Boston-based emo-pop-rock quartet Future Teens have announced their third studio album Self Help, alongside the release of its first single, “BYOB” today. The album, out September 23rd, is available for pre-order now HERE. Listen to the new single now below.
“BYOB,” recognizes the trials and tribulations of sobriety using the band’s signature confessional, journal entry-like songwriting that feels like compelling a pep talk from your best friends. Vocalist/guitarist Amy Hoffman explains, “It took me a long time to understand that I needed to stop drinking, longer still to learn I couldn’t do it on my own. BYOB came together over the first few months of my sobriety, starting when I thought I “just needed some time off” and ending when I realized if I wanted anything to actually get better, I had to keep trying.”
The accompanying video, which finds director Michael Herrick reuniting with Future Teens for a fourth time, features the band crashing a graduation party to hold band practice, though some guests are less than thrilled about it. Herrick affectionately adds, “Every time we collaborate, we always have a great time. The BYOB music video is a very fun concept that Daniel, Amy and I came up with. We prioritized making the video and shoot as fun, light-hearted, and stress-free as possible. I respect Amy because they are so vulnerable and direct as a songwriter and ‘BYOB’ is a testament to that. “
Alongside new music, Future Teens will embark on a fall U.S. tour with support from Camp Trash and Rat Tally beginning on October 13 in Brooklyn, NY, throughout the East Coast and Midwest, concluding in Cleveland, OH on October 23. Tickets will go on sale this Friday, July 29 at 12pm local time HERE.
Self Help brings Future Teens’ “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 Hoffman, 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.”
Describing the recording process, which involved mostly live instruments with help from longtime collaborator and producer Andy D. Park (Death Cab for Cutie, Pedro the Lion, Now Now), Hoffman shares, “Making Self Help with all four of us playing together live was the most hectic, fun, exhausting ten days, made all the better by our producer and friend Andy Park. His ability to turn our most esoteric ideas into something cooler than we had imagined is nothing short of magic.”
Future Teens
Fall U.S. Tour 2022
Oct. 13 – Brooklyn, NY – MEADOWS
Oct. 14 – New Haven, CT – State House
Oct. 15 – Ashbury Park, NJ – The Saint
Oct. 18 – Pittsburgh, PA – Mr. Roboto Project
Oct. 19 – Columbus, OH – Big Room Bar
Oct. 20 – Chicago, IL – Beat Kitchen
Oct. 21 – Detroit, MI – Sanctuary
Oct. 22 – Indianapolis, IN – Healer DIY
Oct. 23 – Cleveland, OH – The Foundry