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Today, Boston-based emo-pop-rock quartet Future Teens share highly anticipated third studio album
Self Help out everywhere now via Triple Crown Records. Alongside the album, the band shares new single & video "Good Reason" out now. Hear the new music and more live this fall with support from Camp Trash and Rat Tally, with tickets on sale now here.
Self Help, the third studio album from Future Teens, brings their "bummer pop" title to life with ten tracks that blend glittering pop melodies and emo-rock with profoundly vulnerable confessions. The band is distinctively unafraid to confront their struggles with mental health using cathartic anthems that transcend identity, time and space and ultimately allow them, and their fans, to find strength in each other, rather than alone. "We’ve all learned the hard way that the best (and sometimes only) way to help ourselves is to ask for help from others," says Amy Hoffman (vocalist/guitarist), explaining the origins of the album. "We didn’t set out to write a record about that, Daniel and I just happened to bring each other ideas with overlapping themes about mental health and struggling to get better - sometimes it’s like we have the same brain, even with such different lived experiences."
Guitarist and vocalist Daniel Radin says the album title pokes fun at the idea that there is no such thing as a short cut to getting better, no matter how many self-help books or videos become trendy. Radin explains, "The name's a little tongue-and-cheek because there's a lot of media–texts, videos, etc.– traditionally that's about shortcuts to self help or getting your shit together, and the reality is that there's not really a shortcut to getting better or getting help. But they always say the first step is what? Recognizing and asking for help. So, a lot of the songs on this record capture moments where I realize that I am in over my head, or whatever I am doing is not working, and I need to figure out a productive way forward."
On the choice to put a VHS tape on the album cover, Radin adds, "There's just something fun about physical media. Like, we still make cassettes. We insist on having our records on cassettes and vinyl, and there's something satisfying about holding a physical album in your hands. So, a VHS is a bit of a time-capsule, and a record is a bit of a time capsule, so it felt like a fitting image." Hoffman says, "It's a callback to the hey-day of mail-order, fix-it-now, self help tapes."
Radin had been reading lots of Stephen King, prompting thoughts around the ideas of fate and empathy when the latest single, "Good Reason" took shape. Radin says, "Everything in his stories leads to a natural (or supernatural) conclusion. I’d also been thinking about what keeps people from caring about strangers. Lack of empathy is the simple answer, of course, but where does that come from? Why do some people have too much, and why do some people have none at all?" Radin continues, "These two things combined prompted the first line of the song, and the rest just fell out of me. It ended up sounding like a dystopian children’s rock song that provides a tongue-in-cheek answer to an impossible question. Why wouldn’t someone do the bare minimum for their neighbor? It must be magic."
The accompanying video, directed by the band's own Hoffman and Radin, recruits Helpy, a blue, plush VHS toy character who brings comfort and stumbles through life like everyone else. Hoffman shares, "The moment we saw Valentin Pujadas' sketch of Helpy, we knew he had to be more than a sweatshirt. We brought him in for 'Good Reason' as a sort of Sesame Street character for adults - a sentient tape doing his best to help his new friends navigate the tough things, and fumbling just as much as the rest of us."
Watch "Good Reason" (Official Video)
The release of the album follows the previously shared "Team Sports" featuring Dan Campbell (The Wonder Years) which encapsulates the album's overall message of asking for help and highlights the value of leaning on friends, as Hoffman sings, “We’re all just looking for a safe place to spiral / Why not make a team sport out of survival?”
The second single, "BYOB," is a track that recognizes the trials and tribulations of sobriety using the band's signature confessional, journal entry-like songwriting and feels like compelling a pep talk from your best friends. The track was delivered with a playful video directed by Michael Herrick that sees the band crash a graduation party. "Same Difference" was the first taste of the project, a track that explores the idea of a soulmate constructed around advice Radin got from his sister.
All of the album's singles have been enthusiastically embraced by several leading music tastemakers. Brooklyn Vegan wrote "Team Sports" is, "It's a great, catchy song, and Dan Campbell's trademark wail fits that last chorus perfectly." Stereogum wrote "BYOB" by the "rousing Boston emo band" is "a chugging, melodic track about bandleader Amy Hoffman’s journey toward sobriety." Atwood Magazine wrote "Same Difference" is, "...an intersection where the something short, catchy, and has a shout-a-long chorus collides head-on with writing that leaves you feeling extremely seen."
After forming in 2014, Future Teens have been on the rise. Though 2020 halted their ascent, the group has maintained their momentum and are ready to re-introduce themselves in 2022. The four-piece is made up of guitarists/vocalists Amy Hoffman (they/he) and Daniel Radin (he/him), drummer Colby Blauvelt (he/him), and bassist Maya Mortman (she/her), who come together to make a concoction of earnest, explosive and vulnerable emo-rock-tinged pop with pounding drums, glistening guitar riffs and irresistible melodies. With their sly, self-aware lyricism and upbeat cathartic bangers, the band has caught the attention of several notable tastemakers like Stereogum, Substream Magazine, Boston's WBUR, who wrote the band "makes sadness sound like fun," and more.
Experience Future Teens live on tour this October throughout the East Coast and Midwest with Camp Trash and Rat Tally. Find a full list of dates below, and grab tickets now here.
The third LP from Future Teens, Self Help, is out everywhere now, via Triple Crown Records. The latest body of work from the bummer pop powerhouse blends reflective, existential songwriting with soaring instrumentals to ultimately find strength and power in collective self-care. Watch the latest video from the band for the tongue-in-cheek, anthemic track "Good Reason" here, and see the band live on tour through the U.S. this fall with tickets on sale here now. Connect with Future Teens on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to keep up with the latest.
LISTEN: "Same Difference"
LISTEN: "BYOB" | WATCH
LISTEN: "Team Sports"
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