Biography
Alternative rock quartet Future Kings of Spain came together in Dublin, Ireland, during 2000 despite the ironic implications of their name. Their sound draws from assured, emotionally charged indie pop and aggressive hardcore punk while echoing the textural experiments of Sonic Youth and Jesus Lizard alongside the foundational grunge approaches of Dinosaur Jr. and Pixies. By distilling prime elements of 1980s alternative music, the group earned critical acclaim at home and built a solid audience in overseas territories that proved hard to penetrate, although protracted contract disputes have restricted them to only two studio albums across their career.
Bassist Aaron Hegarty, distinct from the Antony and the Johnsons vocalist, and drummer Bryan McMahon, childhood friends from Dublin, first encountered guitarist Joey Wilson when all three were 19. Years afterward the trio established Medium Wave as their initial project. After cycling through multiple vocalists and additional guitarists, they returned to a power-trio format in 1999 once Wilson, the principal lyricist and songwriter, took over vocals upon realizing only he could convey the intent of his own material. The group spent eight months honing its sound inside a rehearsal room located in a historic Georgian building in Dublin before adopting the Future Kings of Spain name in February 2000.
Their debut performance proved as memorable as the band’s distinctive moniker when, that December, they opened for J Mascis + the Fog, led by the former Dinosaur Jr. frontman, at Dublin’s Temple Bar venue. Subsequent support dates alongside JJ72 and the Fall, plus a brief Los Angeles residency, raised their visibility throughout the next year. Ten Speed Racer, soon to share a label, alerted London’s Red Flag Records to the rising act, and Ten Speed Racer’s Joe Chester co-produced the band’s first single for the imprint, “A Place for Everything and Everything in Its Place,” issued in September 2002. That release featured a dramatic reinterpretation of Todd Rundgren’s “Love of the Common Man” together with “Your Starlight,” which appeared as the band’s third single the following June.
The three musicians moved to New York in autumn 2002, gaining the chance to collaborate with Ted Nicely, renowned for co-producing Fugazi’s 13 Songs, and engineer Eli Janney of Girls Against Boys. The first track to surface from those sessions was the well-received single “Face I Know,” released in March 2003. Paired with a fresh version of “Your Starlight,” the material formed the core of the self-titled debut album issued in August 2003, which ultimately sold more than 40,000 copies globally. In 2004 the addition of guitarist Karl Hussey expanded the quartet’s sonic possibilities and textural depth while preserving Wilson’s vocal character, prompting immediate work on a follow-up record.
Tracked in London and Malta under producer Ian Grimble, whose prior credits include Manic Street Preachers and the Fall, Nervousystem—titled after an earlier band name, “Brains and the Nervous System”—was finished by late 2005. Scheduling bottlenecks at Red Flag Records postponed its appearance, prompting the group to announce its departure from the label; an exit agreement was finally secured in February 2007. Operating their own imprint, What’s the Kim? Recordings, Future Kings of Spain issued the singles “Guess Again” and “Kick in the Teeth” in May and July before Nervousystem finally reached stores in September 2007. The long wait paid off when the album entered the Irish album charts at number 24, and the band earned nominations for Best Irish Band and Best Irish Album at the 2008 Meteor Irish Music Awards.
Bassist Aaron Hegarty, distinct from the Antony and the Johnsons vocalist, and drummer Bryan McMahon, childhood friends from Dublin, first encountered guitarist Joey Wilson when all three were 19. Years afterward the trio established Medium Wave as their initial project. After cycling through multiple vocalists and additional guitarists, they returned to a power-trio format in 1999 once Wilson, the principal lyricist and songwriter, took over vocals upon realizing only he could convey the intent of his own material. The group spent eight months honing its sound inside a rehearsal room located in a historic Georgian building in Dublin before adopting the Future Kings of Spain name in February 2000.
Their debut performance proved as memorable as the band’s distinctive moniker when, that December, they opened for J Mascis + the Fog, led by the former Dinosaur Jr. frontman, at Dublin’s Temple Bar venue. Subsequent support dates alongside JJ72 and the Fall, plus a brief Los Angeles residency, raised their visibility throughout the next year. Ten Speed Racer, soon to share a label, alerted London’s Red Flag Records to the rising act, and Ten Speed Racer’s Joe Chester co-produced the band’s first single for the imprint, “A Place for Everything and Everything in Its Place,” issued in September 2002. That release featured a dramatic reinterpretation of Todd Rundgren’s “Love of the Common Man” together with “Your Starlight,” which appeared as the band’s third single the following June.
The three musicians moved to New York in autumn 2002, gaining the chance to collaborate with Ted Nicely, renowned for co-producing Fugazi’s 13 Songs, and engineer Eli Janney of Girls Against Boys. The first track to surface from those sessions was the well-received single “Face I Know,” released in March 2003. Paired with a fresh version of “Your Starlight,” the material formed the core of the self-titled debut album issued in August 2003, which ultimately sold more than 40,000 copies globally. In 2004 the addition of guitarist Karl Hussey expanded the quartet’s sonic possibilities and textural depth while preserving Wilson’s vocal character, prompting immediate work on a follow-up record.
Tracked in London and Malta under producer Ian Grimble, whose prior credits include Manic Street Preachers and the Fall, Nervousystem—titled after an earlier band name, “Brains and the Nervous System”—was finished by late 2005. Scheduling bottlenecks at Red Flag Records postponed its appearance, prompting the group to announce its departure from the label; an exit agreement was finally secured in February 2007. Operating their own imprint, What’s the Kim? Recordings, Future Kings of Spain issued the singles “Guess Again” and “Kick in the Teeth” in May and July before Nervousystem finally reached stores in September 2007. The long wait paid off when the album entered the Irish album charts at number 24, and the band earned nominations for Best Irish Band and Best Irish Album at the 2008 Meteor Irish Music Awards.