PREMIERE: friend & me – Keep Trying

Formed through friendships, proximity and a bit of force, friend & me are Brisbane’s latest brilliant addition to an already bustling emo scene. Debut single, Keep Trying, is a blistering and potent first offering from a band set to become a favourite.
 

Having only sprung up in early July, friend & me, have already set in stone the foundations for becoming one of my favourite music discoveries of 2018. Having played together in various acts over the years, including YELLOWCATREDCAT and The PBs, the three-piece come to friend & me with a cohesion of parts that earmarks a much more experienced band. 

Debut single Keep Trying lures you in with an intricate intro built on ambient sounds and delicate guitar plucks before soaring on a gut busting verse. In this way Keep Trying instantly delivers a dynamic palette that ultimately defines the band’s musicality throughout the song as moments of calm are continually backed up with moments of lush intensity. Keep Trying is ambitiously big in its valleys and peaks but ultimately paints a beautiful and ever moreish landscape. 

Unfolding on-top of all of this lay songwriter Isaac Rogers intelligent and raw lyrics. There’s a distinct vulnerability and sense of disconnection throughout the song, emphasised in the standout and outstanding lyric “Brunswick St is breathing, but I’m not seeing any signs of life”. Rogers’ lyrics punch inwards, delivering a song of introspection and watching a friendship fall apart through your own actions. Asked of the inspiration behind the song Rogers states: 

“The song is about watching a friendship kind of deteriorate before your eyes and realising that it’s probably because of your own shitty personality traits. Also spending too much time in The Valley.” 

Lyrically unguarded and superbly dynamic in its musically, Keep Trying, is a remarkable debut single from a band I couldn’t be more excited by. 

Catch the band live at Crowbar Black – A Benefit for Support Act this weekend.

And be sure to follow along with all things friend & me right here.