‘The Future Is Not What It Was’ for The Clockworks

Credit: Oscar Ryan

Words: Sam Geary 

London-via-Galway outfit The Clockworks bring out their third single, ‘The Future Is Not What It Was’, on June 12 via Alan McGee’s Creation 23 label.

Co-produced with Michael Rendall, the track blends visceral tight-knit rhythms with foreboding intensity, set to an insistent staccato beat, as frontman James McGregor sings with a shotgun delivery.

‘The Future Is Not What It Was’, sees the band comparing the once optimistic visions of ‘the future’ of generations past, with the bleak reality that we currently live in.

“This song is about trying to bring together two main ideas: The feeling that everywhere you look things are going wrong, to the point of cynicism, and the way that the idea of the future is better that its reality," explains McGregor.

"Art and articles in the past would talk about 2020 and expect us to be driving flying cars in houses that clean themselves where nobody has to work. In reality we’re driving third hand Fiat Punto’s to 9-5’s that barely pay the rent. I guess the point is that the lifestyle may change but a lot of the problems are the same.“