Oliver Future
By Christopher Petro

Photo By Rennie Solis

"Good art always seems to come out of the dying cities,” says Noah Lit, singer/guitarist of the Echo Park quintet Oliver Future, while contemplating over a mug of French Roast. “Look at garage rock in New York 10 years ago.” In spite of the closing of L.A.’s Aron’s Records and the Rhino Records store, as well as the shifting of Capitol Records and Sympathy for the Record Industry, bands like Giant Drag, Silversun Pickups, Cold War Kids and most recently Oliver Future are proof that the city isn’t dying — it’s inspiring.

Oliver Future has a magnifying glass on society. Lit insists that “good music should be danceable,” and while that declaration is an oversimplification, the five-some navigates a “dancing territory” while soaring above the limits of the superficial drum machine. The band’s sophomore release, Pax Futura, which dropped last month on Fireproof Recordings, is an ambitious and intelligent album, blowing away the three-minute pop formula by fusing songs, turning up the sonic texture and filling every inch of the album with a hook (think The Flaming Lips and Wilco).

Oliver Future’s five members (Noah Lit, Jesse Ingalls, Josh Lit, Sam Raver and Jordan Richardson) have been playing together since their high school days in Austin, TX. After graduating from college, Oliver Future was officially born and their self-titled debut made. Austin embraced the band, even helping the group achieve “Austin’s Best Band” status in 2003. That was when the members of Oliver Future realized they needed to be part of a larger music oasis. Wagons west, the band’s manifest destiny brought them to California’s best-known melting pot, Los Angeles. The destination welcomed.

KCRW DJ Tricia Halloran enjoyed the band’s gritty debut so much she passed it along to the renowned indie rock producer Adam Lasus (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Yo La Tengo). Listening to the debut, Lasus said he “never had a record where the flow and creativity and energy was so good, constantly.” Lasus then contacted the band via MySpace.

The group holed up in the producer’s studio to create Pax Futura, a musical coup that emboldens the idea that dance music can swagger with conscience. While Pax Futura sustains the upbeat pulse of Oliver Future’s debut, the band has added complexity. Varied instrumentation (more synth, guitar noodling and percussion), additional sound textures and poetry smarts all leave their mark on the music. Also, note the lyrics from the bubbly ballad “Drowning Parade” about Hurricane Katrina busting the levees and causing the New Orleans disaster: “They say sink or swim but legs won’t kick / When you’re chained to the bottom / They hide mistakes, displace the blame / And we’re left treading water.”

It’s hard to believe the band recorded the album live, because although it’s clean and polished, “there’s a lot going on, for sure,” laughs Raver. “The core instruments were recorded live because we wanted to capture ... working off one another. [That chemistry] really came together on the song ‘Drowning Parade.’”

Lit cuts in, “We wrote and pulled that song together in a 48-hour period. It was really special because my brother and I would fight and write, creating a great little songwriting madcap where we feel something great resulted.”

They’re a band of self-starters according to Lit: “We do all our booking and marketing,” he says. “We’re a post-industry rock band, doing it all on our own.”

Raver adds, “Nobody is going to care as much about your career as you do. It’s a simple fact, but eventually, and hopefully, you’ll find people who feel as strongly about [your career goals] as you do” — a statement that’s proven successful for the band.
There’s also a trial and error aspect to writing a complex pop album. “When you play a song enough times, you’re going to try to do little things differently to keep it interesting; sometimes you’ll hear a mistake and say, ‘Aw, that’s great!’ and it’ll become a permanent fixture of the song,” Raver explains.

Armed with their new masterpiece, Oliver Future is set to become a permanent fixture themselves, both in L.A. and beyond.

www.oliverfuture.com

Oliver Future will be on a national tour throughout August and September.