{"id":260,"date":"2023-09-29T17:58:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T17:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-miafishman\/?p=260"},"modified":"2023-11-01T17:42:04","modified_gmt":"2023-11-01T17:42:04","slug":"beatqa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-miafishman\/beatqa\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A: Futurebirds curates festival featuring Athens artists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Mia Fishman<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Futurebirds\u2019 guitarists Daniel Womack (left) and Carter King (right) pose during their Red Rocks Amphitheatre debut last October. (Photo Courtesy\/Ross Bustin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Long story short, Daniel \u201cWomz\u201d Womack and Carter King gave it the old \u201cCollege Try\u201d 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<\/a>, which features notable music industry artists and Classic City bred bands on Oct. 21-22 in Atlanta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mia Fishman:<\/strong> \u201cWhere and how did this entire story of Futurebirds begin?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daniel Womack:<\/strong> \u201cMe, 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 \u2018B-Miles,\u2019 our bass player, were in a band called The Interns. Eventually we kind of meshed to make Futurebirds. That\u2019s kind of a long story short, but that\u2019s basically what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MF<\/strong>: \u201cWhat\u2019s been the most unique opportunity you\u2019ve had as a band?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DW:<\/strong> \u201cEarly 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\u2019ve had the opportunity to open up for bands like Caamp and we\u2019ve got this festival coming up that\u2019s a super incredible opportunity for us as well. It\u2019s coming up in October and it\u2019s called Highball. To date, Highball is probably the coolest opportunity that we\u2019ve had. We got to play Red Rocks last year with Caamp and we got to play the Ryman Auditorium <\/a>in Nashville this year in May, which is just a legendary place to play. It\u2019s somewhere we\u2019ll always be proud to say we\u2019ve played. Those were all great but having your own festival with some of your favorite bands playing there is pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carter King<\/strong>: \u201cAs you\u2019re 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, \u2018I\u2019ve been listening to y\u2019all since I saw y\u2019all open for Band of Horses or Caamp.\u2019 To get to now flip around and help provide that experience for other people is pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MF<\/strong>: \u201cAre there any other notable names in which you\u2019ve headlined with or opened for?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CK<\/strong>: \u201cDrive By Truckers, Widespread Panic, Grace Potter and the Noctournals\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MF:<\/strong> \u201cWord on the street is that Futurebirds is hosting a music festival in Atlanta. Can you tell me about Highball <\/a>and how it came about?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DW: \u201c<\/strong>I think we manifested it from our dreams, honestly. We\u2019ve 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\u2019d get together and play bluegrass and whatever acoustic music we could. We\u2019ve always had a dream of hosting a big, sick festival. Rival Entertainment<\/a> 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\u2019ve been working with the bands and the food and the layout of the venue since then. Basically that\u2019s how it came about. We were on board immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MF<\/strong>: \u201cCan you break down the Highball lineup for me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DW:<\/strong> \u201cIt was supposed to go down around this time last year, but Band of Horses <\/a>wasn\u2019t available and we weren\u2019t doing it without them, so we waited till this year and got Band of Horses on. We\u2019ve 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\u2019ve got Hotel Fiction from Athens because we know what it\u2019s 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\u2019re a super sick, fun, dance, grooving kind-of-band. We\u2019ve got a nice diverse lineup.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MF:<\/strong> \u201cAs you mentioned, there are some notable artists out of Athens featured on the Highball lineup. Can you dive deeper into Futurebirds\u2019 connections with them?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DW:<\/strong> \u201cT. 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\u2019s his brother that is now our manager. It\u2019s a full circle moment having him on as well. And of course, The Whigs! The Whigs<\/a> are reuniting for Highball. When we first got to college at UGA, they released \u2018Give \u2018Em All a Big Fat Lip\u2019 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\u2019re really proud of that. I think every year we\u2019re gonna have to get a sick reunion band and try to set that as a tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MF:<\/strong> \u201cHow is the Classic City\u2019s music scene extending nationally to big festivals such as this?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DW:<\/strong> \u201cAthens starts out as a great town to start a band. There\u2019s plenty of places to play, it\u2019s easy to get gigs downtown and it\u2019s 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\u2019s kind of what Athens affords young bands \u2013 opportunities like that. Otherwise, we never would\u2019ve got our name out there. There\u2019s so many places to play and you can play any night of the week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CK:<\/strong> \u201cBeing 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\u2019s just well known and there\u2019s an added bit of respect. There\u2019s a mystic element when you say you\u2019re from Athens. Everyone has an Athens story or people they know in Athens or a time they played in Athens, or they\u2019ve 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\u2019re going out into the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MF:<\/strong> \u201cHow is this stint of the tour going so far?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DW:<\/strong> \u201cThis year\u2019s been great for tours. We haven\u2019t 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\u2019ve just been doing weekend runs. We were just in Raleigh, North Carolina for three days. It\u2019s been going great. We\u2019re about to go up to Brooklyn and back, we\u2019ll be stopping in D.C\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CK:<\/strong> \u201cWinston-Salem, we\u2019re in New Jersey, Connecticut, we\u2019re playing Levitate Flannel Jam in Massachusetts. We\u2019re jumping all around. It never really stops. We come home for a few days and then go play the next weekend. We\u2019re pretty much on every weekend until November, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MF:<\/strong> \u201cAre there any amusing stories from the road?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DW:<\/strong> \u201cWhenever I get questions like that my mind just goes blank because there\u2019s so many. I have a hard time picking one of them out. It\u2019ll come to me as soon as we end this call.:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CK:<\/strong> \u201cThere\u2019s usually at least four per weekend. I need to start a tour diary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MF:<\/strong> \u201cMoving forward, what do you see for the future of the band?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CK:<\/strong> \u201cWorld domination.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DW:<\/strong> \u201cWe would love to tour the whole universe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MF<\/strong>: \u201cAre there any thoughts or whispers of a new album?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DW:<\/strong> \u201cWe\u2019ve got a new record that we\u2019ve pretty much finished that we\u2019re gonna be releasing hopefully at the top of next year sometime. We\u2019ve got a live record coming out that will hopefully be out very soon this year. Next year we\u2019ve got a big tour lining up for the winter. Through February we\u2019ll be out in Colorado and Montana. We haven\u2019t announced any of that yet. We\u2019re still kind of piecing it together but some key shows have been confirmed so we know it’s happening and we\u2019re just gonna finish booking it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MF:<\/strong> \u201cDo you think you\u2019ll make a stop in Athens?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CK:<\/strong> \u201cWe\u2019ll be in Athens at some point before the end of the year. Can we say that? That we\u2019ll be in Athens before the end of the year?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DW:<\/strong> \u201cI don\u2019t know if that\u2019s true or not but\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CK: <\/strong>\u201cMaybe it\u2019s true, maybe it\u2019s not. But we\u2019ll definitely be in Atlanta for Highball, which is right down the road from Athens!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DW:<\/strong> \u201cThat\u2019s UGA\u2019s bye-weekend, by the way. I think that\u2019s notable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MF: <\/strong>\u201cIf there\u2019s one thing you could tell your fan following that stems out of Athens, what would it be?\u201dCK:<\/strong> \u201cThat 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n