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Mar 02, 2021 By Joey Arnone

Future Islands have shared a video for “Glada,” a song from their newest album As Long As You Are. The video, filmed on the Swedish countryside, was directed by actress Julia Ragnarsson, and edited by visual artist Ponyhans. You can watch it below.

Frontman Sam Herring speaks about the video in a press release: “The main treatment for the video was a portrait of the Swedish countryside with Julia’s parents as the protagonists. They filmed in the spring, summer, and most recently in the early fall of last year. For me, most importantly, it captures the place that this song is about, which is all I wanted to share in the first place.”

Ragnarsson adds: “‘Glada’ is a song that was written about the exact place that I’m now quarantined, with my parents. A song about a past—grown over, the coming of a budding spring, and the birds that regularly circle our house and the fields and forests surrounding. We wanted to capture the beauty of nature here, pulling from the images which Sam describes in the song. The ups and downs of a long term relationship. And how you sometimes have to stop and think about how lucky you are, especially in the midst of this seeming breakdown. I was stuck in the most beautiful place I know, unable to fully appreciate it because Sam wasn’t there. Making this video helped me to connect with him, but also got me to look outside and appreciate all that was around me.”

As Long As You Are was released back in October of last year on 4AD, and made it to #17 on our Top 100 Albums of 2020 list. It features the songs “For Sure,” which features backing vocals from Jenn Wasner of Wye Oak and Flock of Dimes and was one of our Songs of the Week, “Thrill” (which was also one of our Songs of the Week), “Moonlight”(which also made our Songs of the Week list), and “Born in a War,” which the band performed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

As Long As You Are is the follow-up to 2017’s The Far Field. The band’s core lineup of Samuel T. Herring (vocals), John Gerrit Welmers (keyboards), and William Cashion (bass), has now been officially joined by longtime touring drummer Michael Lowry (who also contributes to the songwriter). The four-piece co-produced the album with engineer Steve Wright, recording it at his Wrightway Studios in Baltimore.

Back in June 2020, Cashion self-released an ambient solo album under his own name entitled Postcard Music. Listen to our Why Not Both podcast interview with Cashion about balancing Future Islands with his ambient music.

Read our 2014 cover story article on Future Islands.

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