solo], to distinguish them from the full-band shows that we’ve been doing for the past few years.  If you caught any of the solo shows from a few years ago, or saw FKoN in its “unplugged w/ washboard” formation recently, you know that it’s a different but equally rewarding experience (I’m thinking specifically of that show at The Monster House in Columbus or in the Brickyard at NC State’s Habitat for Humanity benefit, if any of y’all are reading this).

- House shows!!!  As a full band, we were often too loud to play in living rooms (with the exception of some very tolerant punk houses).  I’m looking forward to playing some intimate shows to smaller groups of people where there can be more interaction and connection.  Although I am also excited about still playing at clubs and DIY spaces across the country.

- New releases!!!  I’ve started work on two new albums.  The first will be a bare-bones version of the new batch of songs.  Something close to what I’ll be doing at the solo shows.  Call it a demo or an EP or whatever you want.  I’m planning on releasing that for free online, and also having some CDs of it for sale while I’m on the road.  The second album, which is going to be a little further out, will be a more fully realized version of the first one, with all of the drums/bass/horn/voices/etc that (to me) make our debut so fun to listen to.  Also, the split 7″ with The Never is close to completion and should be out soon (swear to god).

If you’re still with me, thanks for reading this far.  And thank you again to everyone who has supported or participated in this band over the past few years.  I’m nervous as hell about striking out on my own like this, but also tremendously excited!

Thanks for listening and I’ll see you on the road!

Shayne

* – I’m still not crazy about booking and promotion, so if you or anyone you know is interested in helping out with that, please get in touch: futurekingsofnowhere@gmail.com

After our last 4 shows in December, The Future Kings of Nowhere will be going on hiatus. We have played a ton of shows over the past few years and have had a ton of fun, but I’m frankly a bit worn out. I’m stunned when I look back at all of my life goals that I’ve already accomplished in this band; playing at CBGBs, getting reviewed in magazines, opening for one of my musical heroes (twice!), getting radio play all over the country, being able to use the band to help promote some good causes, going on some long tours. Not to mention the incredible thrill of connecting with an audience while you all sing along with our songs. On the flipside, we’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time and money pursuing this, and I’ve let that pursuit do some real damage to some important friendships. Somewhere in the last year or so, this whole thing turned from fun into serious work. Everything has become opportunity cost and promotion. I know that anything good takes effort, and I’m not scared of putting my back into my music, but I never wanted to be a businessman. I got into this because I loved playing music and when I sang these songs it felt like it was going to save my life. I feel like there is something that I’ve lost about what it means to really truly love what you’re doing, and I need to take a little while to figure out what I forgot. 

We’ll still be around though. I’ll still be playing drums with Resist Not, Mike will be playing washboard with Midtown Dickens, and Jon will still be playing the coffee machine at 3 Cups. Thank you all…from the bottom of our hearts…for buying our albums and coming to our shows and singing along and telling your friends and giving us couches to sleep on and meals to eat while we were on the road. And hopefully, in a few months we’ll be rested and ready to go again.

xoxo,

Shayne, Mike and Jon

ps – We’ll probably be spending less time checking the myspace for a while, so if you need to get in touch with us, shoot an email to futurekingsofnowhere [at] gmail [dot] com.