Introducing Friends Of Friends

There is plenty of excitement surrounding one of Brisbane’s hottest prospects Friends Of Friends. Friends of Friends are an Australian band making genre-defying music that thrives on contrast, raw yet atmospheric, beautiful yet chaotic, emotionally unfiltered yet sonically bold. Fusing jarring guitars, cinematic textures, and visceral storytelling, the band has built a devoted following through a fearless DIY ethic. Every element of their output right from recording, mixing, video direction, artwork to strategy is handled in-house, often in the band’s own bedroom studios, making them one of the most fully self-contained creative forces in the scene.

At the heart of the project is multi-instrumentalist Barnaby Baker, whose roots in Kent, in England’s southeast, and a taste for Brit-alternative grit drive the band’s sound. Frank Christian adds a global perspective with his Filipino heritage and experimental instrumentation. Anchoring the band is Jess Cameron, whose tour pedigree is exceptional, she’s performed with G-Flip, Hope D, and countless other major Australian acts. They have an impressive resume as well having opened for Kasabian, Sea Girls, The Reytons, Slowly Slowly, and Short Stack. With a rapidly growing fanbase and Spotify streams topping the million mark, they are proving their uncompromising sound resonates far beyond the studio. Barnaby Baker gives Hi Fi Way even greater insight to this hot up and coming band.

It sounds like it’s all happening for the band at the moment. It must be a really exciting time.
Yes, it’s just starting to go our way a little bit more, which is great. I’ve had lots of good momentum this year, and hopefully we can just keep that going.

Do you start to feel a little bit of pressure when you start playing things like industry showcases and things like that?
They definitely carry a bit more pressure, but I think we’re really keen to just show what we can do more than the anxiousness that comes with playing in front of industry people. We’re at a stage where we feel like we’ve got quite a lot to offer now, and it feels good to get up and be like, “Hey, this is what we’ve crafted, enjoy it.” Which is funny, but it’s a good place to be in, I think.

Do you feel like the hard work’s starting to pay off now?
Yep, one hundred percent, because we sort of started just through COVID. Because of that timing, when we first started, we literally couldn’t play or do anything. It’s kind of given us this perpetual energy where we’re really keen to absolutely smash it. It’s been a little while now, so it’s all built up, and we’re just ready. We’re raring to go.

For those that are still new to the band and may not have heard of you before, how did you all meet?
Well, it’s been a funny journey. We literally, it’s quite literally the band name. We were all mutuals of each other and kind of just got thrusted together out of necessity. Frank and I have sort of known each other for a while, but then it was like, “I need some band mates and we want to get this project off the ground,” and then we met Morgan and Jess through other musician friends who said, “Hey, we know some people that might be able to help you out.” So it was very much friends of friends that came together, and it’s kind of become our ethos. We want people that engage with our music to feel like you’re only one step away from us, like you’re literally friends of our friends and we’re all in it together.

Once you all got together, what were those initial jam sessions like when you started feeling your way to see if you had something?
It’s always interesting, because we were kind of put together. For instance, our bassist Jess, we’d only met a few times. There’s that nervous feeling, “are we all gonna get along?” I remember we went on tour with her pretty early, and we were all a bit unsure about each other. When you’re put into high-pressure environments, you either get the absolute best or the absolute worst. We’ve just been so lucky to get the absolute best out of each other, and we’ve all just become best mates, which is great. It’s definitely a little nerve-wracking the first few jam sessions, but we feel like good music and good synergy on stage comes from good relationships. People can feel that in the crowd as well, which is really cool.

Did you start writing songs fairly quickly after those jam sessions?
Yeah, it was pretty quick. A lot of the music gets made in my little home studio. There’s a lot of demoing that we do on our own, then we all meet up and put things together in that space. It almost feels like an online band in a way. Not a lot is written in a jam scenario, instead, the jam room becomes a place to figure out how to translate what we’ve made into something exciting live. It’s flipped, but it works for us.

How would you describe the music of Friends of Friends?
Alot of it is similar and a lot of it is quite different. We’ve got music coming out soon that feels different to each other, almost like our iPod on shuffle. It’s all of our favorite music jammed together, and my voice ties it all together more than it being the same sonically. It has that alternative thing going on, some songs are punky, one’s even a UK garage-y kind of track, but it makes sense when it’s all together. It feels like my favorite playlist.

What are some of the shared influences of the band?
Some of the biggest shared ones are Blink-182, we all grew up obsessed with Blink. We also took inspiration from Placebo and even Nine Inch Nails, which sounds bizarre but it’s all woven in there. And then we all love bands like U2 and Coldplay. Somewhere in that mix is what we do, emotional, punky, gritty DIY vibes but with a pop sheen that feels good.

You’ve had two singles this year, I Like Ya and Attention. You must be stoked with the reaction?
Honestly, we have been blown away. Whether it’s that we’re doing something better online or the music is just hitting differently, we’ve noticed that it’s not just Australia, people in the UK, US, even the Philippines are discovering us. Our fan base overseas is almost taking over our home cities, which is cool. The UK’s been really good to us, we’ve been in Kerrang!, Rock Sound, a few other places, so we’re just going to keep pushing. Seeing people all over the world switching on to us is really exciting.

Do you think you might have to spend more time overseas to build your career, given how tough the scene can be here?
That’s a big conversation we and our peers are having. Australia has been tough lately, with festivals shutting down and fewer opportunities. Overseas offers a bit more of a way to make a career out of music. We’re not in this for the money, but we do want it to be sustainable. The dream is to be able to play everywhere, and those markets really do get behind Australian artists. The beauty of the internet is that we can connect globally now.

Are you building toward an EP or an album?
We’re building toward an EP, which comes out in October. We’ve dropped another single Skin, and the EP will be five tracks including Attention and I Like Ya. It’s a mix of everything we love, almost like a playlist, and probably our most ambitious music so far. I’m really excited to hear what people think.

Will this be your first vinyl release?
Yes! I’m so pumped. Spotify can only go so far, I’ve got a small vinyl collection myself, and I love sitting there with the booklet. Now we want to create that experience for our fans, something physical they can hold and say, “This is my slice of Friends of Friends.”

What’s next for the band after the EP release?
A bit of knuckling down to get the EP finished, then we’re ready to go full steam ahead. We have some shows lined up (not announced yet), and we’re looking overseas and wanting to expand. We’ve got some exciting opportunities coming up that we’ll share when confirmed. Basically, we just want to ride this wave as far as it can go and push as hard as we can.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Friends Of Friends new EP Synthetic Flower Chainsaw is out on October 24. Pre-Order HERE…