Before Future Rock rocked festivals and concert venues, the members were playing at Norris University Center. The Daily caught up with Northwestern alumnus Mickey Kellerman about NU, making music and why he loves Chicago.
Excerpts:
The Daily: How did the band come together? You and Felix (Moreno) met at NU, right?Mickey Kellerman: Yeah, we met at Northwestern. I met him my sophomore year, when he was a freshman. Felix and I had this idea for this band that would play electronic dance music infused with a rock ‘n’ roll edge to it, but we did not want to have any guitars in the band. We started the band in 2002 and it’s 2010 and we are still playing instrumental electronic dance music infused with a rock ‘n’ roll edge to it, without guitars.
Daily: How did you get to playing electronic music? Kellerman: I did not grow up listening to electronic music at all. I listened to all rock. I listened to Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin; you know, all the stereotypical bands you are supposed to listen to as a teen. Once I started listening to electronic music, I got ideas about writing songs. It definitely sparked some creative part of me that had been untapped before.
Daily: How was your time at NU?Kellerman: I loved Northwestern. I really had a positive experience there. The band that I was in, we played a bunch of shows. A lot of the shows were over at a friend’s place-Ridge and Davis, I think. Played in Norris Center a few times. It was great. It became my social life. Plus, I enjoyed the University as a whole as well. I thought that they did a good job of bringing a lot of good shows to the University. Actually, the guy who manages our band, he ran the concert series at A&O. He has been involved in Future Rock since the very beginning.
Daily: Can you talk about your new live album, “Live at Wicker Park”?Kellerman: It was recorded last summer at the Wicker Park Festival. We were completely packed; I think there were like 7,500 people there, to the point that there were people hanging out of windows. It was one of the most amazing performing experiences I have ever had. I think it worked out great, considering we are a Chicago band, to have our first ever live release to be a show we played in Chicago. It seems very fitting.
Daily: In your biography it says that Felix Moreno thought “Live in Wicker Park” was the best representation of Future Rock ever recorded. Do you feel the same way?Kellerman: We all feel this way. We have never released anything live before. I really like the studio albums that we have put out, but most people know us from our live shows; that is just the reality. So for people who we want to introduce to the band-to just send them a studio release of our album does not give them any sense of what it is like to be at a Future Rock show. That was doing a disservice to us. Now we finally have something that really does capture what it sounds like or feels like to be at a Future Rock show.
Daily: Future Rock is very much a live-show band; how do you translate that raw energy into a studio album?Kellerman: The first album we did we actually purposefully wanted to make something that was opposite from our live show. It was very, very studio. After the fact we were like “Oh man, that was not a very good idea.” So the second album we did we tried to make it sound as close to our live show as we could.
Daily: How important is it to you to keep your roots in Chicago band?Kellerman: I just absolutely love Chicago more than any other city. We definitely like to play up the fact that we are from Chicago. We play here three or four times a year and we have been playing here for a while. We really make a point of talking with all of our fans and spending time getting to know them. It just makes our connection with Chicago even stronger because we have so many friends here. When we come to play in Chicago, people get really amped up. It’s a cool vibe.
