Figures On A Beach return to ‘Play’ with first new music in 34 years
Pioneering Detroit and Boston synth-pop band link with The Sound Cove for pulsating – and unexpected – new single out Friday, September 19
New track unearthed from Q Division Studios after several decades of dormancy
Explore The Sound Cove on Bandcamp
“It’s a banger of a song, and every bit as fresh and vibrant (if not more so), than it was 34 years ago.” – Garret Vandermolen of The Sound Cove
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Photo Credit: Courtesy of The Sound Cove
BOSTON, Mass. [September 19, 2025] – There was a point in time, specifically as the music and pop culture landscape shifted and the ‘80s became the ‘90s, when the world was not sure what to do with Figures On A Beach. The Detroit-born, Boston-based band were pioneers in their scene, amongst the first to incorporate keyboards in a post-punk context, finding a lane as an artful rock collective that deftly and seamlessly integrated guitars with synthesizers and electronics.
At the time, the Figures On A Beach sound was not the natural fit that decades of context, revivals, and revision would provide; and by 1991, just two years after their self-titled Sire Records sophomore album, the electronic visionaries called it a day. But not before leaving behind a good deal of unreleased and unresolved material.
Nearly 35 years later, as electronic music in all its spectrum of styles has elevated a subculture up to the mainstream, new music from Figures On A Beach has finally emerged from the shadows. On Friday, September 19, Boston digital singles imprint The Sound Cove releases “Play,” a pulsating synth-pop track that serves as a vibrant relic from those final tumultuous years, previously lost to time, circumstance, and a music industry that simply is no more.
“I always thought ‘Play’ summed us up perfectly, including the rock and a hard place we found ourselves at in 1991,” says band co-founder, vocalist, and keyboardist, Anthony Kaczynski. “I very much wanted the band to continue; it had been my identity for virtually all of my adult life, and the lyrics are an exhortation to me and my bandmates to cancel out the noise and just ‘play’.”
Officially the first new Figures On A Beach music in 34 years, which lay dormant at Boston-area studio Q Division in the time since, “Play” not only sounds as potent as anything unveiled during new wave and synth-pop’s so-called ‘80s heyday, but also suggests that the world has finally caught up to the band.
Kaczynski – joined in Figures On A Beach by the classic lineup of Chris Ewen (synthesizers, programming), Rik Rolski (guitars), Michael J.F. Smith (drums); and Perry Tell (bass and guitars) – relays the story about how when “Play” was written and recorded, the band was, as he puts it, “on life support.”
After cutting their teeth on the Detroit club circuit and opening for bands such as Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Ministry, Adam Ant, and others, the band relocated to Boston, where they would sign to Sire and release two albums, which included club and subculture hits like “No Stars,” “Accidentally 4th Street (Gloria),” and an electro version of Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” that dented Billboard’s Top 100, peaking at #67.
The band left Sire, seeking greener pastures, and soon found themselves without a record deal.
“We had recorded a seriously good demo at Downtown Recorders in Boston in 1990 and couldn’t get the buzz going to get a new deal, which was important in those days,” Kaczynski adds. “It’s hard to convey how much the landscape has changed. So we were seen as yesterday’s news, a fate that happens to every group sooner or later, but paradoxically, we were writing great tunes and sounding better than ever, to dwindling results.”
Figures On A Beach took four of their best new songs to the original Q Division on Albany Street in Boston, and recorded the tracks with legendary late engineer Mike Denneen in the summer of 1991.
“[Denneen] made us sound like a million bucks and was a wonderful creative foil and human,” Kaczynski says. “We were more than pleased with the results, but we shopped [the tracks] and once again came up empty.”
Soon Rolski left the group, and shortly after playing around as a quartet, Figures On A Beach broke up.
“We had an EP’s worth of tunes, but no context in which to release them into the world,” Kaczynski laments. “The tapes sat at Q Division for years, until they moved from Somerville and I picked them up-and then they sat in my apartment for another six years. I honestly thought they were going to sit there forever.”
That all changed one night back in February, on a long drive to a gig somewhere in North Carolina. Kaczynski was in the car with Sound Cove founder Garret Vandermolen, a longtime collaborator who had been releasing digital singles from the likes of Happy Little Clouds, Cold Expectations, his own band Speedfossil, and others, including Kaczynski’s Fireking.
Vandermolen and Kaczynski were headed down the East Coast to play a gig as Guided By Choices, Vandermolen’s Guided By Voices cover band that Kaczynski also sang in and fronted (the two also joined forces for Eddie Munoz’ short-lived version of The Plimsouls). Suddenly, somewhere along the endless and unforgiving stretch of highway that is the Jersey Turnpike, Kaczynski asked a question: Wanna hear some unreleased Figures On A Beach music?
“Within 20 seconds of hearing ‘Play’ I could feel his enthusiasm – and, to be honest, mine as well,” Kaczynski recalls.
Vandermolen was floored by it all – the quality and depth of the song, the vitality of the rhythm, and the idea that this had sat lost to time for more than three decades. The world was a different place in 1991, Vandermolen thought, and as post-punk and synth-pop had become more than just a subculture, where bands of the time now play stadiums and songs once relegated to the nightclubs are now heard on daytime TV commercials, a song like this needed to be heard.
“Not only could I not believe how fresh and vibrant the track sounded, it was unfathomable to me that it sat unreleased for 34 years,” Vandermolen admits. “I heard a great pop song – well written, well performed – from a band that was at the top of its game. I blurted out to Anthony, ‘I need to the release this on The Sound Cove, it is fucking excellent!’”
The two got to work, rescuing the quarter-tape final mixes, with assists from Chuck Hargreaves and Ed Valauskas at Q Division, and converted them to WAV files. The rest of the band signed off on The Sound Cove releasing “Play” as a single, and somehow, some way, a previously lost gem was given a chance to finally shine. “Play” will also be included on The Sound Cove Super Sonic Showcase sampler, out in October.
“There are some more mixes on these tapes,” Vandermolen adds, “but that will be a story for another day.”
Until then, Figures On A Beach enter a second life, one unpredicted and admittedly rather sudden. Where the band goes from here is anyone’s guess, but for right now, the thrill of taking “Play” and giving it the attention it could not receive back in 1991 has created a new chapter for the band. And it has a chance to justify a prediction made by Kaczynski’s father all those years ago.
“My dad,” he concludes, “thought it sounded like a hit.”
Media Contact: Direct press and radio inquiries to Michael O’Connor Marotta at michael@knyvet.com; reach Garret Vandermolen of The Sound Cove at thesoundcove@gmail.com.
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Figures On A Beach is:
Chris Ewen: Synthesizers, programming
Anthony Kaczynski: Vocals, keyboards
Rik Rolski: Guitars
Michael J.F. Smith: Drums
Perry Tell: Bass and guitars
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‘Play’ production credits:
Recorded and balanced by Mike Denneen at Q Division, Boston, MA, July 1991
Music written by Ewen, Kaczynski, Rolski, Smith, Tell
Lyrics by Anthony Kaczynski
Copyright 1991 Figures on a Beach
All rights reserved
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‘Play’ single artwork:
Courtesy of The Sound Cove
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Figures On A Beach official bio:
Figures on a Beach, active from 1981 through early 1993, was an artful rock band that deftly and seamlessly integrated guitars with synthesizers and electronics. Ira Robbins from Trouser Press described them as “hard to classify,” but they were an early pioneer in the use of keyboards in a post-punk context in their home town of Detroit, and with the passage of time can be seen as a tributary of the river that brought the world techno.
Formed when Razor 1922, a sadly unrecorded band, changed courses in late 1980, the original lineup parted ways after a handful of gigs in May of 1981, leaving founding members Anthony Kaczynski (vocals/keyboards) and guitarist Rik Rolski to recruit synthesist and keyboardist Chris Ewen and drummer Michael Smith to become one of Detroit’s top bands.
After cutting their teeth on the Detroit club circuit and opening for bands such as Orchestral Manouevres in the Dark, Ministry, The Teardrop Explodes, Adam Ant, and many others, in 1983 FOAB released their first EP “Swimming,” four songs that garnered positive press coverage and college radio play. They brought multi-instrumentalist Perry Tell to the fold in 1984, on the heels of their successful 12-inch “Breathless,” produced by Don Was and mixed by noted NY DJ Ivan Ivan. After releasing “Paradise/In Camera Obscura” in 1985, the band relocated en masse to Boston, and was signed to Sire Records in September of 1986 on the basis of a demo of “No Stars,” which became a centerpiece for their first full-length album, Standing on Ceremony, recorded in London at Trident Studios and released in 1987.
They followed that up with a second self-titled album in 1989 that contained “Accidentally 4th Street (Gloria)” and an electro version of Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” that dented Billboard’s top 100, peaking at #67. They toured the entire country in 1989, but came home to a changing musical climate. The decision was made to leave Sire and search for greener pastures, but after 12 years Figures on a Beach made the difficult decision to disband.
All of the members have remained active musically. Kaczynski has released two albums with his band Fireking, plays in several bands around Boston, and along with Chris Ewen has been a member of The Magnetic Fields since 2016. Ewen has released music as Future Bible Heroes with Magnetic Fields songwriter Stephin Merritt co-writing and performing. Michael Smith has become Smitt E. Smitty and plays with Little Billy Lost and Smitt E. Smitty and The Fezztones. Rik Rolski continues to be a musical explorer, and Perry Tell continues to make music with a variety of projects, including two solo albums.
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‘Play’ lyrics by Anthony Kaczynski
I look the same, but I go by different names
‘Cause people always take control of you
Breathe every secret thing you say or do
I went for a stroll
When I returned I found I’d bartered my soul
Well, people always have their points of view
It’s in what you hear and who you listen to
This heaven’s crumbling down
I am resigned but I’m still around
Hooray!
Let’s never melt away, let’s never waste a day
It’s okay to play, hey, hey, hey
And I roam around town
Make castles of the glorious ruins I have found
Let it never be said and said much to your shame
That all was beauty here before you came
I look the same
But I tend to go by different names
Well, people always take control of you
Breathe every secret thing you say or do
People always take control of you
People try and take control of you
People try and take control of you
Oh, people try and take control
They cling, they grab, they hold
Oh, stop them!
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Press Contact: Michael O’Connor Marotta at michael@knyvet.com
Label Contact: Garret Vandermolen at thesoundcove@gmail.com
THE SOUND COVE: HOMEPAGE . BANDCAMP . INSTAGRAM . FACEBOOK . YOUTUBE . LINKTREE
FIGURES ON A BEACH: WIKIPEDIA . SPOTIFY . APPLE
