Ones To Watch: Friendship

Given the racket that crashes forth upon playing Friendship’s debut single ‘The Graveyard Shift’, you’d be forgiven for thinking the monstrous disco-punk roar was the product of many men hitting many things very hard.

But you’d be wrong, for Friendship is but two people: Will and Dan. The pair met at a Bloc Party show - Dan was supporting the arena-bothering artrockers with his then-band, post-rockers Redjetson. He jumped ship after one album, meaning the two could come together to make Friendship a reality after initially jamming with each other and discovering that money- can’t-buy necessity of any songwriting partnership: chemistry.

“I was a builder, sleeping in a caravan,” Will recalls. “Dan started teaching me bass, we had a jam and seemed to click. He moved behind the drums because he was bored of playing the guitar, which is good because no one wants to see a band that’s just two guitarists. That’d be well rubbish.”

Avoiding an awkward Flight Of The Conchords dynamic, the duo pressed on and soon found themselves in possession of a handful of frighteningly good songs: songs that not only rattled and rolled like all good rockers should, but also resonated singular traits, nuances and details, that quickly caught the ear of folk in The Industry.

“Too Pure heard ‘The Graveyard Shift’ on our MySpace page, and wanted to put it out,” says Will of their debut release, “so we didn’t have to think much about that - it just kinda happened, and maybe it’s better that way.” The singles club label wasn’t the only place where Friendship’s songs were being appreciated - a certain DJ at Xfm found the band’s riotous fare most alluring, and soon passed on his thoughts to a pretty popular New York band. “Allegedly, the lovely John Kennedy recommended us to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs,” says Will, “and they were good enough to pick us to support them in Manchester. They were so friendly - we were pretty dumbstruck, and we still might be.”

“The YYYs show was awesome,” confirms Dan, when asked to name his favourite gig the pair have played to date, “but we also had a great show at the Cellar, in Oxford, a while back. It was a Vacuous Pop night - we’re big supporters of theirs - and it was amazing… the crowd were so pumped by the time we went on stage. I think I prefer the smaller shows, but it’s a hard choice. I think we’re a little spoilt.”

There’s no doubt that Friendship have had some pretty good luck in their brief time together so far - but then again, if you’ve got great songs to begin with…

Words by Dave Kendall