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Sonia of Weakenend Friends · Caught on the Mike...

0:00
SPEAKER_02: Disclaimer, the views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent.
0:11
SPEAKER_02: Listener discretion is advised.
0:32
SPEAKER_02: Don't like a cow, we don't like double.
0:40
SPEAKER_02: And the kind of bottom dialogue, a lot of us are moving inside.
0:44
SPEAKER_02: We talk about reflecting self-centered tip.
0:49
SPEAKER_02: And what it means to scream for something better.
0:52
SPEAKER_02: We numb this we don't like to default.
0:55
SPEAKER_02: Tonya opens up about creative burnout, reclaiming freedom and songwriting.
1:00
SPEAKER_02: And why this record had to be made fast, loud, and without looking back.
1:06
SPEAKER_02: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Caught on the Mike.
1:14
SPEAKER_02: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Caught on the Mike at a time when so much music feels numb, whispered, and just quiet.
1:25
SPEAKER_02: Weekend friends are doing the exact opposite: screaming with a purpose.
1:31
SPEAKER_02: Their latest record feels like hell is raw, it's urgent, and it's a release of energy that pushes back against apathy, burnout, and modern nihilism.
1:41
SPEAKER_02: Today we're talking about impulse over perfection, screaming through the apocalypse, and how freedom became the loudest sound on this album.
1:51
SPEAKER_02: I am joined today by with my Sonia from Weekend Friends.
1:55
SPEAKER_02: How the heck are you?
1:56
SPEAKER_01: Good.
1:57
SPEAKER_01: Uh we drove 40 hours from Portland, Maine to Phoenix, Arizona to start tour.
2:01
SPEAKER_01: Uh we're touring on the West Coast, and today's rehearsal day shows start tomorrow.
2:05
SPEAKER_01: So it's a little hectic because I also I also tour manage for us.
2:09
SPEAKER_01: So I'm kind of trying to spearhead a bunch of things right now.
2:11
SPEAKER_01: But good.
2:12
SPEAKER_01: Overall, good.
2:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
2:14
SPEAKER_02: 40-hour trip.
2:15
SPEAKER_02: I've made so I'm in Lincoln, Nebraska.
2:17
SPEAKER_02: I've made the drive from Lincoln to Orlando, and that's 17 hours on its own.
2:23
SPEAKER_02: I can't imagine the hell of being in a vehicle for that long.
2:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's a lot.
2:29
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Annie and I, the two of us, did it, and the boys flew in.
2:32
SPEAKER_01: Um, and we just kind of, you know, listened to a lot of music, and we're used to it by now, just like touring your driving all the time.
2:39
SPEAKER_01: But four back-to-back, like 10, 12 hour days is a vibe.
2:44
SPEAKER_01: We did stop.
2:46
SPEAKER_01: We went to we went to see the petrified national national forest yesterday.
2:51
SPEAKER_01: We saw a UFO in New Mexico and uh like an active UFO.
2:56
SPEAKER_02: No kidding.
2:56
SPEAKER_02: Where were you at?
2:57
SPEAKER_01: We were like driving, it was like maybe two and a half hours east of Albuquerque and off I-40.
3:05
SPEAKER_01: And then there's just like this orb glowing in the sky that wasn't moving, and just kind of like weird, shot off this like weird mist and had these thrusters.
3:15
SPEAKER_01: Post the video, it's been a whole thing.
3:17
SPEAKER_01: We've been like put it on social media, it's kind of been like its whole one thing.
3:20
SPEAKER_01: But uh, I guess people are trying to debunk it with it being SpaceX, but which is like still spooky and still still a vibe considering all things.
3:29
SPEAKER_01: But uh, we yeah, we um we just did it and uh we saw it and we took this video of it and we were like freaking out because we're like, oh my god, in the UFO, we're in New Mexico.
3:37
SPEAKER_01: But uh yeah, who knows?
3:39
SPEAKER_01: You choose to believe if you do.
3:40
SPEAKER_02: I am gonna totally derail this whole podcast.
3:43
SPEAKER_02: When I was a kid, I lived in Albuquerque for like three, four years.
3:47
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
3:47
SPEAKER_02: And the amount of weird phenomenon I saw as a child, like to this day, I still cannot get over.
3:56
SPEAKER_02: When I was uh, I think it was third or fourth grade, I was in an elementary school, and the school that I went to overpopulated, so they brought in all these army barracks, so a lot of classrooms took place in these army barracks.
4:09
SPEAKER_02: Well, we had the fire alarm go off one time, and they gathered all the kids out.
4:13
SPEAKER_02: We stood in a gigantic circle around the basketball courts, and they had what they call the sun dog up in the air, and it looked like the sun had replicated itself like 10 or 11 times throughout the sky.
4:26
SPEAKER_02: And to this day, I have found no record of it.
4:29
SPEAKER_02: I've like have not seen any other phenomenon similar to it, but that's just one small example of the bizarre shit I saw in Albuquerque as a kid.
4:40
SPEAKER_01: That's wild.
4:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean it's it's an area of like general, I feel like high strangeness when it comes to you know, yes, all that stuff.
4:47
SPEAKER_01: But uh I it was we were just pumped.
4:48
SPEAKER_01: We're like, this is so cool.
4:50
SPEAKER_01: I was kind of freaking out.
4:50
SPEAKER_01: I was like, what is it?
4:52
SPEAKER_01: And like, I don't know whether it's you know, military or air force or SpaceX or an alien, it was definitely beyond my comprehension of like aircrafts, which is not much because I'm I'm you know, I'm not in that world, but uh it was definitely entertaining and it's been it's been a whole thing, it's been a whole uh experience.
5:12
SPEAKER_01: So that made the 40-hour drive feel a little less crazy or more crazy.
5:15
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
5:16
SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
5:17
SPEAKER_02: That is amazing.
5:18
SPEAKER_02: So let's start at the beginning.
5:20
SPEAKER_02: How did weekend friends form and what drew you together as a band in Portland, Maine, not Oregon?
5:27
SPEAKER_01: Not Oregon.
5:28
SPEAKER_02: Back in 2015.
5:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I was um I was in another band and I'd been writing some like songs like over the summer.
5:37
SPEAKER_01: Well, originally like to start, I'm from Toronto, I'm from Canada.
5:40
SPEAKER_01: I through touring with that other band, found Portland, Maine, and was out there a lot playing shows and like touring the east coast of the United States, which was like probably the most handy area to Toronto as far as like the states goes with touring, or felt like it at the time.
5:55
SPEAKER_01: Um and so I was like, I'm gonna spend a summer just like writing songs and making music, and Portland's such a pretty little town.
6:03
SPEAKER_01: And I was with another band, and when I started writing some music, it was like obvious that it wasn't gonna work for that project.
6:09
SPEAKER_01: And I didn't know if I want to do like a solo venture or just kind of like do my own thing.
6:13
SPEAKER_01: And there was just like a bunch of personal reasons that band wasn't really working.
6:16
SPEAKER_01: And what would become weekend friends was just like this like handful of songs I created over that summer I was spending in Portland, specifically to just be creative and make music.
6:24
SPEAKER_01: And uh eventually it was like this is gonna be its own thing.
6:28
SPEAKER_01: That's when I met Annie or through touring, met Annie, who's in another band, and had asked her to like play bass on the project.
6:35
SPEAKER_01: And it really just stuck.
6:36
SPEAKER_01: We really like liked it and were having a lot of fun, and then Portland kind of became home.
6:40
SPEAKER_01: It was, I mean, this was 2015, 2014, and I feel like Portland, Maine was like this like very affordable, very artsy community, and not to say it's not an artsy community anymore.
6:52
SPEAKER_01: Affordable, it's definitely not anymore.
6:53
SPEAKER_02: And uh so I felt really yeah, exactly.
6:57
SPEAKER_01: And so at the time, unlike Toronto, where like everything was getting so expensive and it was really hard to be an artist in that city, at least like I was feeling like burnt out there.
7:06
SPEAKER_01: This like small town kind of called to me.
7:08
SPEAKER_01: It was like on the ocean, it's really pretty, and it just felt it felt really cute and really unique.
7:13
SPEAKER_01: So we we made that home home base and kind of kept the band there and have kept doing it since.
7:19
SPEAKER_02: So is there a story behind the name?
7:22
SPEAKER_02: Does it reflect a philosophy or personal experience early on in the band's life?
7:26
SPEAKER_01: No, it's just the worst band name.
7:28
SPEAKER_01: That's a story.
7:29
SPEAKER_01: We we all hate it.
7:31
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
7:32
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of it's one of those names.
7:34
SPEAKER_01: Like I can't I came up with it because like a friend of mine said, Yeah, like my friend, my friend John's coming to visit.
7:40
SPEAKER_01: I remember I was with my friend Chris and he was like, And my friend's John John's coming to visit for a little bit.
7:44
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Oh, like is he like a good friend?
7:46
SPEAKER_01: And he was like, No, like he's just kind of like you know, like a weekend friend, like someone you just kind of would hang out with on the weekends, but you weren't really like close friends with.
7:53
SPEAKER_01: And I had heard it as saying like a weekended friend, like, oh, he's not that great of a friend, he's like a weakened friend.
7:58
SPEAKER_01: And I it was like my misunderstanding of the term a weekend friend, which now people misunderstand our band name and think it's weekend, like Friday, Saturday, Sunday, but it's weekend, like her.
8:09
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, sorry, there's been slamming doors happening because I'm in a van.
8:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it kind of just stuck, and I like had sent it over to Annie to see if she liked it, and I think she just liked me, so um, she okayed it, and then it was the band name, and now we're kind of just like uh yeah, that's that now the toothpaste is out of the tube, and and you're kind of stuck with it, right?
8:30
SPEAKER_01: We're kind of just stuck with it, dude.
8:31
SPEAKER_02: I went through that so many times with so many bands I was in.
8:35
SPEAKER_02: I think the last band I was in, we sat there and argued over like three pages worth of band names on a notebook, and then we settled on this like the name this name of an obscure Star Wars character, and we're like, all right, we're rolling with it.
8:49
SPEAKER_02: One year into that band, we absolutely hated it.
8:52
SPEAKER_02: And we're like, why did we do this?
8:54
SPEAKER_01: What character?
8:54
SPEAKER_01: Not that I'm a Star Wars.
8:56
SPEAKER_02: Aura Singh, she's a female bounty hunter and she's a total badass.
9:00
SPEAKER_01: Aura Sing.
9:01
SPEAKER_01: I bet Adam, our drummer, would know he's a Star Wars nerd, so but that's cool.
9:05
SPEAKER_01: It's good, it's still better than weekend friends, I think.
9:07
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm not bad.
9:09
SPEAKER_02: I love your band name.
9:10
SPEAKER_02: I love your band name, I love the implication, I love the spelling.
9:14
SPEAKER_02: Like, I love everything about it.
9:16
SPEAKER_01: But that's very kind, moreover.
9:18
SPEAKER_02: I love your sound.
9:19
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
9:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
9:21
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
9:22
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I like our sound more than our band name.
9:25
SPEAKER_01: But uh, I'm happy, I'm happy it resonates with you.
9:27
SPEAKER_01: I it's uh it's it's uh yeah, you know, people like it.
9:32
SPEAKER_01: I it's it is what it is, it's the name, it's what it's staying until we're not a thing anymore.
9:37
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, as I I was telling you right before we started recording, I'd listen to Lightspeed off your latest album, Feels Like Hell, on repeat this morning.
9:47
SPEAKER_02: I mean your sound bridges like these alt-rock vibes with a modern indie energy.
9:51
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, how has your music evolved from common blah to quitter and now feels like hell?
9:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so with common blah again, those are just those like songs I initially wrote.
10:02
SPEAKER_01: They were super lax, like, well, not we had we had a couple EPs before, I guess they weren't the initial songs, but it was kind of just we went in, we put out these EPs, and then there was like a bulk of songs written, and we went into the studio with the idea to just like demo them and see what we're we had, and then that just became the record.
10:19
SPEAKER_01: So it was super lax, super quick, super easy, just like a fun record.
10:23
SPEAKER_01: With Quitter, we kind of got into the trenches with it.
10:25
SPEAKER_01: It was COVID, and I we had just um parted ways with our our initial original drummer, and um now Adam, who drums for us, had joined the just joined the band.
10:38
SPEAKER_01: And I think we were just in this point where we we wanted to really prove to ourselves that we could like really make like an album that set itself apart and like that we really dive into, and I think we over-tweezed it.
10:48
SPEAKER_01: It kind of became one of those albums where I felt like everything was just like pulled apart a little too hard.
10:53
SPEAKER_01: And then with the new record with Bills Like Hell, I think we took the skills we like needed from doing quitter and becoming a better band and touring more and just generally just like being better at our craft.
11:04
SPEAKER_01: But I we went back to like the ethos of common blah with that really jovial and like free energy where it was less about perfection and more about just chasing a vibe and having fun and just making a record that felt like us and that felt good, and just like you know, playing the songs and writing the songs that were like, hell yeah, I'd want to like listen to this and I'd want to like, you know, listen to this record and have fun with it versus like being too overly critical and overly like tweezing the record, I guess.
11:35
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I think we learned a little bit of everything in the process.
11:38
SPEAKER_01: It's definitely my favorite records.
11:40
SPEAKER_02: You know, I overanalyze this.
11:42
SPEAKER_02: I you know, I started this podcast during the peak of COVID.
11:46
SPEAKER_02: So it's a theme that I come back to commonly because I think we're always feeling the aftershocks of that experience that we all had together.
11:56
SPEAKER_02: Do you think the tweezing that you talked about with Quitter was a result of some of the isolationism that kind of came along with the whole COVID experience?
12:06
SPEAKER_01: For sure.
12:06
SPEAKER_01: And everything went away, so you just kind of were in a vacuum of time.
12:10
SPEAKER_01: You had so much time.
12:11
SPEAKER_01: Um, Annie, who is an incredible producer and engineer, who's engineer or bassist as well and has engineered and produced all of our records, I think it kind of just spent spell uh kind of sent her like ADHD perfectionist brain into like a spiral.
12:26
SPEAKER_01: And it was I she was just just like we needed it to be perfect, and it's kind of that idea that perfect is the enemy of good, you know what I mean?
12:35
SPEAKER_01: And it became like I think it's a good record, but it was it was hard to make.
12:39
SPEAKER_01: And again, like a learning, like she's grown so much since even then, and she has this great knowledge of like engineering and and recording music, but I I think in the production world of things, she's learned so much in the sense of like you just kind of have to let the you know the vibe happen and and and not be too overly critical.
13:00
SPEAKER_01: Like where I feel like engineering and production can be two separate worlds.
13:03
SPEAKER_01: When you're engineering something, you are like very precise, it's very like methodical and you're you're diving into every detail where production is just like ideas and like like environment and attitude, and you're almost like you're when you're a producer, you're you're almost becoming like a cheerleader slash coach for the whole project.
13:21
SPEAKER_01: And she really fell into that role on the new record, and and it was really incredible because we were just working together and like write, actually writing together, which was cool for the first time.
13:31
SPEAKER_01: Like she was she came in as co-writer, and it was just this really free environment that felt like it was is really creative and and didn't have that like tedium and that like you know need for perfection necessarily, which I loved.
13:44
SPEAKER_01: It was really fun.
13:45
SPEAKER_02: You know, so much of what you say strikes a chord with me between all the interviews that I do with other artists, my own personal experience, you know, extract the whole socio-political BS that is going on in the world now and kind of has been going on for a while now.
14:05
SPEAKER_02: You extract that from the equation.
14:08
SPEAKER_02: D did feel like 2025 was kind of like a large reset button from the COVID experience.
14:16
SPEAKER_02: And I I know mental health-wise as well, even for myself personally.
14:20
SPEAKER_02: Did you feel like feels like hell was that reset button for you after kind of releasing Quitter and kind of the experience after that?
14:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, definitely.
14:31
SPEAKER_01: And I I I think it was like when we were writing it, especially in 2024, I felt this new reset in general.
14:36
SPEAKER_01: You know, in the wake of Quitter, there were like a lot of moments where I actually ironically thought about going in a different direction and and not pursuing music in this capacity, like the touring and you know, career side of music.
14:50
SPEAKER_01: And I had like a really terrible writer's block and things just felt really strange.
14:54
SPEAKER_01: And we were touring a lot, like not directly after Quitter because of COVID, but like once things kind of, you know, opened back up in 2022, parts of 2021, like we were constantly on tour and we were like, you know, really grinding that, and it it kind of got a little overwhelming for me.
15:11
SPEAKER_01: And it was like in 2024, we had done a ton of touring, and I kind of just something turned in me, and I was just like, I want to make a really good record, I want to get to that next level, I want to like make music that you know I would love if I wasn't making it and just like have a really fun time with it, and I want to become a fan of my own art again.
15:32
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because I think that's something that's so lost at times is like you you get so far into it and you get into like the career mode of it that you forget how to be like a fan of art and a fan of music, and you get jaded and you you can get so cynical.
15:46
SPEAKER_01: And I was just trying to chase that like, can I be a fan of this?
15:50
SPEAKER_01: And having that feeling really was something cool.
15:54
SPEAKER_01: So it definitely definitely flips flipped the switch to start thinking that way.
15:58
SPEAKER_01: And and here we are.
15:59
SPEAKER_02: I love that.
16:00
SPEAKER_02: I love the honesty too, because I I feel like people don't share enough about how that experience impacted themselves and your exact sentiments about like maybe considering a different direction on things.
16:16
SPEAKER_02: I think we all had our own version of that, if we're being honest.
16:20
SPEAKER_02: You know, your lyrics often explore burnout, self-reflection, and modern anxieties.
16:26
SPEAKER_02: How conscious of that are you whenever you are in the writing process?
16:32
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I'm not sure I'm like fully conscious.
16:34
SPEAKER_01: I mean, writing is so interesting to me because I've never really felt like I go in and write a song with like a purpose.
16:41
SPEAKER_01: Like I really want to write a song about this feeling.
16:43
SPEAKER_01: It's more of just I sit down with a guitar and I feel like I'm just like a conduit to like something, and the songs just kind of find you.
16:49
SPEAKER_01: Like if you if you flex the muscle, if you practice enough and you're just like, I'm gonna just dedicate a certain amount of time every day to like pick up my instrument and like get myself in this creative space where I'm gonna write, I'm gonna create, or I'm just gonna noodle around and nothing comes of it.
17:03
SPEAKER_01: Eventually, these songs find you.
17:05
SPEAKER_01: Those themes are just things that I I struggle with, or like that I face daily, or I face in general as like a human being on earth and in whatever can I swear the fuck this timeline is.
17:16
SPEAKER_01: It feels kind of just you know, exist.
17:19
SPEAKER_01: And a lot of us are feeling that burnout and feeling that sense of just, you know, how what is the purpose if like I'm never gonna be able to like save enough money and the planet is burning and the government is being overthrown, and like, you know, what is happening, and it's just the stress of all that, you know, permeates into just my my mind, and then that comes out through the songs.
17:42
SPEAKER_01: Like that's that's the through line of like, you know, that's gonna become the lyrics, I guess for me at least.
17:46
SPEAKER_01: Like I tried writing happy songs, and sometimes those come out and they're fine, but uh, it's just really not not not how I get my kicks with music writing, like the catharsis.
17:56
SPEAKER_01: I like to, you know, the social commentary and and that kind of thing.
17:59
SPEAKER_02: I love that.
18:00
SPEAKER_02: I love that, you know.
18:01
SPEAKER_02: We made the joke a little bit, you know, early on in the episode where uh talk about you being from Portland, Maine now, but your sound is very Portland, Oregon.
18:11
SPEAKER_02: It's very Pacific Northwest, and I absolutely love that.
18:16
SPEAKER_02: So what album, especially especially with the themes of you know, doing talking about what's right in the world and expressing, you know, how fucked the world absolutely is right now.
18:28
SPEAKER_02: What album inspired you the most growing up?
18:32
SPEAKER_01: Ah, so many.
18:32
SPEAKER_01: I was actually a really big fan of the band Metric.
18:35
SPEAKER_01: Again, being out of Toronto, they're you know, a Toronto band.
18:39
SPEAKER_01: And I remember being like 14 years old and getting Old World Underground, which is their first album, and then like Live It Out, which was their second album.
18:48
SPEAKER_01: I might have been 13 when I got the first, but anyway, between that age of like 13 and 15, where you're really like malleable.
18:54
SPEAKER_01: And I had already started playing guitar, and you know, a lot of the bands and like musicians around were all these like scene kid kind of emo boys, that that was the big thing when I was a kid, and I just didn't really fit into that.
19:07
SPEAKER_01: And so seeing an artist like Emily Haynes, the singer of Metric, you know, on stage, kind of just like doing her thing and and being this incredible artist, I saw so much of like what my life could be in that, and that was so you know transformative to just how I saw music as a career and how I saw art and so like bands like that, and then there's like a lot of just you know, bands that were adjacent to that sort of like indie sound.
19:30
SPEAKER_01: Like you have like, you know, like the IAS were like a huge band at the time, too.
19:35
SPEAKER_01: Or, you know, in Canada it was just like there was like all these great bands.
19:37
SPEAKER_01: This band Land of Talk was really cool and and kind of moved the needle for me when it came to you know music and my interest in pursuing it as a career, or like Feist was another one, so a very Canadian uh experience.
19:51
SPEAKER_01: Uh but it was really cool because like I had like a lot of artists who looked and sounded more like I did, uh, making music around me who weren't just like you know, a bunch of boys who are kind of not cool.
20:06
SPEAKER_01: Right, yes, yes.
20:07
SPEAKER_02: I love hearing that as a father of daughters.
20:10
SPEAKER_02: I love hearing that your girl died and it warms yeah, oh yeah.
20:14
SPEAKER_02: It's like and it warms my heart because I the thing that I want more than anything else is them to forge their own identity and be their own person without societal norms like constraining them and holding them back.
20:26
SPEAKER_02: And when you're talking about Metric in particular, I was like, oh yeah, my my daughter, she's 18, she just started college, one of them uh just started college, and she did a band right before she went off to college, and they covered Black Sheep by Metric.
20:38
SPEAKER_02: Oh, nice, and it was her favorite song to fucking sing, and she absolutely loved it.
20:43
SPEAKER_02: That's so cool.
20:44
SPEAKER_02: I love that, love that so much.
20:46
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we love to see.
20:47
SPEAKER_02: So which songs from Yes, yeah.
20:49
SPEAKER_02: So which songs from your catalog have particularly strong backstories or fan reactions whenever you're playing live?
20:57
SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, it's hard not to talk about the torn cover because that got a huge fan reaction.
21:01
SPEAKER_01: I mean, being on all these support tours, it was, you know, when you're supporting another artist, you're the opener, you just want to put on a good show, you're there to like win fans over.
21:11
SPEAKER_01: And uh, we toured a lot with that this band called Sloth Rust, who are great friends of ours.
21:16
SPEAKER_01: Annie's played bass for them.
21:19
SPEAKER_01: And they always put in a little cover like in their set.
21:22
SPEAKER_01: Like that's kind of something they've always done.
21:23
SPEAKER_01: And I've always been apprehensive of covers.
21:25
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I don't know, like I don't want to do a cover.
21:28
SPEAKER_01: But we were touring with them and we're like, well, their fans like covers.
21:31
SPEAKER_01: And in the pandemic times, we had covered Torn as like a Patreon thing.
21:34
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, well, why don't we bring Torn back?
21:36
SPEAKER_01: That was like a really fun one to sing for me.
21:38
SPEAKER_01: So I'm like, let's send it.
21:39
SPEAKER_01: And it just had this like huge reaction at the live shows, like people just screaming along, like loving it, and that felt really fun.
21:45
SPEAKER_01: So it taught me to be a little less up my own ass with things and kind of like, you know, just do a cover, it's fucking fun.
21:52
SPEAKER_01: It's not gonna make you any less of an artist.
21:55
SPEAKER_01: Um, and we took put our own spin on it, and so that was really cool.
21:58
SPEAKER_01: Other songs that I feel like the fans.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Have been like on this new record, especially gravitating towards, is the there's the song called Queen of Town, which kind of like starts off really just this bass line and vocal, and it starts off slow and then builds.
22:10
SPEAKER_01: And I was like worried that song would be sort of a speed bump in the set, but people really love kind of the vibe of it and singing along to it.
22:18
SPEAKER_01: I kind of do like a whole little, I mean, somewhat political spiel before that song starts, and then uh yeah, then we dive in.
22:25
SPEAKER_01: And and yeah, that one, you know, that one really resonated with people, and like having people sing that's my favorite.
22:29
SPEAKER_01: So having people sing along to that one was like huge and felt really cool.
22:34
SPEAKER_02: So yes, yes.
22:36
SPEAKER_02: So kind of along the lines of other artists and like doing covers, collaborations, you know, you had Jay from Dinosaur Jr.
22:44
SPEAKER_02: on common blah and feels like hell has a bucket head guitar solo.
22:49
SPEAKER_02: How did those collaborations come about and what did they add to that process for you?
22:55
SPEAKER_01: Sure, yeah.
22:55
SPEAKER_01: I mean, with Jay Maskis on our first record, that was our our management at the time worked with him as well.
23:01
SPEAKER_01: But he's you know, he's like a new a New England guy.
23:04
SPEAKER_01: Strangely enough, like our drummer Adam like fixes a lot of his music equipment in the studio and stuff like that.
23:09
SPEAKER_01: So now it's kind of come full circle where they're like they know each other and are pals.
23:14
SPEAKER_01: But with Buckethead, he he was uh playing at the state theater in Portland where I work.
23:19
SPEAKER_01: And we kind of just he started like chatting with me and asking me questions about just like what to do in town.
23:24
SPEAKER_01: We became kind of odd friends and which was cool.
23:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's this collaborations are fun.
23:28
SPEAKER_01: I mean, like I would collaborate with more people, I think it like pushes you and like having these like creative people around you who just like have their own craft, like that's how I'm inspired.
23:37
SPEAKER_01: And like I love like getting to chat with people and like what their creative process is and how they view their art and their music, and then just like having like to be able to like collaborate and share that process.
23:50
SPEAKER_01: You just like grow and you learn a lot, and it's it's just like fun for the fans, and it's just like fun in general.
23:55
SPEAKER_01: So I I've always loved that experience.
23:58
SPEAKER_02: Is there a dream collaboration that you have that you want to do?
24:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I would love to collaborate with St.
24:03
SPEAKER_01: Vincent, which I know sounds like, but I feel like I that's everybody.
24:08
SPEAKER_01: Is that everybody's answer?
24:08
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
24:09
SPEAKER_01: I think Annie Clark is like St.
24:10
SPEAKER_01: Vincent's like so talented and so cool, and like such a cool vibe, and just like also like an incredible rock guitarist.
24:16
SPEAKER_01: So, like, I mean, we're already collecting a bunch of virtuosic guitar players.
24:20
SPEAKER_01: I I wouldn't mind uh one more, and that would be I think a really cool collaboration.
24:25
SPEAKER_02: Put it out there.
24:26
SPEAKER_02: Yes, yeah, manifest that shit, and you know, yeah, why not?
24:32
SPEAKER_02: So, right, right.
24:33
SPEAKER_02: So, how does your music shift live?
24:36
SPEAKER_02: Like, are there any memorable tours or crowds that reshaped your view of the band?
24:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think getting to tour with Sloth Russ was a big change.
24:44
SPEAKER_01: That like crowd was very much like a crowd that would like like our band a ton.
24:48
SPEAKER_01: We've done a bunch of other support stuff, but like those nights felt like we were playing to people who were really just like taking it in and like appreciating it.
24:54
SPEAKER_01: And now a lot of those people come out to our shows.
24:55
SPEAKER_01: Um, and that kind of just changed my perspective.
24:58
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know, I think something clicked in me where like it became less of just like I'm here to just play my songs in front of people and more like I'm here to perform this.
25:06
SPEAKER_01: And we've always been like a high energy band, but it's like less about the energy and more of just like, you know, I'm on stage, like who who who am I when I'm on stage, and like what is that story and what is like almost like personas like a weird thing to say because it's it's still very much me, but like locking into that, and I think being able to play in front of that crowd gave me that comfort to like lock into that because they were just such a lovely, like receptive and really just like into it and interested crowd.
25:32
SPEAKER_01: Like, shout out to our friends and Swath Rust for curating that community and like letting us play all those shows with them.
25:37
SPEAKER_01: That was like really special for us and helped, I think, get us to a place where I feel like we're more confident in in who we are and what we're doing.
25:45
SPEAKER_01: And yeah.
25:46
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I I always found that being on stage, you're not necessarily slipping into a character, but you're becoming a more heightened and more honest version of yourself.
25:58
SPEAKER_02: Sure, maybe the person that people don't see in those quiet moments.
26:03
SPEAKER_02: So after feels like hell, what's next?
26:06
SPEAKER_01: Well, we are straight a little bit.
26:09
SPEAKER_01: So probably just more touring until the neckard.
26:13
SPEAKER_01: So hopefully, yeah, hopefully we write the next record.
26:16
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
26:17
SPEAKER_01: It's I'm opening myself up to the universe of creativity and hoping some more songs find me.
26:22
SPEAKER_01: So I'm like a little antenna, just trying to trying to suck them in and then get them out.
26:26
SPEAKER_02: Amazing.
26:27
SPEAKER_02: And as you said, you're you're in Arizona, so you're rehearsing for an upcoming tour.
26:32
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so we start tour tomorrow.
26:34
SPEAKER_01: We're doing a bunch of West Coast states, uh, Still for Feels Like Hell tour, and uh we're we booked a little like sketchy rehearsal studio out here and are about to do that.
26:47
SPEAKER_01: And then tomorrow we start.
26:48
SPEAKER_01: We start, we play a valley bar here in Phoenix, um, which is a cool spot.
26:53
SPEAKER_01: And then we we kick it off.
26:54
SPEAKER_01: We do like a three-week run all out this way.
26:56
SPEAKER_02: So I love it.
26:57
SPEAKER_02: I love it.
26:58
SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm not gonna hold you up too much longer because I know you got to get in and start rehearsing.
27:03
SPEAKER_02: But my closing question that I like to ask every single guest that does the show is given your experience, particularly with this band and this project, what's your advice for making the world a better place tomorrow than what it is today through your eyes?
27:18
SPEAKER_01: Throw your phone in in the ocean.
27:22
SPEAKER_01: Like just smash your phone.
27:25
SPEAKER_01: Uh and I think I think we need like a mass blackout event without technology.
27:31
SPEAKER_01: And I know that would probably cause this is gonna sound so nihilistic.
27:35
SPEAKER_01: Probably cause like a mass extinction event because honestly, like I think people are just like lost without technology.
27:40
SPEAKER_01: But it feels so nice to just like not be such a stupid, like, you know, having a like be on your phone constantly and that stuff.
27:49
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, your phone away, read a book, go outside, breathe some fresh air, talk to your neighbor, talk to your neighbors.
27:57
SPEAKER_02: Do you feel as an artist that has a um a project to promote and such that sometimes even you are in enslaved by the the perils of technology now and social media and everything in between?
28:10
SPEAKER_01: Yes, but at the same time, it is really cool to just like put something silly online and like have a bunch of people reach out and like build a community.
28:19
SPEAKER_01: So it's like there's there's two there's two parts of it.
28:22
SPEAKER_01: Like we're right, like some days I do want to just throw my phone into the ocean and like go grow potatoes and do that for a living and not be so tethered to all of it because there's a lot of bad stuff on there.
28:34
SPEAKER_01: But then another time something like, oh, it's so cool.
28:37
SPEAKER_01: Like we connected with all these people and did this thing that we wouldn't have been able to do hadn't Hobbin for you know social media and and that.
28:45
SPEAKER_01: So so yeah, there's kind of like it's a it's there's pros and cons.
28:50
SPEAKER_01: I guess it it all depends on the you the who's you invent, right?
28:54
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's the dichotomy of two evils.
28:56
SPEAKER_02: Like I because I I deal with the same thing all the time.
28:58
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, man, if it if it wasn't for the podcasting environment, I wouldn't have all these cool experiences.
29:04
SPEAKER_02: I love creating content, I love you know, sharing videos and clips and all of that.
29:09
SPEAKER_02: But on the flip side of it, it's like the the garbage in sometimes can kind of become garbage out, and I just would rather not be online, also.
29:19
SPEAKER_02: So I get it.
29:20
SPEAKER_01: It's like how you use it, right?
29:21
SPEAKER_01: Like I've been I've been better about like as a tool, like I've been trying to use it as it connects me, like be in the group chats with friends, like you know, I listen to the podcast, like listen to music, like look at some art.
29:35
SPEAKER_01: Like it's a great tool, like figure out what's going on in your town and your community, and being like, what can I go to and what can I go experience that's interesting?
29:43
SPEAKER_01: But um, I've been trying to be less about like the doom girl and like just like the mindless like looking at it or the feeling like it's the first thing I have to think about when I go to bed.
29:54
SPEAKER_01: Like, I'm just trying not to be so tethered to it.
29:58
SPEAKER_01: Um making a conscious effort to like not just look at my phone to have to like fill my brain with something.
30:04
SPEAKER_01: Like I've truly like another thing to change the world is like allow yourself to be bored.
30:10
SPEAKER_01: Like I can't can't stress that more.
30:12
SPEAKER_01: Like boredom is a place where you that breeds creativity.
30:17
SPEAKER_01: Boredom is a place that just breeds like yeah, like product like you can be productive in your boredom just for yourself and not for like uh like someone else or another reason or like to put it online.
30:28
SPEAKER_01: Like be bored.
30:29
SPEAKER_01: Like you can be inquisitive, you can appreciate things more, like take it slow, be bored.
30:34
SPEAKER_01: Like uh it's it's great.
30:36
SPEAKER_01: I like sometimes I just like to sit with nothing on and just sit with like I don't know if there most people don't want to sit with their thoughts, but like sit with your damn thoughts, like sit with them, daydream.
30:47
SPEAKER_01: Like I love a daydream, like daydreaming, looking out the window of a car, just daydreaming it's great.
30:53
SPEAKER_01: I uh used to do it all the time when I was a kid, and I'm trying to get back to it.
30:57
SPEAKER_01: So it's unbelievable the cool and creative things.
31:00
SPEAKER_01: You can go anywhere, you can go fucking anywhere in your mind, right?
31:03
SPEAKER_02: So yes, I love that.
31:06
SPEAKER_02: Why don't you tell all my viewers and listeners where they can find weekend friends online?
31:11
SPEAKER_01: Oh, we're all over.
31:11
SPEAKER_01: We're weekend friends, weekend like someone hurt you.
31:14
SPEAKER_01: Um uh we're on Instagram, Twitter, uh, Facebook, I think still, uh TikTok.
31:22
SPEAKER_01: Is it called Twitter?
31:23
SPEAKER_01: Are we on Twitter?
31:24
SPEAKER_01: We don't even update Twitter really.
31:25
SPEAKER_01: I don't touch it either.
31:26
SPEAKER_01: We're on YouTube.
31:27
SPEAKER_01: We're on yeah, I don't remember the last time.
31:30
SPEAKER_01: I mean, maybe we're on there.
31:31
SPEAKER_01: Um, but I don't remember.
31:32
SPEAKER_01: Maybe I think the last thing we tweeted, if you even do that anymore, was like this site sucks.
31:37
SPEAKER_01: Uh but yeah, is Instagram, TikTok.
31:40
SPEAKER_01: Instagram and TikTok are our most our our most uh active places.
31:44
SPEAKER_02: Dude, I I love this because we are one in the same.
31:48
SPEAKER_02: Those are the only two social media networks that I really use at all anymore.
31:52
SPEAKER_02: Facebook because I'm obligated to.
31:54
SPEAKER_02: I deleted my X account, yeah, and then I had to restart a new one, and then I'm like, fuck, I don't want to man maintain this.
32:01
SPEAKER_02: I also have my own personal reservations about using X, so I won't do it.
32:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
32:06
SPEAKER_02: So, and I'm sure we're probably on the same page there.
32:09
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
32:09
SPEAKER_02: But I have really enjoyed this conversation and getting to know you, Sonia, and I want you to know like anytime you guys want to come back on and do another episode, the invitation's open.
32:20
SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
32:20
SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you for having us.
32:21
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry that it's like from the van with like doors slamming out, but thank you for getting me out of having to load all our gear in.
32:29
SPEAKER_01: Um, I didn't help at all, and I feel bad.
32:31
SPEAKER_01: I feel like I'm doing the classic lead singer thing where I'm just like, all right, guys, I gotta go do this like press thing, you do this, go lift the stuff.
32:39
SPEAKER_01: But at the same time, I I think I don't know if the conversation would be as uh fruitful if our guy did it with you.
32:46
SPEAKER_01: So um I guess I had to be there.
32:49
SPEAKER_01: I had to it had to be sorry, couldn't lift the heavy things.
32:52
SPEAKER_02: Uh thank you so so much.
32:54
SPEAKER_02: The world's a much better place with you in it.
32:56
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, no, this was really cool.
32:57
SPEAKER_01: So thank you so much for having me.
32:59
SPEAKER_02: Once again, I'd like to thank my friend Sonya from Weekend Friends for joining me on the show today.
33:06
SPEAKER_02: Go to the episode description to get the proper spelling of their name.
33:11
SPEAKER_02: Just keep in mind, it's not weekends like Saturday, Sunday, it's like weekends.
33:18
SPEAKER_02: Great time getting to know the band.
33:20
SPEAKER_02: If you noticed throughout the episode there was a little bit of a quality internet was having issues as they were doing the interview from the band.
33:30
SPEAKER_02: Make sure you are following them on all social media platforms.
33:33
SPEAKER_02: While you are being generous with the follows, make sure you're following at on the mic on all social platforms.
33:39
SPEAKER_02: Give me a subscribe on my YouTube channel, follow me on the podcast platforms, and you can visit www.hotonthemic.com.
33:48
SPEAKER_02: That's M I K E as in my name.
33:51
SPEAKER_02: Or shoot me an email at on the mic at gmail.com.
33:54
SPEAKER_02: This has been Caught on the Mic with Michael Clark.
33:56
SPEAKER_02: I'm Michael Clark.
33:58
SPEAKER_02: Till next time.
33:58
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.