Love Letter To A Record: Future Static’s Jack Smith On I Killed The Prom Queen’s ‘Music For The Recently Deceased’

Many of us can link a certain album to pivotal moments in our lives. Whether it’s the first record you bought with your own money, the chord you first learnt to play on guitar, the song that soundtracked your first kiss, the album that got you those awkward and painful pubescent years or the one that set off light bulbs in your brain and inspired you to take a big leap of faith into the unknown – music is often the catalyst for change in our lives and can even help shape who we become.

In this Love Letter To A Record series, Music Feeds asks artists to reflect on their relationship with music and share with us stories about the effect music has had on their lives.

Jack Smith, Future Static – I Killed The Prom Queen, Music For The Recently Deceased, (2006)

Dear Music for the Recently Deceased,

I will never forget the first time I heard you. I was in the throes of self-discovery as a youth when a kid in the grade above me passed me his iPod in class and told me to press play on a song called ‘Sharks In Your Mouth’. As soon as I heard the opening snare rolls, I knew my life was about to change.

What followed was a 4-minute assault that left me stunned, and the floodgates were opened. I quickly got my hands on a special edition CD and was enthralled by the riffs, the choruses and most of all – the breakdowns. I was addicted.

What can I say? I love every single part of you. You know precisely what you are and never waver from it. At the end of it all off, you left us with the perfect closing song, ‘There Will Be No Violins When You Die’ – a ceremonious instrumental to encapsulate the 40 minutes preceding it.

You were the first album I learned from front to back on guitar; I would sit and play along to you from start to finish every other day. The way I write and play, even to this very day, is undoubtedly inspired by you.

One night I was watching Metal On [v] (RIP) being put to sleep by a Tool song when I was suddenly rushed into hysterics when I heard the specific chime of a cymbal. I knew it was my beloved ‘Say Goodbye’ being played across the international airwaves, and I felt a strange sense of pride.

I even managed to find the (unreleased at the time) Crafter version of the entire album; I thought I was the luckiest boy alive. But, though it pains me to say it, knowing what he did to you in the future – even the legendary Michael Crafter himself couldn’t hold a candle to Ed Butcher.

Oh Ed, how could you. You loved us and left us before we knew it, disappearing off the face of the Earth. You may have left us in the dark and destroyed everything we’d built – but goddamn, do you know how to front the hell out of a metalcore album.

Music for the Recently Deceased, I honestly wouldn’t be who I am today if it weren’t for you. If our paths never crossed, there’s a good chance I’d be an entirely different person. So for that, I thank you.

It’s been almost 15 years now, and you’ll never leave my heart.

SK Forever.

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Future Static are a Melbourne-based alternative-heavy band who’ve just revealed their anthemic new single ‘Waves’ – produced by Christopher Vernon (Belle Haven, Windwaker) and Sam Bianco (Loose End). It comes accompanied by a cinematic video, shot and directed by Liam Davidson (Bad/Love).

Check it out, and cop a squiz at their upcoming tour dates, below!