Behind The Tracks: Michael Webster - Future Sight (Single) (2023)

My latest single “Future Sight” was released late last year, in December 2022, and it’s the first track from my second EP “A Northern Perspective”!

I wrote this song a long time ago, around 2016/17 or so, and it was one of those songs that just came together really smoothly. I had the picking pattern down for a good while, a lovely little descending melody that in itself holds the flow of the song, and the groove of it really let me approach the track lyrically in any direction. It’s a real indication of my sound, that kind of deadpan approach, with a focus on the lyrics - plus it’s very Northern, with my accent being pronounced throughout it, which is extremely indicative of my music.

The song has a lot of references to other songs in it, for example - the opening line “the future kinda freaks me out” is a reference to both a song by Martha and another by Modern Baseball, who are huge influences to me as an artist. The full song really is about leaving your hometown and moving to a bigger place, with more opportunities on the horizon, yet there is still the element of risk and the fact that you’ve got to take that risk in order to get where you want to be. The line “but who the hell has so much time to weave away the tapestry of their life?” basically says that you’ve got to just go for it - if you dance around the possibilities and outcomes of your decisions, then you’re not actually doing anything, you’re hypothesizing - something I was often guilty of doing, so it’s more of a call out to myself than anyone else!

With recording and production, it’s very barebones, it’s an acoustic and electric guitar playing the main melody, and simply adding bass guitar and an upright bass to hold the bass notes throughout, and then the drums drop in after the chorus. It’s only a short song so I knew it didn’t need much, but I am really proud of the organs throughout, they just give a real space behind the track which isn’t as present in any live recordings. And, it’s a folk song, really, so it needed a harmonica.

You can find “Future Sight” on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhAM8R9pr7k and on Bandcamp at https://michaelwebster.bandcamp.com/album/a-northern-perspective - it’s available to stream on all streaming platforms as well.