It would be easy for Milwaukee-based hardcore band No Future to play the scenester card and have everything happen for them rather quickly. After all, the five band membersAndy Silverman, Brad Clifford, Kenny Siebert, Eric Alonso and Ryan Smithhave been in such noted acts as Since By Man, Decibully, Seven Days of Samsara, Poison the Well and Red Knife Lottery. Yet band members cringe at the idea that they are a “supergroup,” and instead stress that they are simply five friends who have come together to play the music that they love.
As vocalist Silverman explains, there has been “no deliberate attempt to take a high or low profile” with the project. In fact, Silverman continues, there has been “no effort on our part to temper expectations, or even a thought given to them.”
Yet such modesty does not minimize the power of the band’s material. No Future is definitely rooted in the genre of hardcore, and one can hear nods to the band members’ assorted previous projects. But there is a real heaviness present as well (think Deadguy or Coalesce), along with bursts of real punk-rock speed.
Explaining the band’s sound, guitarist Clifford notes that “it’s essentially a nod to a lot of fast hardcore bands that a lot of us cut our teeth on, and none of us had ever really been in a band that had that specific sound we all loved. This is our excuse to do it.”
And one really does get the sense that No Future is doing what they are doing simply because they want to, simply because it’s fun. “Really,” Silverman explains, “we are just five dudes that really like heavy music that have been friends for a long time.” With such extensive pedigrees, no one in No Future feels like they have anything left to prove. For Clifford, the band has given him a chance to think about making music in an environment free from “pressure or agenda.” Instead, he sees himself and his fellow band members as “just doing it for the sake of doing it. It’s pretty liberating, to be honest,” he says.
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All of this is not to suggest that the band doesn’t take their craft seriously. No Future, according to Clifford, “definitely wants to play shows and record and all of the usual things.” But they want to do it on their terms, free from the tensions and pressures that often plagued their earlier projects. Band members “aren’t out schmoozing for contacts or looking for management or booking agents or anything,” Clifford continues. “It’s just focusing on playing music that we loveand doing it together.”
Such a focus has the band living in the present, enjoying the pleasures of creating music among friends. At the moment, No Future has no MySpace page, no Facebook account and no records to hawk. Asked about plans for the future, Silverman notes with a laugh that the group has “no five-year plan.” For some reason I don’t think No Future really needs one.
No Future plays the Cactus Club on Friday, Dec. 10, on a 10 p.m. bill with Death Dream and Architects of the Aftermath.
Photo by Justin "Lugs" Wettstein
