Hold on tight to your 8-bit consoles, Futurecop! is here and D//E gets to talk nostgalia, with one half of the dreamy synthwave outfit, Manzur Iqbal.
It kind of changes with every album, yes each one has its own narrative.
You’ve featured a wide variety of vocalists as guests on Futurecop! tracks, but if you could choose anyone to collaborate or have on a track, who would you choose?
That's a fun one, well if I could have a dream vocalist without worrying if it will suit the song, it would be people like Zach de la Rocha, Michael Stipe or Stephen Malkmus. But realistically (haha) I think for our music vocalists such as Maria Linden from I Break Horses or Andrew from MGMT would be great. Jean Jacques Goldman would be great!
Mitch Murder has recently helped score the new upcoming retro/nostalgia-based film Kung Fury. Futurecop! Has similar cinematic qualities to it - is composing or writing music for a movie something you’ve ever been involved in, or would ever consider?
It is actually something we have started to get into right now, we just did a few songs for a new independent movie, and it is something we always wanted to do, as you can tell by the music. Our next album, which we have nearly finished, is a collection of songs based around a movie. It’s actually the sequel to our instrumental album “The Movie OST” we released years ago. It's great bands like College and Mitch Murder are opening these doors.
You’ve done some live show set ups in the past; do you have any plans to do any future tours?
This is a difficult one, we did tour heavily around 2008/9! Personally for us electronic music was great then, and there was a wide variety of music making it into the forefront, especially in electronic and indie music. Think maybe because of the young blogs and new platforms like Facebook and Twitter. I mean we made a couple of goofy 80s songs in our bedrooms and ended up playing around the world, we couldn’t believe there was a demand for it and it would reach people. But over the years I think it is becoming more corporate, that whole Tidal and EDM thing is evidence of it and you have to pay social media sites to promote etc, i’m not sure what to say. I remember getting asked to play a show in NYC only a few years ago and all this EDM was everywhere and we were told to play to a crowd not really into music but into showing off and around the same time we had people and labels telling us to make our music more house for these night clubs. It was surreal. But I think something is going to give soon in electronic / indie music, I have a feeling it will be music like synthwave, I have hope for it, its here to stay, there is so much synthwave now and it just keeps getting bigger, it’s by people not even born in the 80s anymore, which is a clear sign, I think it’s just a hard thing to market for corporates, which only makes it even more cooler.
Aside from Futurecop! You have a restaurant opening shortly. Will it be hard adjusting to manage both the band and running the restaurant business?
No, I have a great team plus the restaurant is essentially a Futurecop! restaurant as the majority of the concepts relate to each other, check our website out Tomfoolery at 34. We do a lot of the Friday Food Fight nights and doing the Parklife festival soon, making food for the VIP tent.
The whole aesthetics, theme and imagery of your music is heavily stylised on the 80s. What did you find fascinated you so much about the music from that that era?
Lot’s of things! Firstly the whole retro futuristic thing is fascinating, like how they thought the world will develop so fast (e.g BTTF2 and Transformers 1986 movie), looking into the future from the past. Just the feeling or buzz around, that this would be possible. Secondly we we’re born in the 80s however throughout the 90s we we’re given a lot of 80s stuff through our family members who we’re pretty much in their 20s in the 80s, so it brings back nostalgia and to imagine how life was like for them in the 80s without mobile phones, social media etc is fascinating, and i’m always discovering new things from the past because of this. I love movies like The NeverEnding Story which is about books and imagination or Stand by Me about true friendship, or teen movies like The Breakfast Club, even the film At Close Range which is basically the first Drive movie. They all have amazing stories and no great special effects, it’s very deep yet simple. The sounds of 80s synth brings such an uplifting feeling in my heart and i just want to enhance it, I feel sometimes it runs through my blood, and i just want to discover it more, because to tell you the truth, I don't actually know why I love nostalgia whether 80s or 90s and I guess futurecop! is that journey to understand it.
As a kid growing up, what was your most memorable 80s movie?
Transformers 1986 movie
We’ve featured Futurecop! a number of times on our playlists. We felt our compilation suits a Friday night in playing old NES, and Megadrive emulators. Do you find yourself drawn to retro popular culture in any way and if so, can you explain what you think it is that draws people in?
Yeah a lot, we get people who love games, 8-bit stuff, cosplay, programmers, comic book readers, animators… like loads, it’s funny because we don’t know much about it. You'd think we would but we just like a certain sounds, and artworks, we don’t really fit into that world or know much about it. We try to make Futurecop! more about the feeling rather than the material things. Sometimes people say things, for example about an anime, to us and we have no clue what they are talking about. We are just two ordinary guys.
...And your 80s guilty pleasure?
Literally all 80s rock ballads. Well I am not guilty about them at all, I love them and stand proud to say that I love 80s rock ballads. I think its very heartfelt and we love anything that touches the heart or takes you into another world. What is more greater or more beautiful than that?
The latest Futurecop! release, is the remix album for their latest album Fairy Tales and it's in support of the Charity War Child - 50% of sales goes to the charity.
RS