Formula Indie Sessions _ Interview with Future Child
Future Child is the indie folk project of Liverpool-based singer-songwriter Paul Alan Waters, crafting cinematic, harmony-rich songs inspired by artists like Fleet Foxes and Sufjan Stevens. Blending intricate acoustic arrangements with soaring vocal layers, the project moves between intimate storytelling and expansive, windswept soundscapes. Built alongside longtime collaborator Josh Moore, Future Child represents a deliberate step toward a more honest, fully realised artistic identity — music that feels both deeply personal and timeless in scope.
What is your earliest memory connected to music?
My earliest musical memory and obsession was The Beatles – 1. I listened to this compilation on repeat when I was 4 years old and I think that was definitely what fuelled my passion early for music and songwriting.
How did your passion for creating music begin?
I’m someone who has always been captivated by soundtracks and scores. Some of my most vivid childhood musical memories come from the scores and soundtracks of films, I particularly loved the music of Thomas Newman and Hans Zimmer. I feel very inspired by scenarios and emotions tied to scenarios and it often sparks ideas for music in my head – just like a movie score, and this is definitely how I first started creating music as a child and what fuelled my passion.
What’s the story behind your current music project?
Future Child is the cinematic score to my lived experiences and emotions. I find it far easier to let out the darkest areas of my mind in song rather than conversation, often in a storytelling manner or in a more loosely poetic way that I hope others can find their own meanings and interpretations. The name Future Child is born of a want to write songs that my future child could listen to.
How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music before?
I would describe the sound as Fleet Foxes but with more trauma and more glass half empty.
What is one thing you’ve learned that completely changed the way you make music?
When you stop trying to please everyone, you please the right people.
What tools, instruments, or software are essential in your creative process?
I write, record and mix everything myself so having all my instruments, my recording equipment and mixing headphones are absolutely essential. However the one thing above all in my process – a walk along the promenade. The ideas I’ve thought of and the songs I’ve finished in my head on those walks have been some of my best works.
Which indie artist or song are you loving right now?
Natalie Wildgoose. She is ethereal. Her song “Hand me a piece of your heart” makes me feel something I can’t describe. Like an intense beautiful sadness and a place I remembered but never visited.
How have your personal experiences influenced your music and artistic vision?
They are essential to my vision. Whilst I can create stories, the best stories are the ones of my own. This whole project is a pouring of my heart and lived experience. My most recent song “Chapel Bells” is the true story of watching an ex-partner getting married in a church and it is subject matter like this that makes for the more interesting and evocative songs.
What emotions or messages do you hope listeners take from your work?
My upcoming EP “Smaller Than A Moment” is about loss, transformation, death and realisation. In the cosmos, we are insignificant – truly smaller than a moment, and that is not a bad thing at all.
What’s the most important lesson music has taught you so far?
That being undying in your vision and unrelenting in your passion is worth far more than any worldly possession.
What is a dream venue or festival you would love to perform at?
Glastonbury.
If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?
Robin Pecknold – he is my songwriting hero and biggest influence on my own work. Brian Wilson is an insanely close second place!
Where can our listeners follow and support your music? (Website,Spotify, IG, links)
Spotify:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefuturechild?igsh=eDY5dDB4MXhqYzAx&utm_source=qr
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/share/1VYLdiq6WJ/?mibextid=wwXIfr
YouTube:
https://youtube.com/@futurechildsongs?si=WRXTH9YflG1WaHiS
Looking toward the future, what’s your dream for the next chapter of your musical journey?
I want to work towards releasing a debut album and jumping on a UK tour, hopefully they’re things that aren’t too far off!
What do you hope listeners will discover about you along the way?
I hope they just discover the depth in the music, from the lyrics to the soundtrack. I hope they find comfort and relation, and most of all understanding.
If you want here you can add a representative Youtube video to insert below the interview 🙂
