Introducing #109 - Friedberg
Let us introduce you to London based four-piece Friedberg - who have just released their fuzzy new single ‘Lizzy’ - they took a moment to talk to us about their music.
Hey there Friedberg, so your new track ‘Lizzy’ is out now, which is the follow up from your previous single ‘Pass Me On’ - can you tell us what those tracks are about?
I wrote ‘Lizzy on the way home from a crazy party night in South London. At that party I found myself within the TS Eliot Poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” which we had discussed quite a lot back at University in Vienna. A friend of Cheryl (our bass player) was playing this really dark and super interesting live-set at the party and suddenly some random lines of the poem started to fly around my head. And Michelangelo was there too- just leaning against the wall, speaking to my friend and casually sipping on a Gin & Tonic…
‘Pass Me On’ came to me at one of the darkest and loneliest episodes in my life. I was in a really toxic relationship back then and it was one of these situations when you know you have to get out, but you just can't, because you think you depend on the other person so much. I think writing that song actually helped me to finally push myself away from that horrible situation forever.
The video for ‘Lizzy’ features quite a trippy video - where was it filmed? Any behind the scenes stories from filming it that you are happy to share with us?
We initially had shot a completely different video for the track, which was cool too but somehow I realised that I wanted to try to re-create that feeling of that party night and my journey home from the there. So we basically started from scratch again- we only had 2 days before my friend and director Max Parovsky had to leave London again. So we did some sliding warm-up excercises in my backyard first and then hit the road to film all the bits in the streets of London. The hoverboarding skills we had basically learnt at the party already, so that was the easy bit haha
These songs come from your debut EP, when can we get to hear that?
It’s coming out on March 19th- and there will be a limited vinyl edition too which I’m really excited about.
Where are you based as a band? What is your favorite thing about that area?
I am based in Hackney Wick- the other girls are spread out in all kinds of different parts of the city. I love Hackney Wick. It’s just a supercool area with lots of interesting people and tons of cool stuff going on, but on the other hand it’s pretty chilled too if you e.g. go for a walk by the canal or to Hackney Marshes it is a little bit like living on the countryside at the same time.
How would you describe your sound to someone who has never listened to you before? What are your key musical influences?
I’ve just seen an article where our music is described as a “blend of post punk, alt-rock doused in alluring pop sensibilities”- I quite like that ha! I’ve got so many favourite bands like ESG, LCD Soundsystem, Courtney Barnett, PJ Harvey, Fontaines D.C. etc etc. You can check out our Friedberg FM Playlist- we constantly update it with our favourite tracks.