Interview by Meghan Killimade
Tell us about A Former Friend – what’s the history of the band, who are the members and how did you all come together?
A Former Friend was really born in the wake of the first Trump election.
The songwriting and sound had been changing since we left Phoenix. I became heavily influenced by the time we spent in the South during a wildly morphing political zeitgeist and the tunes that were emerging leaned heavily on a rich history of American songwriting. Having grown up on punk rock and hip hop when I was young, I was finding a new inspiration at a pivotal time in the elements that combined to form rock and roll almost 100 years ago. I wanted to travel back to a time before genre distinctions where Hank Williams and Cole Porter did not seem so diametrically opposed. Finding artistic intersections became the motivation for my musical pursuit and A Former Friend seemed like a great vehicle to forward that pursuit through a modern lens.
Then the pandemic hit, and for me, like so many others, it hit very hard. We were fortunate. Everyone in our family was safe, we hunkered down together, nobody got sick and there was no loss of life. But the loss of live music was not something I had ever considered so it came as quite a shock when this thing that I have spent decades doing almost every night all over the country and even the world just stopped. This loss clearly paled in comparison to the suffering that people all around us were dealing with.
So that sets the stage for the release of our first album. While public outcry over the death of George Floyd reached a fever pitch and a mob of insurrectionists took over our halls of Congress at the behest of a tyrant, I decided to quietly release a record. After it was safe to return to the world, Amanda and I bought a house in New London where we quickly found friends and started playing out again.
Since then, we’ve really found our dream band. We had already been playing with Nick D’Olimpio (guitar, mandolin, keys) up in Worcester for quite a while but when we moved to New London, we immediately met Aaron Kane (fiddle) and Danny Fleet (drums). Not too long after that Peter Gaulin joined the band on Bass and we have been complete since then.
For folks that aren’t familiar, describe the kind of music you’re creating and what your songwriting process is like?
I’m very focused on intersections in music. Punk rock was a liberating force for me at a very young age and that’s really where my musical journey began. Since then I’ve always had very eclectic tastes and have gathered influences from almost every genre of music. At least every pop genre.
The sound of A Former Friend began with my interest in the foundations of modern pop that really pre-date pop genres. Going back about a hundred years ago or so Hank Williams wasn’t really so different than Cole Porter. I see a lineage in character driven songwriting and performance that extends from Louis Armstrong to Nina Simone to Tom Waits and I saw this character that was stewing in my head as part of that tradition.
This is not to say that any of those artists I just mentioned are derivative. In fact, they are all incredibly unique, but they overlap in sound and effect. I wanted to focus on their commonalities as a way to share my perspective through a modern lens. I am not unaffected by current events. None of us are. I don’t feel like it’s my job as an artist to make declarations as much as it is to ask questions and that, combined with musical experimentation, has served as the basis for my songwriting process in A Former Friend.
How did the band name come about?
Amanda and I had played in a band called Former Friends of Young Americans since around 2008 or so. Former Friends of Young Americans (or FFOYA) was kind of a collective based in Phoenix, Az with rotating members that had a much different sound than AFF. We were a shoegaze band but we often joked that we were "bootgaze" because we bore hints of the country and southwestern psychedelic sounds that we were influenced by. That band toured frequently throughout the U.S. and was signed to a label out of San Francisco called 20 Sided Records.
In 2014 the two of us (Amanda and Toby) got married and moved to Kentucky. We were just north of Nashville, so we quickly put a band together and continued to play out often as FFOYA for a couple more years. We continued to frequently across the U.S. and abroad in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. In 2018 we relocated once again to Connecticut and that’s when I started to play out regularly as A Former Friend.
What are some bands/musicians you’ve been listening to recently or who inspire/motivate you?
Aside from who I’ve already mentioned, my label mates Brian Gore and The Tender Fritters and Nick D’Olimpio both have albums that are worthy of staying on repeat. We just played with Lung from Cincinnati and Carrie Nation and the Speakeasy from Wichita at Oasis. Both were incredible.
You have a new album out ‘Songs of Dubious Persuasion’ – tell us about the inspiration behind the songs as well as the recording process and where it was recorded!
After moving to New London and connecting with this amazing group of musicians and friends I felt energized to join the world again (so to speak). We started to play out often and hit the road regularly, touring across the U.S. and Canada. Having spent some difficult time soul-searching while removed from much of society, it was nice to finally engage again. This really allowed me and my bandmates to connect personally while we gelled musically.
I knew I wanted to capture this momentum on our next album by recording some live sessions, so we scheduled some time with Brad Bensko at Bearded Cat Productions in Mystic. It was important to me to get some good analog recordings of the rhythm section straight to tape to capture the fullness, warmth and energy of our live chemistry. We did two full day sessions with Brad over the course of a year to track what would become the skeleton for the new album, Songs of Dubious Persuasion. After that I spent about a year mixing and doing overdubs at my place.
What we landed on was a collection of songs gathered over the years through people, places and experiences that might be considered dubious by troglodytes. In a world led by autocrats who baldly lie about the most obvious things, it’s easy to forget that sometimes, in order to shine light on the truth you have to look for it in the darkest recesses. Songs of Dubious Persuasion is kind of my reminder of that.
What is one song off the album you feel will resonate most with listeners and why?
I’m sorry there’s not just one song because it’s an album and that’s not the point. It is a collection of songs that we hope will resonate with different listeners for different reasons. It is bookended with short ambient, mostly vocal tunes that only feature me and Amanda. The rest of it is what I hope to be a bit of a roller coaster. “If you love me (you won’t move me to Texas)” is our attempt at a barn burner while the next track, “Something Beautiful” is a problematic love song to music. “The Devil From Laredo” pays homage to the Marty Robbin’s tune “Streets of Laredo” as it tells the tale of an old west gun fight from the perspective of the assailant. The stories of grifters and ne’er-do-wells continue with songs like “Band-Aid’s and Bondo”, “Girl” and “Self-Made Man” while the song “Old Fashioned RnR” attempts to offer a suggestion for what to do as the world around us collapses.
What are some of your favorite venues to play (here and out of town)?
33 Golden is a gem. One of the most honest venues I’ve ever played and I love it. But honestly, they’re all great. The Comet in Cincinatti is great. The original basement in Nashville, Tidballs (RIP) in Bowling Green, Silvana in New York, Three Sheets in New Haven, The 806 in Amarillo, Bovine Sex Club in Toronto… all incredible places to play and see a show. I might not understand the question lol.
You’ll be teaming up with My Druthers for a joint album release show on October 4 at 33 in New London – what can we expect from the show?
We are so excited about this dual album release party with My Druthers. Those guys are the best and they will have a new full-length vinyl (their first I believe) available to pick up that night as will we. We are kind of a great fit with that band even though, stylistically we’re quite different. We both kind of hail from punk rock roots that have guided our approach to music and neither band seems to take themselves too seriously despite how heavy-handed a certain one of us can be at times (and by “one of us” I definitely mean me). And to have CVMRATS open up is just another bonus. They are a killer dark folk band that I was immediately taken with.
You also head the independent record label Vox Hall Records – what was the drive behind creating the label and what artists are you currently representing?
Yeah. So, our album is being put out by a label I just started called Vox Hall Records. The first release on that label was 'That Fine Space Southwest' by Brian Gore and The Tender Fritters a couple months ago, and we have several more projects we’re excited to release in the coming months. The label was formed with the collective intent to provide support for working classes artists with unique voices. You can visit us at voxhallrecords.net to see listen to releases and see our current roster.
What’s coming up next for A Former Friend?
After the album release AFF has a couple shows before the end of the year but we plan to take it easy as we’ll be hitting 2026 pretty hard. Our first tour of the new year kicks off at the end of January and takes us down south and up the mid-west before returning home in early March. After that we’ll be hitting the road again in late spring and throughout the summer before setting our sites on Europe in fall of 2026.
FOLLOW
https://www.justaformerfriend.com/
https://www.facebook.com/aformerfriendandfriends
https://www.instagram.com/justaformerfriend/
https://voxhallrecords.bandcamp.com
https://www.voxhallrecords.net/
Vox Hall Records on Facebook
CATCH THE SHOW
Sat 10/4 @ Telegraph Autonomous Zone
137 Bank Street - New London
1-4pm / All Ages / Donations
w/ Brisa Azul
James Burke
Sat 10/4 @ 33 Golden
33 Golden Street - New London
8pm / $10 / 21+
w/ My Druthers
Cvmrats
Facebook Event Page
Fri 10/31 @ The Diamond
53 Bank Street - New London
8pm
LISTEN