Getting to sit down with the independent band, Nameless Friends was a blast and there was so much that was discussed. Nameless Friends are a small Canadian band from London, Ontario.
One, Four and Five all went to school together, they found Seven in a dumpster and touring is a much better lifestyle than a dumpster. They also needed a keyboardist for Blasphemy so they hired Six. As far as first impressions go, there were mixed sentiments. One and Seven thought that Four hated them when they first began working together. This brought shock to Four. Five considered Four amused and that they didn’t react a lot out of the gate.
One had worry that she annoyed Five upon their first meeting. It was one of those days where everything goes wrong and had convinced herself that she had annoyed Five, even though he doesn’t remember much about the day they met. “I was subbing in for the previous bassist on a couple songs and you all seemed relentlessly professional. I was like ‘Oh, these people are like real musicians.’”
One didn’t know Seven well at first but had a very good gut feeling regarding musicianship while jamming together. They were the only other drummer that after the first drummer retired, lead to instant chemistry. According to Four, Seven is one of those people that he met and felt that there’s something that is still being hidden.
Within Canada, there are quite a few anti-LGBT+ politicians within Canada, Scott Moe being one of them. For those unaware, Scott Moe is the premier of Saskatchewan. A premier is the equivalent of a governor in the United States. We discussed the politics behind the band and the themes.
Will Nameless Friends pursue others than just Scott Moe? It’s something they have talked about and still are trying to decide about. Scott Moe is moreso a personal vendetta as Seven is from Saskatchewan and they were in the midst of putting out a single regarding queer rights and that experience when Moe was announcing and defending an awful legislation that would out all LGBT+ kids to their parents. Seeing this happen in places like Seven’s hometown and thinking about others beyond Seven and those in the band.
As they think about those within the LGBT+ community and be like “Nah this is not okay, we don’t follow it.” This has resonated with so many people which is so beautiful yet really sad to have people responding with things like “This is the only band I’ve seen saying something about this.” They’re trying to figure out how we continue to talk about this so it stays authentic and organic to the LGBT+ community.
If someone like Pierre Polievre, a conversative politician with a closed minded type of thinking, got into office as Prime Minister, how would that affect the band? One has been trying to figure out how this is something that they can build into part of what the band does in a full-time manner. They don’t want it to be just a flash-in-the-pan where they did this one song and it’s done. Learning how to figure out how they can use their platform for the LGBT+ community moving forward and to quote Seven; “They set such a low bar for us as Canadians to clear as it’s always, ‘Well at least we’re not them’”.
One feels that it’s the thing that lead to many reactions seen on social media from one of two groups. Either from the queer community, thanking them for speaking up on their behalf, or fans and allies who aren’t necessarily part of the community, with the response of “I’m sorry? This is happening in Canada right now? Canada?” Unfortunately, the answer is yes.
Subscribe to Nameless Friends’ mailing list here.
We also got to talk about Blasphemy, their latest album that was put out in May 2023. “It was our pandemic album, so we all spent a couple of years sitting at home watching the world be traumatized by all of these horrible things that were happening and all of these pre-existing inequalities were being so magnified by the pandemic”, says One. As One is female, she already faces that axis of oppression and for the band to watch friends who are queer and people of color, it’s difficult. Not to mention there are multiple queer members and people of color within the band.
As they were watching these things happen and the policy choices that come from governments in both Canada and the United States, endorsing the oppression in those choices. The fact the cruelty was the point and One had nothing but time to sit at home to stew of how fucked up that was. Given this, they wrote an album on it and they used religious imagery for style and camp because many of the albums that are admired are willing to go there….to criticize organized religion and their influence.
One doesn’t want anyone to think that she’s anti-religion. She believes the communal aspects of organized religion, including Christianity, can be so beautiful, so healing and can create so much love. It’s when those belifs get co-opted for political and capitalist gain which is what is happening right now and that takes away freedom and that’s not okay!
One was the one who was the main songwriter on Blasphemy and Four handled the audio engineering and stuff like that. They were all pleased with how the album turned out. Part of the anger on the album is that something like organized religion which could be about these beautiful themes of forgiveness, mercy and loving your neighbors got cynically twisted as a means to oppress others for just existing.
“Demons” is very much the people pleaser’s anthem. 7 Years of Blood is about menstrual rights and abortion rights. It was important to me that it was a gender neutral song. There’s not a single gendered pronoun because all sorts of people can have uteruses. It was important to me that sympathy for Lilith doesn’t actually talk about gender markers or any sort of embodied way to be right in your femininity as there are so many ways to show being feminine.
Moving forward, Nameless Friends are working on new music and some form of it will be released in 2024. There’ll also be new visuals releasing this year for the new music. A new music video got shot and there are some amazing artists in it. There’s some new touring coming up; they currently have the East Coast one right now but they got a few festivals to announce in the summer as well as an international tour!
As far as inspirations of the band goes, each member has their own individual taste and we discussed each member’s personal taste!
One is a huge blues-based rock person with a passion for classic blues like Big Mama Thornton and Sister Rosetta Thorpe. Due to her love of blues-based rock, she was a Rolling Stones fan as a kid and went through a hair metal phase. She’s also a monster Queen, Metallica and Tragically Hip fan. Recently, One has really gotten into Rage Against the Machine and they now cover them live at shows.
Seven’s father had a very unique taste that rubbed off on them so he grew up with artists like Tom Waits and Captain Beefheart. They had a really big Beatles phase and was a die-hard Led Zeppelin fan. He discovered 70s progressive rock and this is beyond capable of what can be done. He is also a big punk fan, enjoying bands like Black Flag and The Idols.
Four has a vast enjoyment for genres such as pop-punk, punk and folk. As far as bands go, he has a passion for Pup, My Chemical Romance and Green Day.
Five’s main focus is musical theatre, currently really delved into the Percy Jackson and Spongebob musicals. He really enjoys Pino Palladino’s playing and he plays on every random record under the sun and Five has fun finding him in unexpected records.
