The Future Unlived

The Future Unlived played Saturday at Rubber Gloves with Austin bands Haunting Oboe Music and Prom Nite. I have to hand it to Prom Nite, who opened. They were missing their drummer, so instead of their whole set up they just used a beat box with vocals and improvised the whole set. What they were lacking in band members and instruments, these guys made up for in enthusiasm and then some. They put on a wild, albeit short, show.
The Future Unlived also put on a great show, despite the fact that they got cut a little short. The show was a little sparse, due to the rain and a free show at Hailey's, but they still played the hell out of their set. The music is a little bluesy, has a little distortion and a lot of rock. They obviously have a good variety of influences because a lot of their songs have a different sound to them, ranging from almost southern rock to playing a Radiohead-esque ballad. I hope they stay that way. I always feel bad for musicians that feel they have to prescribe to "said genre." The band has only been together 8 months, but the musicianship is impeccable. I rarely put down my camera just sit back and enjoy a song, but when they started playing Evil Eye all I wanted to do was listen and watch. Once they increase their repertoire and get some more shows under their belt, The Future Unlived will be a force to reckon with. I look forward to following their progress in the next year or so and watching them grow individually as musicians and as a whole. The best is yet to come from The Future Unlived.

(Laura Seewoester)

- Pegasus News

When he’s not teaching the structure of genetic material, graduate teaching assistant Jesse Meik is strumming a bass guitar in the local indie-garage band The Future Unlived.

Once the lights go down and the fans crowd in, the 32-year-old simply goes by “Professor,” taking on an image quite different than his students may expect.

“My students think that I’m very serious,” Meik said. “When they find out I can rock their faces off, they’re shocked.”

The band members compare themselves to Built to Spill and Queens of the Stone Age. Growing up in a different generation than the other three members, Meik takes his influences from bassists of genre-bending bands like Rush and Primus.

“Those two bands in the early ’90s made me buy a bass,” Meik said. “Their bass lines are very fat and have space.”

Since beginning as a Ph.D. student, Meik has received two teaching awards and a research award and publishes journals focusing on the evolutionary side of biology, he said.

Somewhere between class lectures, working on his dissertation and spending time with his wife and 10-month-old son, Meik manages to practice twice a week with the band and play in frequent shows, he said.

“I feel like I do end up spending a lot of time helping other people, but band time is my time,” he said.

Loaded with rhythmic change-ups, the blues-rock band thrives on guitars and drums more than vocals, said Danny Future, guitarist and lead vocalist.

After creating instrumental progressions, the core of their music, the band forms vocals around them, molding and shaping each song to make it perfect, Meik said.

“The ideas come from tinkering on the fret board,” he said.

One song gets changed six or seven times before it’s finished, drummer Justin Tyme said.

The band released a self-titled, five-song EP in May and will begin recording an album in November at Crystal Clear Sound in Dallas, picking and choosing which songs will be sent to radio stations, Meik said.

“We would love to be successful but not to where it compromises what we love,” Meik said. “We want to play what we want.”

Playing local shows gives the band exposure and helps them reach the goal of getting signed and going on tour, guitarist Deff Javis said.

“We think it’s going to be pretty easy to get signed once we’re ready,” he said.

The band performed its first gig for a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd in August 2005 at Caves Lounge on Division Street, where Future bartends. They will return Saturday for a special Halloween show with two sets — one as The Future Unlived and another as Space Pharaoh in honor of the Halloween festivities, Future said.

“I want them to be humming our songs on the way home,” he said.

The members’ deep respect for each other and humble attitude distinguishes them, helping to avoid the fate suffered by many aspiring bands, Javis said.

“We don’t have big heads,” he said. “That’s what creates conflict in bands.”

Forming a bond much like brothers, the band has nowhere to move but forward, Meik said.

“This band is like family to me,” he said. “It’s an outlet for emotion. There aren’t many chances for me to get my emotions out. I look forward to practice every day.”

- UTA Shorthorn (Emily Toman)