Future Teens Share Third Studio Album ‘Self Help’ Out Now Via Triple Crown Records

*The Following Press Release Was Issued By Big Hassle Media*

FUTURE TEENSSHARE THIRD STUDIO ALBUM SELF HELP OUT NOW VIA TRIPLE CROWN RECORDS

LISTEN HERE

PLUS, FUTURE TEENS BEGAN FALL TOUR ON OCTOBER 13 IN BROOKLYN, NY

GET TICKETS HERE

“Rousing Boston emo band [share] ‘BYOB,’ a chugging, melodic track about bandleader Amy Hoffman’s journey toward sobriety.”

“[‘BYOB’ is] a reflective and jammy rock song, which comes with a playful music video that offsets the seriousness of the lyrics”

“Personal, identifiable, resonant lyricism…[“Same Difference” is] an intersection where the something short, catchy and has a shout-a-long chorus collides head-on with writing that leaves you feeling extremely seen.”

“[The music of Future Teens] is firmly grounded in the everyday. Feelings are felt viscerally and observed wryly. Sadness is not a burden to be transcended, but an existential state to be analyzed, gently mocked, even wallowed in. This is the kind of music that wants to sweep you away. The kind of music that wants to make you feel.”

Photo Credit: JJ Gonson

Boston-based emo-pop-rock quartet Future Teens share the highly anticipated third studio album Self Help out everywhere now via Triple Crown Records. Hear the new music and more live this fall with support from Camp Trash and Rat Tally, with tickets on sale now here.

Self Help, the third studio album from Future Teens, brings their “bummer pop” title to life with 10 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 Amy Hoffman (vocalist/guitarist), 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.”

Guitarist and vocalist Daniel Radin says the album title pokes fun at the idea that there is no such thing as a short cut to getting better, no matter how many self-help books or videos become trendy. Radin explains, “The name’s a little tongue-and-cheek because there’s a lot of media–texts, videos, etc.– traditionally that’s about shortcuts to self help or getting your shit together and the reality is that there’s not really a shortcut to getting better or getting help. But they always say the first step is what? Recognizing and asking for help. So, a lot of the songs on this record capture moments where I realize that I am in over my head, or whatever I am doing is not working and I need to figure out a productive way forward.”

On the choice to put a VHS tape on the album cover, Radin adds, “There’s just something fun about physical media. Like, we still make cassettes. We insist on having our records on cassettes and vinyl and there’s something satisfying about holding a physical album in your hands. So, a VHS is a bit of a time-capsule and a record is a bit of a time capsule, so it felt like a fitting image.” Hoffman says, “It’s a callback to the hey-day of mail-order, fix-it-now, self help tapes.”

The release of the album follows the previously shared “Team Sports” featuring Dan Campbell (The Wonder Years), which encapsulates the album’s overall message of asking for help and highlights the value of leaning on friends, as Hoffman sings, “We’re all just looking for a safe place to spiral / Why not make a team sport out of survival?”

The second single, “BYOB,” is a track that recognizes the trials and tribulations of sobriety using the band’s signature confessional, journal entry-like songwriting and feels like compelling a pep talk from your best friends. The track was delivered with a playful video directed by Michael Herrick that sees the band crash a graduation party. “Same Difference” was the first taste of the project, a track that explores the idea of a soulmate constructed around advice Radin got from his sister.

All of the album’s singles have been enthusiastically embraced by several leading music tastemakers. Brooklyn Vegan wrote “Team Sports” is, “It’s a great, catchy song, and Dan Campbell’s trademark wail fits that last chorus perfectly.” Stereogum wrote “BYOB” by the “rousing Boston emo band” is “a chugging, melodic track about bandleader Amy Hoffman’s journey toward sobriety.” Atwood Magazine wrote “Same Difference” is, “…an intersection where the something short, catchy and has a shout-a-long chorus collides head-on with writing that leaves you feeling extremely seen.”

After forming in 2014, Future Teens have been on the rise. Though 2020 halted their ascent, the group has maintained their momentum and are ready to re-introduce themselves in 2022. The four-piece is made up of guitarists/vocalists Amy Hoffman (they/he) and Daniel Radin (he/him), drummer Colby Blauvelt (he/him) and bassist Maya Mortman (she/her), who come together to make a concoction of earnest, explosive and vulnerable emo-rock-tinged pop with pounding drums, glistening guitar riffs and irresistible melodies. With their sly, self-aware lyricism and upbeat cathartic bangers, the band has caught the attention of several notable tastemakers like Stereogum, Substream Magazine, Boston’s WBUR, who wrote the band “makes sadness sound like fun” and more.

Experience Future Teens live on tour this October throughout the East Coast and Midwest with Camp Trash and Rat Tally. Find a full list of dates below and grab tickets now here.

The third LP from Future Teens, Self Help, is out everywhere now, via Triple Crown Records. The latest body of work from the bummer pop powerhouse blends reflective, existential songwriting with soaring instrumentals to ultimately find strength and power in collective self-care. Connect with Future Teens on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to keep up with the latest.

LISTEN: “Same Difference”
LISTEN: “BYOB” | WATCH
LISTEN: “Team Sports”

Tour graphic credit: Dylan Vadakin

Future Teens Fall U.S. Tour 2022

Oct. 21 – Detroit, MI – Sanctuary
Oct. 22 – Indianapolis, IN – Healer DIY
Oct. 23 – Cleveland, OH – The Foundry

Photo Credit: JJ Gonson

Future Teens Bio

Future Teens’ previous album, Breakup Season, sounds like the most hurt band on Earth. But the ascendant Boston “bummer pop” quartet returned with ultra-cathartic follow-up, Self Help, on September 23, celebrating a fresh set of pandemic-honed coping tools and an aching optimism.

Released by Triple Crown Records, Self Help is an exquisitely vulnerable and empathetic healing wound of an album that sweetens weighty universal anxieties with gorgeously lovesick melodies, intuitive close harmonies and elevated emo-esque songcraft recalling indie-pop’s Pitchfork-propelled 2000s heyday.

“This is the record that I needed as a depressed kid,” mulled co-vocalist/guitarist Amy Hoffman (they/he). “These are songs that I still need as an adult with plenty of mental health stuff going on. I just hope that somebody connects with it in a positive way.”

Formed in 2014, Future Teens’ initially lighthearted harnessing of classic pop sensibilities to self-effacing confessional lyrics resonated rapidly and widely, propelling the band – completed by founding guitarist/co-vocalist Daniel Radin (he/him), drummer Colby Blauvelt (he/him) and bassist Maya Mortman (she/her) – from local basement shows to extensive touring, including European treks and widespread critical acclaim. “We’re seeking to build community,” said Radin. “People that resonate with our music seem to resonate with each other.”

Following a string of imaginative reworkings of pop staples, from Carly Rae Jepsen to Taylor Swift and 2019’s well-received sophomore full-length Breakup Season (dubbed “devastating and lively as a romantic comedy” by Atwood Magazine), 2020 was poised to be Future Teens’ breakout season. The pandemic initially derailed all that, but ultimately proved a self-exploratory and creative windfall.

“A lot of the new record came out of a place of not being able to distract myself from what was going on in my own head,” Radin recalled. “Having to confront that in a way that was scary but ultimately really positive.”

Recorded mostly live by longtime collaborator Andy D. Park (Death Cab for Cutie, Pedro the Lion, Now Now), Self Help captures Future Teens’ counterintuitively upbeat “mental health bangers” and singular on-stage energy. An organic evolution from 2021’s Deliberately Alive EP, it forms a reassuringly transparent conduit between unspoken insecurities and super-accessible pop like few before. With standouts like sobriety journal “BYOB,” the lockdown-induced “Stress Dream” and the album-encapsulating “Team Sports” (featuring Dan Campbell of The Wonder Years), Self Help is Future Teens’ quietly triumphant, work-in-progress ode to the power of collective self-care.

“We’re all just looking for a safe place to spiral,” Hoffman concludes on “Team Sports.” “Why not make a team sport out of survival?”

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