FEATURE: Spotlight: DEBBY FRIDAY — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

DEBBY FRIDAY

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HAVING played…

PHOTO CREDIT: Katrin Braga for The Line of Best Fit

at London’s Roundhouse last night (11th November), there is a lot of love and support in the U.K. for DEBBY FRIDAY. A stunning Electronic artist based in Toronto, her debut album, GOOD LUCK, was released through Sub Pop this year - where it deservedly won Canada’s Polaris Music Prize. I am going to get to some reviews for GOOD LUCK. With all Spotlight features, it is worth pulling in some interviews. Gaining traction and popularity in the U.K., I know that DEBBY FRIDAY’s music is connecting with people around the world. I am going to start out with an interview from The Line of Best Fit from earlier in the year. In promotion of the as-then upcoming GOOD LUCK, we learn more about her artistry and music. She is a compelling artist that everyone should follow:

“Decades down the family tree of Audre Lorde’s thinking on the transformative power of our erotic nature, which triggered an awakening that still resonates strongly today, FRIDAY’s multidisciplinary work is centred on the idea of the erotic and togetherness. “[Those two things] are very linked in the way that I understand music, and the way that I communicate through music,” she says. “I think music is metaphysical because it's both tangible and intangible. You’re dealing with stuff that is unseen, but at the same time it’s felt in the body.”

It’s a theory that she has talked about at length, and one that guides her expression through a multitude of avenues like filmmaking, writing, directing, music-making and her study of philosophy, psychology and mysticism. Armed with acid-laced drum pads and subaquatic basslines, FRIDAY plunges into the depths of herself, allowing her inner turmoil to be a source of information that prompts unfiltered creativity.

She takes her cues from the works of philosopher Carl Jung and his concept of the ‘shadow self’, using electronic punk as a tool to illuminate every aspect of herself. “I am a very firm believer in the Jungian theory that states that what is not let in through the front door will come in through the backdoor, every time,” she says. “If you don’t face your shadow – the ugly and disgusting parts of yourself, the parts that you’re ashamed of – then you’re going to have a lot of issues in life.”

FRIDAY’s artistry transcends genre and exists as a style she describes as “both a hybrid of feeling and emotion.” It’s inspired by a collection of her experiences, from warehouse raves to her early exposure to the internet and pop culture as a young child. She recalls hours spent downloading music through LimeWire, feeling as though she had everything at her fingertips while discovering genres old and new.

The music of Nigerian juju musician King Sunny Ade and Afrobeat originator Fela Kuti floated in the background of her childhood, along with folk gospel music. The electronic genre crept into her realm during high school, but her connection to it gradually bloomed when she began rave-hopping through Montreal’s nightlife circuit at age 15.

It was during her time in university that she surrendered to the experience and immersed herself in this space that was also largely informed by the underground Soundcloud culture of the time. Friday soon found DJ’ing, which was influential in establishing a foundation for her own production style. Although she only did it “for a little under a year,” the experience allowed her to travel around North America and over to Europe, bringing her into contact with “all these different communities of artists who were making the most strange and interesting kinds of music.”

Quitting the nightlife scene, unhappy with how it affected her mental wellbeing, FRIDAY moved from Montreal to Vancouver, where she taught herself how to produce her own music, gathering resources from YouTube and other online platforms. “Essentially, I just went after the sounds that I liked,” she says. “I didn’t really have an understanding of how to create a track or how to make music, but I knew what I liked”.

NME are big fans of DEBBY FRIDAY. I am going to get to a very recent interview that they conducted. First, back in April, they chatted with the artist and producer about her debut album, performing at SXSW, and her first global tour. GOOD LUCK truly is one of the best albums of this year:

“NME: How do you feel about sharing ‘Good Luck’ with the world?

“I’m very excited. It feels like it’s been a long time in the making so I’m just ready and I’m ready to see what happens. When I made the album I had the intention of making something that felt honest and I feel like I accomplished that with ‘Good Luck’. It feels authentic to me and to so many parts of my artistry. It’s a very personal album.”

Was it daunting to produce and write such an authentic record?

“I don’t think I’ve had a choice. Even from the beginning as a young person growing up in a very strict household being myself was an act of rebellion. When you’re in a really structured environment you have to find ways to express yourself outside of your home. You have to find ways to be honest about who you are. It comes automatically, I don’t know what else I would do.”

You’ve previously said that if you could describe your music in one word you’d choose ‘thunder’. What word would you use to describe ‘Good Luck’?

“I would say ‘journey’. A lot of the emotion that went into ‘Good Luck’ was coming from a place of feeling lost and finding myself and becoming myself. A lot of those songs are me in the present time writing to a past self, either sharing words of comfort or reflection. One of the things I wanted to do with this album was connect with people who had similar experiences. If you’ve ever felt lost, or like ‘what am I doing’ or ever wondered, ‘is this heaven, is this hell?’ I wanted to translate that question of ‘who am I?’ into the album to let people know they aren’t alone in that experience. It’s something that’s very common and a lot of people go through that, and a lot of my album speaks to that.”

What messages were you hoping to share with those past versions of yourself on ‘Good Luck’?

“I love you. Don’t be scared. Keep going. Especially keep going. I never thought I’d be a musician. I was very creative as a child but the idea of being a musician never entered my mind. My parents are immigrants and I had no understanding of the music industry. Even now, putting out this album I still feel so in awe of everything. I have a lot of gratitude and I’m still wide-eyed. I’m still like ‘what life am I living right now?’ So I would tell my younger self, ‘keep going’. Everything I’ve been through all of the pain all of the suffering, all of the fucked up moments, my path hasn’t been linear but I can say now on the other side that it’s worth it.”

You’ve described yourself as the “zillennial anti-heroine”. What is it about that title suits you?

“I feel in between generations. I’m a very young millennial and I grew up on the internet which I think is the dividing factor. I call myself an anti-heroine because I think if you look at the beginning of my story, you wouldn’t think I’d eventually figure things out. I was very lost and rebellious when I was younger. Now, I feel like an unexpected underdog in a certain sense”.

Prior to getting to some reviews, I am going to jump to this recent NME interview. Reflecting on her Polaris award win for GOOD LUCK, defying genres and a successful year, DEBBY FRIDAY revealed what it was like listening back to her debut album now:

“With Sub Pop backing her do-it-yourself mentality and two EPs drumming up her subversive sonics, Friday released ‘Good Luck’ in March of this year. The album followed suit of her previous releases, brimming with caustic confidence and showcasing a melting pot of soundscapes, with Friday’s soulful and sinister vocal delivery pontificating about love and hardship while outlining what she told NME during her SXSW debut earlier this year was the “journey” to become herself.

The vibrating, pulsating single ‘So Hard To Tell’ leads the album’s charge, as she sings to her younger self, asking a protagonist in a sultry register “All alone by yourself in the city / Act like you don’t need help / Honey, honey Is this heaven or hell?”. In other moments, like ‘What A Man’ Friday plays with timeless orchestration, building her voice over blistering echoing retro guitars, repeating “what a man” with the veracity of a funk singer. ‘Good Luck’ is a testament to how comfortable Friday is being both vulnerable and daring. It’s a clear evolution from her earlier EPs, and she’s not done growing.

“I did what I set out to do with this album,” she says. “Now I am in a completely different emotional space. When I listen back to it, it can be very heavy at times. I feel like I got it all out in the album and I’ve been working on my new music and hearing the difference between where I am now sonically and emotionally. I’m in a different place and it’s a different tone. I feel like the Polaris Award was almost this bow on top of ‘Good Luck’.”

Now that she’s wrapping her last life cycle the different place she’s in can be heard in her latest single ‘Let U In’, a glittery, drum ‘n’ bass love song she wrote while on tour in Melbourne, Australia. “I wrote the song about surrendering to love and missing your boo when you’re on tour,” she says. “I felt very happy and vulnerable and wanted to explore romantic vulnerability. I’m using my voice in a different way and the emotion feels lighter. It expands in a different direction, and the sound of my next album is similar.

Next month, Friday heads back out on a global tour, something she’s eager to embark on now that she’s able to revisit her past through her music and still show her fans the optimistic and lighter emotions she’s feeling in the present. “The power of music is what really takes me,” she says when asked about performing ‘Good Luck’ to fans. “I’m in awe of it.”

Now, with an award-winning debut behind her and a future of mining new sounds from fresh emotions, Friday is looking forward to what’s next while still wonderstruck about what she’s created so far. “Of course, you have goals and aspirations but having these things come true and all of it exceeding your expectations?” she says with a smile and a pause. “That’s a wild feeling”.

GOOD LUCK was received with a lot of acclaim when it came out. I am going to include a couple of the great reviews it scooped. Stereogum were compelled by the feverishness and epic quality of a compelling and confident debut from DEBBY FRIDAY:

“The artist that goes by Debby Friday was born in Nigeria and grew up in Canada, bopping around different cities before landing in her for-now home base of Toronto. She came up in the clubs and started out as a DJ but quickly branched out into making music of her own. Her debut EP came out in 2018, and it was called BITCHPUNK: a sort of genre signifier to label her aggressive, domineering sound. Another EP, DEATH DRIVE, followed the next year. Both early releases had their moments, but neither could prepare you for the sheer ambition GOOD LUCK.

Her first full-length is sweaty and determined, eager to deliver on its teeth-chattering beats with a feverish intensity. The influences are obvious, but the ways that Debby Friday crashes those sounds together are not. There are healthy dashes of Nine Inch Nails and Death Grips in her industrial gothic thump; there’s a dose of Crystal Castles in the shattered glass beat of “HOT LOVE.” You might be reminded on Beyoncé’s recent foray into the pulse-racing annals of house music on the opening title track, or the strangled guitars of Yves Tumor on “WHAT A MAN.” She spits and twists into raunchy rap on “HEARTBREAKERRR,” launches herself into sloppy religious ecstasy on “PLUTO BABY.”

There’s nothing necessarily groundbreaking about the sonics of GOOD LUCK, but its executed so well. Every one of its shadows have contours. Debby Friday has it all: songs that make you feel like that bitch, songs to wallow in, songs to lose your dignity to. Her voice is versatile and elastic — sometimes it channels disco detachment, other times it takes the form of a vicious snarl. In between the cockiness, a more conflicted figure emerges: “I’ve been a bad girl/ Oh, all my life,” she sings on “LET U DOWN,” a song that cycles through different perspectives, all downbeat and downtrodden. “I’ve been a mean lover, I’ve been a dream crusher/ I know I let you down.”

And I’ve been holding out on you, saving the best for last. The clear standout on GOOD LUCK — and the song that I think might make Debby Friday a star — is “SO HARD TO TELL,” the one where she ditches her music’s spikiness and softens her sound into a hypnotic, intoxicating loop. Pulled apart by forces beyond her control, Debby Friday navigates the wild swings of a soul that’s never content. “You’re just a young girl/ All alone by yourself/ In the city/ Act like you don’t need help,” she sings. “Honey, honey/ Is this heaven or hell?/ When it gets like this/ It’s so hard to tell.” The song is soothing and immensely catchy, and though it doesn’t contain any of GOOD LUCK’s in-your-face sonics, it’s just as tenacious and bold”.

I will finish up with Loud and Quiet’s take on an album from an artist and producer that I have a lot of respect for. DEBBY FRIDAY has just played in London, so that will boost her already large U.K. fanbase. With more dates set to come in 2024, many will also look forward to new music. There is no doubt that GOOD LUCK made a big impact with critics:

“Don’t you fuck it up / Give it what you got,” sings Debby Friday in the opening moments of her debut record, GOOD LUCK. The Nigerian-born, Toronto-based artist has produced a coming-of-age record that candidly deals with past mistakes as well as inserting positive affirmations to serve as reminders to continue growing as both a person and artist. In her lyrics, there’s evidence of a life lived and lessons learned, both in the personal and professional sphere. “You’re just a young girl / All alone by yourself in the city / Act like you don’t need help,” she intones, with an endearing vulnerability in her cadence on ‘So Hard To Tell’. A few songs later, ‘Pluto Baby’ ushers in a far more assured Friday whose unflinching presence is magnetic not only on this song but throughout the record.

Metallic timbres and industrial beats provide solid foundations to these ten instantly immersive and infectious arrangements. An overarching Y2K sensibility dominates some of the electronic elements woven into the defiant musical personality of the propulsive centrepiece ‘Hot Love’ and the pop-tinged ‘Heartbreakerrr’, which already feels like an instant classic designed to be sung late into the night. Elsewhere, Friday injects tonal variety towards the end of the LP with the sultry (and slightly unexpected) ‘What A Man’ melding a Cure-esque bass riff and a Slash-like solo within a nocturnal setting, yielding similarly magnetic results in the way these worlds collide in an Yves Tumor tune.

There’s an extraordinary elasticity across GOOD LUCK’s masterful production that makes repeated listens not just enjoyable but irresistible. Friday establishes a great sense of balance throughout the ten tracks. From the industrial, claustrophobic gloom of the album’s title track and ‘I Got It’ to the sweeter and more spacious compositions, Friday moves seamlessly through these deftly-engineered soundscapes. There’s always something new to hone in on and further draw you into this immensely multi-faceted body of work that further illuminates her dexterity as a songwriter and performer. It’s in these moments, and her faultless portrayal of GOOD LUCK’s commanding protagonist, where we can see the artistic evolution since the release of early EPs Bitchpunk (2018) and Death Drive (2019).

If there’s only one thing to be said about Debby Friday’s poised debut it’s that she most certainly gave it all that she’s got”.

A producer and artist who has already been tipped for greatness, I know that the next year or two will see DEBBY FRIDAY ascend to new heights. GOOD LUCK has been followed with amazing singles like let u in. Always creating such physical, soulful and dynamic sounds, I am going to watch DEBBY FRIDAY closely. She is an amazing talent that we all need…