Straight out of the Brighton Institute of Modern Music, Friends Are Foes are a pop-punk band with a bright future. We had a quick chat with bassist Charley.
First of all, who are you guys and what do you do?
We are Friends Are Foes. South coast pop-punk. Made up of Matt, Huseyin, Charley and Daryl, and we are all students at BIMM.
So presumably that is how you all met? How did you make the decision to form a band?
I randomly met Hus at a gig, and then bumped into him at uni one day. They played at a BIMM showcase at the end of term and they played one of my favourite songs (‘Beech Like The Tree’ by Lower Than Atlantis). The bassist they used for that gig was lazy, so they kicked him out and asked me to be in the band when I showed interest in it!
What would you say your main influences are? Are you all into relatively similar things?
We’re all really into pop punk. Our main influences are The Story So Far, Lower Than Atlantis and Four Year Strong.
So, if you could play a show with any three bands, would it be them? Or do you think you might all have a different opinion?
Yeah. Maybe Man Overboard too!
You have your debut release coming out soon, tell us a bit about it.
We recorded two tracks at AudioBeach in Brighton and one live track recorded by our friend Alex Adam from ROAM (Eastbourne pop-punk band) at Mettway studios. We’re going to print a limited 100 copies of our EP on CD, then it will be available on digital download. It’ll be available at our next gig (if they turn up on time!) at Sticky Mike’s on the 16th of June.
So you guys have been busy recently!
We’ve been practicing like crazy this week and writing some new tracks.
Studying at BIMM must be a great way to meet other like-minded people that want to get involved in similar projects, right?
Without a doubt! It’s great being around talented musicians on a daily basis, and if I weren’t to be studying at BIMM I would have never been in Friends Are Foes! The Kooks went to BIMM and so did recent [BRITSs Critics’ Choice] award winning Tom Odell.
Any current BIMM bands/musicians you think people should be keeping an eye out for?
Definitely! ROAM are another pop punk band from BIMM, ReVerbed are a very hardworking BIMM band too, and a band called The Monroe. They’re not exactly my usual musical taste, but their talent is effortless and their songs are super catchy.
Catch Friends Are Foes at Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar on 16th June alongside River Jumpers, As It Is, ROAM and Tough Kid Luck.
