Future Islands on their 'deeply personal' 7th studio album

Future Islands' latest album, People Who Aren't There Anymore, is filled with their signature indie pop sound, but it's also deeply personal.

Initially conceived of by lead singer Samuel T. Herring during the pandemic, the songs on the new album began as longings for his former partner. But in the aftermath of their breakup, the meaning of the album shifted.

In this session, Herring and keyboardist Gerrit Welmers join us to talk about making the record, which involved salvaging old keyboards and the almost unheard-of proposition of having two people mix the record.

Plus, we'll look back on the 10-year anniversary of their breakout performance on the Late Show with David Letterman.

Many thanks to our friends at WFUV for their help recording the live performances in this session:

• Audio: Jim O'Hara, Allen Wang and Lauryn Williams
• Video: Lilja Cormack, Nikki Estelami, Adithi Vimalanathan, Therese Burgo, Ava Anselmo and Olivia Iannaccone

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Kimberly Junod. The web story was created by Miguel Perez. Our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.

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