By Mia Fishman
Long story short, Daniel “Womz” Womack and Carter King gave it the old “College Try” during their time at the University of Georgia and developed their American indie rock band, Futurebirds, into something larger than the Athens dive bar scene. Futurebirds are hosting an inaugural music festival called Highball, which features notable music industry artists and Classic City bred bands on Oct. 21-22 in Atlanta.
Mia Fishman: “Where and how did this entire story of Futurebirds begin?”
Daniel Womack: “Me, Thomas [Johnson] and Carter all went to UGA and we met up as freshmen partying together or whatever and Carter and I made a joke about making a band. Finally, it just kind of happened. He and Thomas [Johnson] and ‘B-Miles,’ our bass player, were in a band called The Interns. Eventually we kind of meshed to make Futurebirds. That’s kind of a long story short, but that’s basically what happened.”
MF: “What’s been the most unique opportunity you’ve had as a band?”
DW: “Early on, we got onto the Bonnaroo Bus Tour in like 2011 and then we got on Bonnaroo again in 2013. Those were cool in the early days, but more recently we’ve had the opportunity to open up for bands like Caamp and we’ve got this festival coming up that’s a super incredible opportunity for us as well. It’s coming up in October and it’s called Highball. To date, Highball is probably the coolest opportunity that we’ve had. We got to play Red Rocks last year with Caamp and we got to play the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville this year in May, which is just a legendary place to play. It’s somewhere we’ll always be proud to say we’ve played. Those were all great but having your own festival with some of your favorite bands playing there is pretty cool.”
Carter King: “As you’re coming up as a band, the biggest opportunities you get are festivals that you get to play and the bigger bands you get to open for because those are where you meet fans who will say, years down the road, ‘I’ve been listening to y’all since I saw y’all open for Band of Horses or Caamp.’ To get to now flip around and help provide that experience for other people is pretty cool.”
MF: “Are there any other notable names in which you’ve headlined with or opened for?”
CK: “Drive By Truckers, Widespread Panic, Grace Potter and the Noctournals…”
MF: “Word on the street is that Futurebirds is hosting a music festival in Atlanta. Can you tell me about Highball and how it came about?”
DW: “I think we manifested it from our dreams, honestly. We’ve always wanted to throw a festival. We had one that we did in college and we called it Carvapalooza around this time. It was a pumpkin carving kind of fest and we’d get together and play bluegrass and whatever acoustic music we could. We’ve always had a dream of hosting a big, sick festival. Rival Entertainment reached out and had the idea to throw a Futurebirds-curated festival in Atlanta during the fall. Honestly, it was like a dream come true. We accepted the offer and we’ve been working with the bands and the food and the layout of the venue since then. Basically that’s how it came about. We were on board immediately.”
MF: “Can you break down the Highball lineup for me?”
DW: “It was supposed to go down around this time last year, but Band of Horses wasn’t available and we weren’t doing it without them, so we waited till this year and got Band of Horses on. We’ve got an up and coming band out of Asheville called Wednesday. S.G. Goodman is actually managed by our very first manager that we ever had as this band, so that worked out in a really cool way. Of course we’ve got Hotel Fiction from Athens because we know what it’s like being a young, upcoming band in Athens and we know how cool it is to play at a sick festival. They fit that slot perfectly. They were available, we dig their music, so we got them on. The Seratones are a band that we recently discovered. They’re a super sick, fun, dance, grooving kind-of-band. We’ve got a nice diverse lineup.”
MF: “As you mentioned, there are some notable artists out of Athens featured on the Highball lineup. Can you dive deeper into Futurebirds’ connections with them?”
DW: “T. Hardy Morris is kind of like our big brother. He used to be in a band called Dead Confederate and we went on our first cross-country tour ever opening up for them. To even deepen that connection, it’s his brother that is now our manager. It’s a full circle moment having him on as well. And of course, The Whigs! The Whigs are reuniting for Highball. When we first got to college at UGA, they released ‘Give ‘Em All a Big Fat Lip’ which is still one of my favorite independent records ever. To have them reunite for our festival after not having played a show in like four years is just super cool. We’re really proud of that. I think every year we’re gonna have to get a sick reunion band and try to set that as a tradition.”
MF: “How is the Classic City’s music scene extending nationally to big festivals such as this?”
DW: “Athens starts out as a great town to start a band. There’s plenty of places to play, it’s easy to get gigs downtown and it’s a great incubator for young bands because of those reasons. It gets a lot of cool national acts. I remember one of our first gigs downtown as Futurebirds. We were opening up for a band called Dr. Dog, which was a huge influence on us at the time. That’s kind of what Athens affords young bands – opportunities like that. Otherwise, we never would’ve got our name out there. There’s so many places to play and you can play any night of the week.”
CK: “Being a band that is going out on tour, the Athens reputation is widespread across the country. Everyone knows those bands that came before us like R.E.M. and Widespread Panic. It’s just well known and there’s an added bit of respect. There’s a mystic element when you say you’re from Athens. Everyone has an Athens story or people they know in Athens or a time they played in Athens, or they’ve never been and they really want to get there. It definitely helps having the town of Athens on your side as a band when you’re going out into the world.”
MF: “How is this stint of the tour going so far?”
DW: “This year’s been great for tours. We haven’t gone out on many extensive tours over two or three weeks but our most recent outing for that long was out in Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho and it was a blast. It was really cool. We hit a festival in Texas recently, and since then we’ve just been doing weekend runs. We were just in Raleigh, North Carolina for three days. It’s been going great. We’re about to go up to Brooklyn and back, we’ll be stopping in D.C…”
CK: “Winston-Salem, we’re in New Jersey, Connecticut, we’re playing Levitate Flannel Jam in Massachusetts. We’re jumping all around. It never really stops. We come home for a few days and then go play the next weekend. We’re pretty much on every weekend until November, I think.”
MF: “Are there any amusing stories from the road?”
DW: “Whenever I get questions like that my mind just goes blank because there’s so many. I have a hard time picking one of them out. It’ll come to me as soon as we end this call.:
CK: “There’s usually at least four per weekend. I need to start a tour diary.”
MF: “Moving forward, what do you see for the future of the band?”
CK: “World domination.”
DW: “We would love to tour the whole universe.”
MF: “Are there any thoughts or whispers of a new album?”
DW: “We’ve got a new record that we’ve pretty much finished that we’re gonna be releasing hopefully at the top of next year sometime. We’ve got a live record coming out that will hopefully be out very soon this year. Next year we’ve got a big tour lining up for the winter. Through February we’ll be out in Colorado and Montana. We haven’t announced any of that yet. We’re still kind of piecing it together but some key shows have been confirmed so we know it’s happening and we’re just gonna finish booking it.”
MF: “Do you think you’ll make a stop in Athens?”
CK: “We’ll be in Athens at some point before the end of the year. Can we say that? That we’ll be in Athens before the end of the year?”
DW: “I don’t know if that’s true or not but…”
CK: “Maybe it’s true, maybe it’s not. But we’ll definitely be in Atlanta for Highball, which is right down the road from Athens!”
DW: “That’s UGA’s bye-weekend, by the way. I think that’s notable.”
MF: “If there’s one thing you could tell your fan following that stems out of Athens, what would it be?”CK: “That Highball is going to be the best weekend of your life, I guarantee it. And we love you. Thanks for all the support through the years.”
Why I Wrote the Story:
I conducted this Q&A as my first assignment in my Reporting I class. The process of constructing my interview, talking with two members of Futurebirds as well as organizing the story’s platform was a perfect experience. The work I did improved my skillset and journalistic ability as a whole.