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Alternative, indie rock punks FRIEND have not one but three albums to their name, with another album being worked upon currently. A full tour has commenced with the band playing currently right now as well, with a whole lot more music, shows, and tours to follow. See what else the band talked about with us below.
1. Where did you get the idea for the band name, you planned it or did it come out just like that?
My (Josh) legal middle name is Friend. Originally the band was a solo project and when I was trying to pick a name a friend of mine told me I should use my middle name and it stuck.
2. Why did you want to play this genre?
I spent a lot of time recording music before I ever released anything under the name Friend, and the only song that I made that excited me was Lovesick, our first single. I think at the time I was still learning how to record and produce and so the lo-fi garage sound was really accessible and exciting to me based on my influences (early punk rock like Black Flag and Sex Pistols, modern garage like The White Stripes and Mike Krol). It’s hard not to write about politics and how angry the world can make me so a lot of our catalogue just winds up being punk.
3. Did you know each other before the band was formed?
Autumn and Aubrey and I grew up in the same neighborhood in Alexandria, Virginia and became close playing music together in high school. We’ve known each other for a very long time and played music together for fun long before we started playing in a band together.
4. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
We are based out of Philadelphia. The scene here is overflowing with talent and expression. Sometimes it feels like too much, to be honest. There’s so many good shows happening every week that it can be hard to choose one, and can also mean a lot of audiences being pulled in different directions. There are too many good bands to name but I’ll say Wallace Tonight, Shy Godwin, Disaster Artist, Attack Dog, Nysa, Mikie Mayo, Red King, The Angies, and Wax Jaw are ones you can’t miss.
5. Who or what inspires you to write songs?
Politics and current events drive a lot of the songwriting for our punk tracks. It sometimes feels impossible to write about anything else when every day there’s some new horrific and unprecedented event in the news. It would feel wrong to make music that has a “punk sound” but never have anything to say about the injustices we see every day. The farther our country descends into fascism the more important it becomes to use our voice as artists to speak out. I definitely draw inspiration from other media, especially film, when I’m writing lyrics for songs that are more introspective or emotionally driven. Sometimes I’ll see a movie or hear another song or read something in a book that really inspires me to sit down and make something new.
6. What are your songs about? (What specific themes do they cover?)
Obviously anger towards the world and systems of power is a major theme for us, but it feels like the longer we work together and the more mature our songwriting becomes, more of our music is becoming about self-reflection and growing up, figuring out our place in the world.
7. Do you write your own songs? (Discuss the songwriting process in detail.)
We write, record, and produce all of our music ourselves. Usually the songwriting process will start with me writing a guitar part or bass part with some lyrics and a MIDI drum kit and I’ll show it to Autumn and Aubrey and if they like it, they’ll record their own parts and add stuff to it until we’ve got a finished song. Sometimes a song will come together all in one day and sometimes it’s a months/years long process of tweaking and re-recording.
8. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?
We have three albums: Antihero, Mister Nice Guy, and DOG EAT DOG. There are a handful of singles out there (Sun Explosion (Hey Hey), Exterminate, Seventwentyfive) that never made it onto an album, and an EP we put out in March called GOBLIN. We also recorded a split cyberpunk concept album with Disaster Artist called Resurrection in The City of Angels and Androids.
9. Do you have any new music in the works?
We are working on a new album right now. We are hoping to finish up the recording when we get back to our fall tour, we feel like we’ve finalized the trackless (13 songs) and are hoping to have it out as soon as possible. Might be a minute though.
10. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?
We’re touring the whole USA this fall. Hoping to go international as soon as we can, but we’re currently booking everything ourselves and touring overseas requires a ton of planning and coordination so it’s still a bit of a pipe dream at the moment.
11. What plans do you have for the future as a band?
Continue writing music and playing live! For as long as we can.
12. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
We are on all streaming services, and you can purchase our records online! Our first two records, Antihero and Mister Nice Guy are available on phamelessrecords.com and our third album DOG EAT DOG is available at bornlosersrecords.com. Our records are also in a couple record stores in the Philadelphia and DC areas (Latchkey Records, Creep Records in Philly and Byrdhouse Records in DC.)
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