Saskatoon’s Friends of Foes will kick off their Western Canadian tour on July 31and stop in Banff on Aug. 2 for a show at the Elk & Oarsman along with Vancouver’s No Island.
The four-piece indie band consisting of Anthony Nickel (bass, vocals), Matt Stinn (guitar, vocals), Celeste Nicholson (lead vocals) and Keegan Stretch (drums, vocals) came out of the gate strong with their debut album Chronophobic in 2013, and followed it with the catchy and popular single “Winter,” for which the group made a video and vinyl recording for in 2014.
Now, the band is ready to embark on its western tour to show Alberta and B.C. what all the hard work has gone towards.
“As a band, we started writing in January of 2013, so if the numbers are right we’re about two years and four months in,” Stinn said. The group is creating an impressive amount of material in such a short amount of time, but seeing as Stinn and Stretch had already built a friendship and career in the former project Come Hell or High Water, it’s no surprise the two are able to march in step in creating memorable songs.
“Keegan and I used to play in a punk band called Come Hell or High Water, and on the side I started writing guitar riffs that really didn’t fit in with it and then one day, right before we started jamming as a band, I showed Keegan some of the riffs and they were a big departure. They were very delayed and reverbed out kinds of riffs compared to the straightforward kind of power pop punk stuff we’d been playing,” Stinn said.
“He was pretty into it and I thought as a project it might be something a little softer, a little more acoustic, but he grabbed that and put it in his own direction – as a ’90s-influenced alternative drummer he definitely had his musical say and gave it a push in the direction it is now.”
That direction has been described as sonically driven, with boisterous guitars mixed with three-piece harmonies. The band also showed its drive by taking part in CBC’s Searchlight music contest, making it to the second round of the Saskatchewan regionals.
The group also benefits from having varied and eclectic tastes in music.
“I had met Celeste probably about three months earlier and we started the band at an acoustic coffee shop set. She was actually the opening act and I remember specifically she started her set with a version of “God Bless the Child” by Billie Holiday, which is a bit of a weird pick for an acoustic set,” Stinn said.
“She played a single note and just sang it a cappella, and all I can remember is saying ... ‘This is phenomenal, I need to be in a band with you.’ Three months later I called her and asked her to come over and jam and hang out and that turned into our first jamming and writing session and less than a year later we put out our first album.”
Usually the band formula has Stinn pitching song ideas to drummer Stretch and then working toward coming out with a rough arrangement. “Usually it’s pretty close to where it’s going to be, but it’s not totally there, he definitely has a lot to do with the arrangements of things, adding weird little tidbits here and there and the song layouts in general are based on the ideas I throw his way. Usually at that point, Celeste and Tony come in and bass and vocals get hammered out,” Stinn said.
“We very much work collaboratively together, although Celeste is the main vocalist. Me and her write most of the vocals together and although Tony’s the bassist, Keegan and Tony will work together on bass parts – we’re past the point of tiptoeing around each other; sometimes we’ll sit in a room and yell at each other about how we could play each other’s instruments better,” Stinn joked.
The band just finished recording its upcoming six-song vinyl EP, and is in the initial stages of mixing and mastering with plans for a February release in 2016.
