Future Islands is a new wave synthpop band based in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. The band is composed of Gerrit Welmers (keyboards and programming), William Cashion (bass, acoustic and electric guitars), and Samuel T. Herring (lyrics and vocals). Their sound has been described as "terse yet passionate music wrought from a stripped back palette," where "Gerrit Welmers' synthesizer melodies tumble across the austere wilderness of William Cashion's post-punk bass pulse, driven ever forward by ecstatic electronic rhythms".