FRIENDS OF FRIENDS SHARE NEW SINGLE ‘ATTENTION’
Having cut their teeth opening for beloved acts such as Kasabian, Sea Girls, The Reytons, Slowly Slowly, Short Stack and many more, Friends of Friends have already built a widespread and dedicated fanbase, amassing over 1.1 million streams on Spotify, across only singles and their debut EP REAL LIFE, RIGHT NOW (2024). Sharing stages with the likes of Post Malone and The Wombats at festivals including Spilt Milk, BIGSOUND, SXSW Sydney and Easy Lover, and with Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park singing their praises at their showcase in Brisbane, Friends of Friends maintain a reputation as even more exhilarating of a live band as what they are on record.
Drawing from the emotional whiplash and toll that the 24/7 media overload tends to inflict on our minds and spirits, frontman Barnaby Baker expressed how important it was that the finished track would be “part attention-seeking anthem, part prophetic meltdown”. On this gloomy endeavour into Attention as a concept, and as something that is both personal and yet universal, necessary and yet overwhelming, too much and yet never enough, Baker articulates a sense of ire, stating:
“It’s not a sad song. It’s furious, disillusioned, ironic, a bit fun-poking and hyper-aware. It’s the sound of someone who’s been told to be grateful, to calm down, to ‘go outside and touch grass’ – but who knows deep down that something real is missing. And maybe it’s already too late. Or maybe it’s not – and screaming about it is the last real thing left.” BARNABY, FRIENDS OF FRIENDS
Tenacious in their DIY ethic, the band wrote, recorded and engineered the track entirely amongst themselves, with additional mastering from Steve Smart (Ocean Alley, Middle Kids, Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers, King Stingray).
“It’s a long, sometimes exhausting process, but the feeling of creative control is unparalleled. We didn’t have to compromise on a single detail. This is the first time we’ve done absolutely everything ourselves, and it’s exactly what we wanted. It feels authentically like a Friends of Friends track because we poured so much of ourselves into it – there’s no middleman, no outside influence; it’s just pure, unfiltered us.” BARNABY, FRIENDS OF FRIENDS
Enlivened by the experience of having shaped the project from its genesis up to its very final form, Barnaby (vocals, guitar), joined by Frank Christian (guitar), Morgan Blake (drums), and the clan’s newest member Jess Cameron (bass), have produced something unmistakably authentic to the Friends of Friends sound, mood and soul.
