In Conversation with Friend
Interview by Aiden Nelson
Instagram: @viv.perspective
I got the chance to sit down with two thirds of self-proclaimed “goblin punk” band Friend, before attending their show at a small DIY venue in Philadelphia.
The first thing I noticed when I met with lead vocalist/guitarist Josh Turner and backing vocalist/bassist Matt Evans – both 22 – was how nice they were. It sounds silly, but they immediately radiated good vibes and a positive welcoming energy as we sat down outside a coffee shop.
Friend has been making a name for themselves in the Philadelphia DIY scene and beyond since 2021, when their first single “Lovesick” was released. The band has since garnered almost 70,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and over 60,000 followers on TikTok. Friend’s first album, entitled Antihero was released in 2021, which was followed by sophomore album Mister Nice Guy, released this past July.
Friend originally started as Turner’s solo project, but as he began to play live he asked his two friends, the aforementioned Evans and a drummer named Aubrey Blount, to play with him. The trio all grew up in Northern Virginia making music since their youth.
Evans said they’ve been playing music since fourth grade.
“I fell in love with low, deep sounds so I was like I want to play bass,” they said. Turner wanted to learn Green Day songs, so their brother showed them how to find bass tabs online.
“I used to print out bass tabs. I had a fat stack that sat in my room and I would play easy songs… it was just learning to play like that, doing everything over and over again,” they said.
Turner said he was introduced to guitar when he was five in kindergarten. His teacher brought one in and the instrument “mesmerized” him. Soon after this he received one as a gift, but he didn’t start playing for real until 8th grade when he took a guitar class through his middle school.
In high school, both Evans and Turner didn’t get into the school production of American Idiot as actors but were asked if they could play music for it.
“They told me I just can’t sing Green Day and being the biggest Green Day fan, I was broken…at least [playing in the pit] gave me a reason to play more Green Day,” joked Evans.
They both mention this experience of playing in the American Idiot pit as their first foray into playing together. Although the pair have been playing music together since their high school theater days, Turner and Blount technically played together in infancy.
“I actually just found this out, we were in a baby music class together,” he said. “There was like a Mommy and Me music class when we were infants, so I guess me and Aubrey have played together since we were like nine months old.”
When discussing genre, the band said that they make “a fun little bridge” between old school punk and newer genres of music such as hyperpop and pop punk. Their music is interjected with nostalgia for bands like The Sex Pistols and Black Flag. They’ve even been compared to the fictional bands from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Which they’ve leaned into by playing “Threshold” from the film during some of their shows. With a wide variety of influences, their sound is both familiar and unique to them.
“We’re all really big nerds,” said Evans when asked about the self-descriptor of ‘goblin punk’. “We love D&D and Magic the Gathering, we’re all super into that… [goblin punk] is a way we describe how we feel when we’re playing.”
The term was heavily inspired by the album The Rainbow Goblins by Masayoshi Tanaka, which, according to Turner, is: “progressive funk jazz fusion… it’s basically a children’s book turned concept album about goblins that eat rainbows.”
Evans then made a Lord of the Rings reference, saying that the scene with the orcs climbing all over each other in Mordor is what they want the mosh pits at Friend shows to look like. According to them, shows are disgusting, which adds to the goblin energy. Matt said that at shows, “everyone is super sweaty, it smells really bad, it’s hot and there’s always no A/C… we feel like goblins while we’re playing.”
“That’s something we love about the Philly scene,” said Turner. “Everyone all together, just sweaty and disgusting.”
That’s something that came up a lot: the band’s love for the Philadelphia DIY scene, the sense of community there is. They even recommended several bands from Philadelphia to check out—Disaster Artist, Wallace Tonight, Lisa, and Attack Dog to name a few.
As great as the community within the scene seems to be, like every DIY music space there are issues. “Everyone does try to keep it a safe space, but it’s a big city. There’s a lot of [age groups] getting mushed in and out,” explained Evans.
As someone who’s experienced first-hand the abuse apology in DIY music scenes, I was blown away by how active Friend is in creating and keeping a safe environment at the shows they play at. Turner mentioned the power hierarchies at work in the scene, how people who run venues or play in established bands are less likely to be held accountable for their actions. “A lot of people get away with a lot of shit,” he noted. “We gotta break the cycle…we’re trying to keep the scene a community and part of that is holding each other accountable.”
They mentioned how they try to advocate for a safer scene, and a part of that is dropping from shows or having other bands be dropped from shows.
“We can’t ask people to be around someone we don’t think is safe… we don’t want anyone to come see us and be put in an unsafe situation,” he added.
In a similar vein, as we chatted it became apparent that abortion rights are an important issue to Friend. For one, one of the first links on the Linktree in their Instagram bio is for abortion resources. And after the overturning of Roe v. Wade this year, Friend started playing a cover of “Mother” by IDLES at their shows. While not explicitly about abortion, the song is about violence against women, with lyrics that are unequivocally anti-rape. Playing this song was “cathartic,” according to Turner, “we’re all angry about this stuff, and we don’t even have uteruses, and we’re white, I can’t imagine what it’s like for anyone who isn’t in our position of privilege.”
The band being so socially conscious was refreshing.
When I asked if they thought punk was dead, the answer was an immediate and resounding “No!” in unison, followed by, “punk’s not dead, it’s just evolved.”
Turner elaborated, “punk isn’t dead just because Black Flag isn’t playing … punk has never died, punk will always be around as long as people are making music that is anti-authoritarian.”
And anti-authoritarian is a perfect phrase to describe Friend. Their latest album, Mister Nice Guy, has a song entitled “No Room for Pigs in Heaven”. Every time they play the song at shows, it’s dedicated to the local police department. While they’ve never received backlash to their face, according to Evans, they have gotten into some precarious situations.
This past summer, Friend played a show at a bar in Bay Ridge in Brooklyn only to notice a Blue Lives Matter flag on the wall, as well as various other pro-cop memorabilia throughout the bar—it was a cop bar. After a moment of deliberation in the band, the consensus was: “abso-fucking-lutely we’re playing ‘No Room for Pigs in Heaven’!”
They proceeded to dedicate the song to the NYPD which was met with cheers, but as they began to play the song itself – with some of the noteworthy lyrics being “no room for pigs in heaven, fuck ‘em all and their Klansmen brethren” and “it’s a barbeque, bring your gasoline, we’re gonna torch these suckers” – some patrons walked out. The band notes that other groups may not have been able to walk away from that show unscathed.
“We’re really privileged,” said Turner, speaking of the band’s whiteness. “We can get away with more.”
He spoke of how it’s important that Friend utilizes their privilege for good, to get their messages out there and be a force for change, saying: “we gotta radicalize these kids.”
The band’s privilege doesn’t absolve them from all hate, however, some of that being transphobia. Matt brought up their experience of being on tour in the south in early September.
“I prefer to wear dresses when we play, [performing] is hot, and it’s just how I like to express myself,” they said. “But on tour, I didn’t feel as comfortable doing so… I just don’t know if I can just walk around [in those southern cities] in a dress. Even in Philly I’ve had someone throw a drink at me…it’s disgusting that it happens, but I hope for a future where I can express myself however I want at shows and feel safe.”
Turner interjected with hopes that the band is setting a good example, saying that he “hopes there’s kids that see Matt wearing a dress during sets and are like ‘oh sick I can wear a dress!’”
Even with the transphobia and subsequent anxiety that comes from touring, playing live is something the band finds surreal.
“Hearing people sing along always blows my mind,” said Evans. They then spoke of how nice everyone they met on tour was, especially the fans—one group even gave the band a Magic the Gathering card as a nod to the band’s love for the game.
Turner brought up how he got emotional on the drive between cities. He said, “It’s crazy that we write this music and pour our hearts out into it and people connect with it…the connection of live music in a room is so special.”
Make no mistake, touring isn’t easy. There’s long drives and lots of fast food, and playing show after show can be straining. Evans blew out their voice doing screams on tour and Aubrey had to step in as backing vocalist.
According to Turner, the band “wants to give people a glimpse into the DIY independent artist lifestyle… touring and making no money is a really common experience, but it’s not a common conception that people have…[being a musician] is a grind.”
Despite all the hard work, sweat, spilled beer, and blown out voices, the band can’t help but love what they do. “It’s our favorite thing and we love it so it’s worth it,” Turner said. “We’re really grateful to be where we are.”
A few hours after we wrapped up the interview, I got the chance to see Friend—along with a handful of other very talented musicians—play a set at The Haven. The set was electrifying, with a mosh pit of people screaming along in full swing—the goblin energy was off the charts.
Friend is a talented band composed of some truly socially aware and articulate musicians. They were great to talk to, and their performance only solidified Mister Nice Guy as one of my favorites in the genre. If you like goblins and punk music and sticking it to the man, check out Friend – they may just be your next unproblematic fave.
