Future Crib

Future Crib is a non-fiction rock band from Nashville known for mixing indie rock, pop, experimental folk, and whatever sounds exciting in the moment. The band is made up of Johnny Hopson, Julia Anderson, Bryce DuBray, and George Rezek, who became the steady lineup after original drummer and songwriter Noah Pope left in 2022. They’re known for their super dynamic live shows and for never sticking to just one genre.

The band started back in 2017 as Johnny’s solo project with the release of Stevie B, before slowly growing into a full group. Since then, Future Crib has moved through different eras from the early days of Friends, to the all-analog world of Full Time Smile, to their newest release, Impossible Songs (2025). This interview digs into that journey, how their sound has changed, and what this latest chapter means for them. For this interview, each band member answered in their own voice, so we’ll be using their initials to show who’s speaking. Let’s get into it.

Your work has a really warm, lived-in feel. Was there a moment or environment that shaped the sonic direction of this era of Future Crib?

JH: “Impossible Songs and its arrangements were largely the result of adapting to having 4 people in the band instead of 5. We resisted it for a couple months, trying to cover more ground with less people, but it eventually became more exciting to really simplify things. Perhaps it feels lived-in because we recorded the album in the house George and I lived in at the time. This was in 2023. Now, the band is pushing to cover more sonic ground again, using loops and samples in lieu of guitars.”

BD: “Our band changed from a 5-piece group to a 4-piece in the fall of 2022. It took a little while to adapt to the new configuration since we all had to adjust the types of sounds we were making and the role we were playing in the band. This was also around the time we were getting ready to think about what our next record might be like, and Johnny showed us “One Horse”, which was led by a big acoustic guitar sound and a more natural feel than what we were doing with Full Time Smile and those songs. That song set a tone for the rest of Impossible Songs. We all kinda fell back into roles and sounds that felt simple, but good. Acoustic guitars and pianos, minimal effects and sampling, and a general ethic of a band sounding like a band.”

GR: “The song one horse was kind of the guiding light for the new sound. When johnny brought that song to the group the new direction felt clear and the rest of the songs fell into place. The record was made in a house Johnny and I used to live in. It was a nice place to live and the space lives on in the record for me.”

Future Crib is super collaborative, how do you guys usually handle creative disagreements when writing or recording?

JH: “Sometimes there are disagreements, or even arguments. We do our best to be diplomatic and understanding because we care about one another. No one would feel so strongly if they didn’t think the work was important, or that their contributions meant little. Everyone really does their best to come to the table with fresh and exciting ideas for the songs. So when we keep that in mind, it helps steer us in the right direction.”

BD: “Honestly and luckily, they don’t come up too much. We try to be democratic about things and go with a majority feeling, and we’ve learned it’s helpful to have an arbiter for certain things. For this project we leaned on our engineers Andrew Selchow and Alberto Sewald for the final recording and mixing decisions when needed, and for the songs we lean on the songwriter, either Johnny or George, to have the word on what to do whenwe disagree. Things inevitably come up because we all care a lot about the music, but we’ve known each other a long time now and care about each other too.”

GR: “Democracy Baby!”

Touring definitely changes how a band sees its own music. Has being on the road shifted the way you view certain songs or each other?

JH: “Most definitely. Touring is a wonderful way for me to put things in perspective - my life, the songs, friendships, how I feel about where I live, patience, time, etc. It’s intense and exciting. The cream rises to the top. The songs grow more on tour than anywhere else, so we try to play them out as much as we can before we record.”

BD: “We like to workshop new songs on tour; it’s what takes a song from being just the songwriter’s to being the band’s as a whole for us. To me it’s like chipping away at the marble – by the end of a tour playing the same song every night and making small adjustments, everyone has found where and what to play in a new song to make it ours. It’s also fun to see how people react to new songs, especially people we know and who know our music well.”

JA: “Touring is really special for me, I feel like I really find my footing in new songs when we play them on the road. I try to approach every show sort of like practice. That mindset helps me play with the songs in a way that feels like the stakes aren’t so high. I also have complete trust in the boys, when we play together I know everyone has a vision for where the song should end up and the magic happens when we all get there together.”

GR: “Touring on songs that haven’t been recorded yet has been a process that yields good results for us. Its a little trial to see if it can hang. Some songs eventually stop getting reached for on tour and can fizzle out. Its a good way to self edit.”

If someone was discovering you today, which track would you want them to start with and why?

JH: “Fluff=Nothing” - This song more than any other seems to stand the test of time in my heart. I can still play it and be interested in what it’s trying to bring out of me. I think it represents our “sound” well, in a nutshell.”

BD: “We’re a band that likes to make records with the whole meal in mind, but “Clearance” is a wonderful hors d’oeuvre.”

JA: “I would have to pick “Cherry.” We don’t play it as much anymore, but I remember thinking the first time we played it that it was special. It’s one of the first songs that we incorporated samples in, along with its bouncy bass line and whimsical lyrics, I really believe it laid a foundation for a sound that we have really built on.”

GR: “I’d want them to listen to One Horse and hope it gives a vision of the rest of the record to the listener, like it did for me.”

Looking ahead, what feels the most exciting (or challenging) about what’s next for Future Crib?

JH: “George moved back to his native Chicago this year, so we’ve spent the last several months getting in the groove of that. We have friends in bands who live apart from one another, so we knew it was doable. The hardest thing to get used to was not practicing every week, but George has been a real trooper coming back for shows. We’ve played at least once a month with some small tours peppered in. We’re working on a new set of material, which always makes me the most excited.”

BD: “We’re exploring new territory right now in terms of songwriting, sounds, and instruments. The idea of pivoting dramatically to something brand new for the band for the next album is exciting, but writing and performing this way is new for us.”

GR: “We’re moving into a little bit of unknown territory with some new material that has been exciting. Its fun to stretch out and be challenged.”

In your Impossible Tour Substack post, you mentioned how the tour “shouldn’t have worked” but somehow did. What made it feel impossible at first, and what ended up proving you wrong?

BD: “Being in a band or any creative career field is tough right now. Our economy and culture doesn’t assign much value to the music makers, just to the companies that distribute it so it seems. Booking a tour, promoting it, rehearsing for it, and then leaving our jobs and significant others at home all falls on us in addition to the work we do to just exist. It can feel impossible even after doing it for almost a decade. It’s interesting how some parts of it have gotten harder, while others have gotten easier. But we do it for the love of the game.”

GR: “There always seems to be one show on tours where someone (besides us) travels a considerable distance to be at the show. And for me it feels like it happens right when we need it to. Its a good feeling.”

Recording fully analog takes a lot of intention, did that slower process affect the emotional vibe of the songs you later toured with?

JH: “While it may seem slower, I actually don’t think that’s so. Because there are only so many decisions you have available to make, things tend to happen faster, at least in my experience. In a digital environment, there’s so much flexibility. It can be dangerous for particular people. You can tweak as long as you’d like, but you may stumble off the path.”

BD: “At the end of the day, analog recording just really works for us despite the limitations. It affects the songs emotionally in the sense that we learn to live with small imperfections if it means we captured a great moment in time. With a DAW you can scrub anything away. For the band, that means we can capture a take we love of us playing together, and move on to the next thing without the temptation to tweak it to perfect oblivion. We also love the sound; we’re all audio people.”

Were there any cities or moments on the Impossible Tour that made you rethink what community means to the band?

BD: “We played several cities on this tour for the first time, or at least cities where we don’t know too many people. Every town we love was new to us at some point, but too many in a row can feel isolating. It made me really appreciate seeing friends on tour. We’ve built strong communities in Chicago, Atlanta, Athens GA, and Greenville SC for example, all of which we played on this tour. Seeing these friends reminded me of how many different experiences we’ve had and people we’ve met just from playing our music, and each time you get to share a bill or hang at a show or crash on a couch or get a quick breakfast on the way out of town adds to that little piggy bank.”

JH: “We played at Stu’s House in Charleston, SC. It’s a house-show, DIY style operation. When we were teenagers we were at spaces like these every week. They’re pure, but they come and go. At some point I found myself out of touch with them in my community. Playing shows like this on tour reminds me of that falling-in-love feeling I got so much when I was younger, and it encourages me to stay connected when I’m back home. I hope Stu’s House lives forever”

JA: “The day after one of our shows with Homemade Haircuts, drummer Blake Hunter invited us to his house to look at his reptile collection. We moved room to room admiring the snakes and lizards and there was this one moment in Blake’s living room when he began pulling this huge snake out of her enclosure. This snake was so big we each had to help lift it up and as we all stood there holding this gigantic snake I remember thinking we really are just a bunch of freaks who get to do wild things together.”

You’ve talked about analog limitations shaping creativity. Did any of those limitations hit differently once you brought the songs to the stage?

BD: “Regardless of how you record them, some songs just don’t naturally translate. Even if you play exactly like the record, sometimes the energy is just a mismatch on stage, or whatever it is. We have gotten pretty good at adapting, but some songs are harder than others. We rarely play “On The Plains” from Impossible Songs for example. We don’t try to make our live set sound like the records, we just want the songs to feel exciting to us for the time. That also means we change them up intentionally too, which is fun. “Only A Wheel’s Worth” has gotten a significant bump in tempo lately live, and we’re stretching out the musical sections of “Neighbors” into new modes and times.”

After going fully analog and then running those songs through such an intense tour, what’s one thing you learned about Future Crib musically or personally that surprised you?

BD: “We see each other a lot in daily life; we’re good friends, we share a lot of good friends, and we spend time together. Lately though, our time that we spend together as a band rehearsing, recording, or performing has been a bit more sporadic as we’ve gotten older and our individual lives more developed. To me, it turns out our musical experiences together are really the ones where we are most intimate with each other, and it’s easy to drift a bit even though we see each other a lot in between. This year was a good reminder for me to be mindful of how special our relationships are.”

Talking with Future Crib at this point in their journey feels especially exciting; they’re experimenting and pushing themselves in ways that make their music feel more alive than ever. Huge thanks to Johnny, Julia, Bryce, and George for taking the time to answer these questions and share so much insight into their world. If you haven’t listened to Impossible Songs yet, now’s the perfect time to jump in. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more interviews soon.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,