Brand New Friend [Interview].
"The first lyricist I ever fell in love with was Morrissey."
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| Frontman Taylor Johnson, photo on 35mm film |
Brand New Friend have energy, enthusiasm and winning spirit. These goofballs from the North Coast are familiar to Radio 1 playlists, they are active across Ireland and have had some epic festival slots behind them. Their debut single "I Was An Astronaut" brought them into the spotlight in early 2016 and now recent singles such as "Your Friends Hate Me" and "I Hate It When You Have To Go" have carried on the feel-good story. The band consists of siblings Lauren and Taylor Johnson on vocals, synth and guitar; with bassist Aaron Milligan and drummer Luke Harris. The four piece indie rock outfit sat down to talk to me about trombone teachers leaving broken hearts, how the band affects the family dynamic , and how putting everything into your music affects your personal life.
What made you pick up an instrument and want to join a band?
Taylor: "I always wanted to play an instrument but never thought I'd have the patience to play anything ever..."
Lauren: "You did play trombone in primary school for about a month..."
Taylor: "That's right! My trombone teacher broke my heart when I was in P3 because I wasn't very good at it and she made me stop. And then I thought well right I'll just never play anything. Then my dad bought me a guitar for doing well in my GCSEs so I got it and he taught me very basic stuff and that just really inspired me. He took me to see Oasis and that blew my mind forever. So a combination of my dad, and Noel and Liam Gallagher changed my life!"
Luke: "When I started playing drums I was about seven so I was too young to properly remember but I think I just sort of started doing lessons in school and then stopped doing lessons cause I didn't like them, and just taught myself. The next step was to start a band really and that was it..."
Lauren: "For me, singing came first. I started taking piano lessons in school, again like everyone else, quit lessons after a year or two but I've always just sang. Whenever Taylor started Brand New Friend and he asked me to throw down some harmonies..."
Taylor: "...I bullied you into joining!"
Lauren: "Pretty much! Then I was like oh yeah I could actually do this."
Aaron: "My uncle was in a band and I decided I wanted to be in a band. He's still in a band, and I wanted to do what he does so started playing drums but wasn't very good at them. So then I got guitar lessons and didn't like those either. So then I started playing bass and now I just play bass."
What are your main musical influences?
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| Brand New Friend, photo on 35mm film |
Lauren: "The cool thing about Brand New Friend is that we all kind of have different musical influences, and everyone just takes little bits and pieces for very different bands and that's what helps our sound be quite different!"
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| Vocalist and synth player Lauren, photo on 35mm film |
Lauren: "Well yeah. Vocally my main inspiration is Haley Williams from Paramore. I try not to rip her off but I just like want to be her. So I probably do, inadvertently..."
Aaron: "My main inspirations apart from the obvious bass ones like Pixies and Ramones and all that; but I love Joe Lally from Fugazi, like everything that man has ever done, all of it is just incredible. That's why I bought that bass, cause he plays one!"
Where do you get the inspiration to be constantly writing? And has anything in particular shaped your song-writing?
Taylor: "I can't not write, much to the annoyance of my friends and family, because any spare time I get - if I'm not getting spanked on Fifa, then I've got a phone in my hand and I'm crafting things. I'm constantly writing lyrics and the main inspiration is just life. It's all very very real. Every Brand New Friend song you'll hear, at least partly is real..."
Aaron: "Taylor actually was an Astronaut."
Taylor: "Back in the early days, I was, I was indeed. So yeah it's all very real and real life. And I find the only time in my life when I'm not writing songs, at least writing lyrics if not actual songs, is when things are very calm. So when my life is pretty smooth, the songs won't come as quick. So when I actually go out and live life and meet new people and experience new things, new feelings then the songs come really thick and fast. Love and people and stories are what inspire me."
Taylor: "Back in the early days, I was, I was indeed. So yeah it's all very real and real life. And I find the only time in my life when I'm not writing songs, at least writing lyrics if not actual songs, is when things are very calm. So when my life is pretty smooth, the songs won't come as quick. So when I actually go out and live life and meet new people and experience new things, new feelings then the songs come really thick and fast. Love and people and stories are what inspire me."
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| Taylor and Lauren, photo on 35mm film |
What new local music are you digging recently?
Luke: "The new Joshua Burnside record and his new EP is great. I love what Touts are doing, I think they're doing a different angle, in music, they're being themselves."
Taylor: "I'm going back to Hot Cops. They're one of my favourite bands ever, not just here. So I'm going back and listening to all the old EPs, but of people who are actually out doing it now, I'm a big fan of Little Arcadia, who haven't been doing as much recently but I absolutely adore all their stuff, and Sleeping Outside too, another great band from the North Coast. I think there's something great happening up there.
Lauren: "Representing the girls, I think R51 and Jealous of the Birds are probably my main ones!"
Aaron: "Surf Green are obviously unreal and are gonna keep getting better and better..."
Lauren: "...and take over the world!"
Aaron: "...take over Northern Ireland certainly. And then there's the Dublin scene as well and we have to mention The Winter Passing as well because they're just incredible. And obviously A Plastic Rose. They were the best band to come out of here for years and years so we have to mention them."
If you could join any local band, what band would it be?
Aaron: "A Plastic Rose!"
Taylor: "I'm going to beat up Owen Strathern until he brings back General Fiasco and I'm gonna play rhythm guitar for General Fiasco and sing "Rebel Get's By" every night."
Luke: "I'd love to play behind Joshua Burnside. But I think that would be hard considering his brother is his drummer and he's a lot better drummer than I am."
Lauren: "At the risk of breaking up his family! Aw that's a hard question. I think Jealous of the Birds even though there's already an amazing band. I'd just jump in and play the triangle or something just so I can be a part of it but the rest of the band can stay involved!"
How does the band affect the family dynamic?
Taylor: "Really well! Our family love it. That's a very big plus point for us that, even though the one person in our family who wouldn't love music as much or be as passionate would be our mum, and she's the biggest Brand New Friend fan out! And whenever we have a gig like tonight for example, our mum and dad are coming to see us and it's a big night out for them. And our younger brothers and sister all love music too. Our younger brother Logan is in a band called Sad Tomorrow who are brilliant as well, so he loves music and I think it's great - Lauren?"Lauren: "Yeah I definitely agree."
Do you think it's brought you closer?
Lauren: "Yeah, cause me and Taylor sometimes think about before we were in Brand New Friend, apart from on the bus to school, there wasn't a lot of stuff that we had in common and would do together."
Taylor: "We were always close growing up though."
Lauren: "We were always close growing up but I think this has given us more opportunities to..."
Taylor: "...annoy each other!" *laughter*
Lauren: "Which Taylor successful manages pretty much every day."
Taylor: "Entirely my fault, but Lauren is very patient and lovely and we are - we're really, really close. And I think if we weren't this wouldn't work."
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| Siblings Lauren and Taylor, photo on 35mm film |
What's the biggest challenge that Brand New Friend have ever been faced with?
Aaron: "Dealing with Taylor on a daily basis." *laughter*
Taylor: "Completely aha! We've been really lucky, since we've started this band very few things have went wrong..."
Lauren: "I think I know one. I think for us it's being impatient because we just want to do a gig pretty much every day of our lives so just having to find the balance between playing on a regular basis but not playing so often that people sort of get sick of you, so I think the biggest challenge when it comes to us is being patient when it comes to gigs."
Luke: "This one time as well, on my way down to Galway, we stopped at Apple Green and the guy gave me a double cheeseburger at Burger King instead of an XL double cheeseburger and that was a really tough time for me in the band. Near left the band over that, so I think that's probably it for me." *laughter*
Do you guys have any hobbies that you turn to to rejuvenate creativity?
Aaron: "Other than Fifa?"
Taylor: "Other than Aaron beating me in Fifa..."
Aaron: "I'm pretty good at Fifa like. Top 1% in the world, I'll have you know."
Lauren: "If I mention the fact that I like to read everyone is gonna call me a nerd. I'm an English student so I think reading is something that sort of chills me out. And books provide infinite inspiration really, so I'm all about 'the books'. Nerd alert!"
Taylor: "I'm going to have a nerdy thing too, I like running."
Aaron: "In what world is that nerdy? Thats the opposite to nerdy..."
Taylor: "Well it's just a bit lonely. It's a loner thing. Just run by myself all the time. Yeah running and swimming. I love swimming in the sea and I do that quite a bit and I think that just clears my head."
Luke: "I'm just trying to think of what I do with my life. Yeah I pretty much don't do anything these days except work and be in Brand New Friend and that's probably it. No, that's about it."
Aaron: "It sounds like I was joking when I said Fifa but probably Fifa. I'm also big into vinyl, I spend time listening to music a lot."
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| Brand New Friend, photo on 35mm film (l-r) Lauren, Taylor, Luke, Aaron |
What would you be doing now if Brand New Friend didn't exist?
Aaron: "Playing Fifa!"
Taylor: "I'd be just in my room. I'd be very lonely. I'd be a very upset child because I'd have all these emotions and not have a vehicle to let them out. I would not be as happy as I am. I'd be very sad."
Lauren: "I think I'd just be pretty bored. I'd still be in Uni, still studying English because I do like it but I'd probably just be really bored and probably doing more Uni work than I do right now so that would probably be a positive thing! Yeah but probably just studying."
Aaron: "I'd probably just be in another band. Because before Brand New Friend I was in a band with Luke anyway so me and Luke would probably be in that band, probably not doing anywhere near as well as Brand New Friend but we'd just be playing in Luke's shed."
Is there a specific song that you remember most from your childhood?
Lauren: "I have one that embarrasses Taylor, but his first CD that he ever bought was 'Are You Ready For Love' by Elton John and I can just remember Taylor listening to that wee CD. So that song really sticks in my head."
Aaron: "Mine is also embarrassing. I loved Ugly Kid Joe when I was a child and 'Everything About You' by Ugly Kid Joe would be the song I remember. It starts off with this weird cartoon voice. They were trying to be Pearl Jam but they weren't Pearl Jam."
Luke: "The first album I had was one my dad bought me when I was maybe 6 or 7 and it was 'Give Out But Don't Give Up' by Primal Scream. I think that whole album pretty much - when I think about music from my childhood, it always comes back to that album."
Taylor: "I have two. My cool one is 'Final Straw' by Snow Patrol. I remember my dad buying that around the same time he did the London marathon so we had that in the car a lot and 'How to be Dead' is one of my favourite songs of all time that opens that album, so that song means a lot to me and that album means a lot to me. And the other nerdy one is The Feeling's 'Twelve Stops and Home', because they have 'Fill My Little World' on it which I absolutely love. When I was in P6, we had to bring in an album by your favourite band and my favourite band at the time was The Feeling *laughter* so I played that for the class thinking I was edgy! So Snow Patrol and The Feeling. Two very different bands."
If you could have written any song, what would it be?
Taylor: "'Theres is a Light That Never Goes Out'! That's the best song of all time."
Aaron: "If I could write one song it would be 'Mayonnaise' by Smashing Pumpkins."
Taylor: "What a shout Aaron Milligan!"
Lauren: "Because he loves mayonnaise."
Aaron: "Because I love mayonnaise and I love the Smashing Pumpkins."
Luke: "Probably Higgs Bosom Blues by Nick Cave. I saw it live there for the first time the other night and it blew me away as a song and it's about 8 minutes long and just builds the whole way through. There's no chorus in it so every lyric is different and the lyrics in it are a masterpiece, so I think that's probably it."
Lauren: "I'm going to say 'Landslide' by Fleetwood Mac."
Taylor: "Lauren Johnson!"
Aaron: "Bangerico!"
Do you find that your ambition and putting everything into the band has any effect on your personal life?
Taylor: "Completely."
Aaron: "It takes over but in the best way. It has to take over. If you want to do it and you want it to be the main thing in your life, make it the main thing in your life. Push everything else to the side. See this whole having something to fall back on - if you have something to fall back on, you're not putting a hundred percent into being in a band. Some times we'll meet other bands and say we're putting 100% into everything and they'll say that's not the right attitude. Why not? Why not try your best to do it? Even just for a while."
Lauren: "Yeah I think in terms of just the strain on your life it can just result in a little bit of stress because being ambitious you want... this is the end goal and you're putting so much into it you can kind of put yourself under a bit of pressure, but I think it helps that we're all on the same page and we're all equally as ambitious as each other, so it doesn't have any personal difficulties within the band because we're all really committed to it, so everyone is on the same page."
Taylor: "Yeah I agree with Lauren entirely. I think this whole thing would be a lot more difficult if the four of us weren't all pushing in the same direction and didn't all love it equally. But the fact that we've all kind of found each other and we're all committed to it, that really helps. But yeah it definitely puts a strain on your personal life and you have to put it above everything if you want to do it as a career, there's nothing else you can do. But because it is our passion and we would be totally lost without it, we all push so much into it and push in the same direction. Yeah it can be tough but you do it purely for the love of it and we all have no shortage of love for this thing."
What's your favourite song to play live?
Lauren: "Mine is 'Milk Chews' because it's quite a pared down moment in the set. It's not slow but it has a different energy to the rest of the songs and it's one of my favourite songs that we have in general so I always just really enjoy playing it live."
Aaron: "Mine is a song called 'Girl' because it's so Ramones and it's just awesome to channel your inner Dee dee - it's awesome. I love it. It's so fast and it always seems to bring a crowd round, so yeah I just like playing it."
Luke: "I think mine is 'Milk Chews', same as Lauren. It's the song of the set that I have most fun playing and I'm a big fan of music that builds up. The new song we're playing tonight, 'The Blame' is probably one of my favourites to play at the minute as well."
Taylor: "My favourite is a song called 'I Hate It When You Have To Go' because the lyrics mean a lot to me but Aaron also has this bass riff that runs through it that he says is really simple but it's one of my favourite, favourite baselines and I adore it. But singing that song means an awful lot to me every single time we play it. It never gets less emotional and I feel it every single time so I love playing that song."
Aaron: "I also love when we play 'A&E'. We don't do it often because its usually quite acoustic-y but we've a new arrangement and we've played it a couple times. We played it at a show in Katy's Bar and everyone sang it back to us and it was incredible."
Aaron: "Mine is also embarrassing. I loved Ugly Kid Joe when I was a child and 'Everything About You' by Ugly Kid Joe would be the song I remember. It starts off with this weird cartoon voice. They were trying to be Pearl Jam but they weren't Pearl Jam."
Luke: "The first album I had was one my dad bought me when I was maybe 6 or 7 and it was 'Give Out But Don't Give Up' by Primal Scream. I think that whole album pretty much - when I think about music from my childhood, it always comes back to that album."
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| Drummer Luke Harris, photo on 35mm film |
If you could have written any song, what would it be?
Taylor: "'Theres is a Light That Never Goes Out'! That's the best song of all time."
Aaron: "If I could write one song it would be 'Mayonnaise' by Smashing Pumpkins."
Taylor: "What a shout Aaron Milligan!"
Lauren: "Because he loves mayonnaise."
Aaron: "Because I love mayonnaise and I love the Smashing Pumpkins."
Luke: "Probably Higgs Bosom Blues by Nick Cave. I saw it live there for the first time the other night and it blew me away as a song and it's about 8 minutes long and just builds the whole way through. There's no chorus in it so every lyric is different and the lyrics in it are a masterpiece, so I think that's probably it."
Lauren: "I'm going to say 'Landslide' by Fleetwood Mac."
Taylor: "Lauren Johnson!"
Aaron: "Bangerico!"
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| Lauren, photo on 35mm film |
Taylor: "Completely."
Aaron: "It takes over but in the best way. It has to take over. If you want to do it and you want it to be the main thing in your life, make it the main thing in your life. Push everything else to the side. See this whole having something to fall back on - if you have something to fall back on, you're not putting a hundred percent into being in a band. Some times we'll meet other bands and say we're putting 100% into everything and they'll say that's not the right attitude. Why not? Why not try your best to do it? Even just for a while."
Lauren: "Yeah I think in terms of just the strain on your life it can just result in a little bit of stress because being ambitious you want... this is the end goal and you're putting so much into it you can kind of put yourself under a bit of pressure, but I think it helps that we're all on the same page and we're all equally as ambitious as each other, so it doesn't have any personal difficulties within the band because we're all really committed to it, so everyone is on the same page."
Taylor: "Yeah I agree with Lauren entirely. I think this whole thing would be a lot more difficult if the four of us weren't all pushing in the same direction and didn't all love it equally. But the fact that we've all kind of found each other and we're all committed to it, that really helps. But yeah it definitely puts a strain on your personal life and you have to put it above everything if you want to do it as a career, there's nothing else you can do. But because it is our passion and we would be totally lost without it, we all push so much into it and push in the same direction. Yeah it can be tough but you do it purely for the love of it and we all have no shortage of love for this thing."
"If you have something to fall back on, you're not putting a hundred percent into being in a band."
What's your favourite song to play live?
Lauren: "Mine is 'Milk Chews' because it's quite a pared down moment in the set. It's not slow but it has a different energy to the rest of the songs and it's one of my favourite songs that we have in general so I always just really enjoy playing it live."
Aaron: "Mine is a song called 'Girl' because it's so Ramones and it's just awesome to channel your inner Dee dee - it's awesome. I love it. It's so fast and it always seems to bring a crowd round, so yeah I just like playing it."
Luke: "I think mine is 'Milk Chews', same as Lauren. It's the song of the set that I have most fun playing and I'm a big fan of music that builds up. The new song we're playing tonight, 'The Blame' is probably one of my favourites to play at the minute as well."
Taylor: "My favourite is a song called 'I Hate It When You Have To Go' because the lyrics mean a lot to me but Aaron also has this bass riff that runs through it that he says is really simple but it's one of my favourite, favourite baselines and I adore it. But singing that song means an awful lot to me every single time we play it. It never gets less emotional and I feel it every single time so I love playing that song."
Aaron: "I also love when we play 'A&E'. We don't do it often because its usually quite acoustic-y but we've a new arrangement and we've played it a couple times. We played it at a show in Katy's Bar and everyone sang it back to us and it was incredible."
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| (l-r) Taylor, Lauren, Aaron, Luke, joined by Joel Harkin at the bottom, photo on 35mm film |
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