Less than two months following the final tour date of their As Long As You Are tour, Future Islands announced the details of their new album People Who Aren’t There Anymore which will be released on January 26, 2024. The seventh album from the band – Samuel T. Herring (vocals, lyrics), William Cashion (bass, guitars), Gerrit Welmers (keyboards, programming), and Michael Lowry (drums) – follows 2020’s As Long As You Are. People Who Aren’t There Anymore heralds a new chapter for Future Islands who, despite having formed nearly two decades ago, continue to challenge themselves and each other.

Where they’ve pursued ever-higher energy anthems in the past, they’ve turned inward this time, and unlocked a new level of ferocity, delivering some of their most inspiring and most heartbreaking tracks by doing the opposite: taking their time, making each breath, each syllable, each cymbal crash count. The result is a powerful, defining statement from a group of musicians who have made the best album of their career.

Along with the announcement, the band shares a new single from the album, “The Tower”, alongside a video directed by Jonathan van Tulleken (Top Boy, Shogun). This marks the second project Van Tulleken and Herring have worked on together — the two collaborated on Apple TV’s The Changeling, whose first season aired this Fall. On working with Herring on the show and with the band on the “The Tower” video, van Tulleken says, 

“Anyone who’s seen Sam on stage shape shift with his whole body and voice from heart-wrenchingly tender to fantastically ferocious knows that he is a truly, magnetic, performer. This was no small reason why he was cast for a role in The Changeling where he plays a complex character who appears to be one thing whilst actually another. It was a role that would be no easy task for even the most seasoned actor but Sam, applying all his stagecraft, charisma, smarts, and natural empathy, absolutely nailed it producing a riveting performance. I loved working with someone who came to acting via this persona they had built in their music. To then get to collaborate on a music video with the band was a delight especially one which explores that duality of light and dark literally and metaphorically. Finding that same captivating, haunting, performance but this time with the track as script.”