YOUNG FRIEND
Born and raised in Vancouver, Young Friend is a modern rockstar. Not the sex, drugs, rock n roll kind, but that kind that sings about mental health and cares about the world around him. His newest song “THERAPY” is a much-needed check-in on how the trials of the last year have affected each of us. It’s thoughtful, colorful, and most importantly, genuine. Young Friend embodies exactly what it means to make music in 2021. He understands that music goes so far beyond the artist, and is an invaluable tool best used to build up your community: whether it’s locally by donating the proceeds from his new single to the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre in Vancouver, or globally by studying sustainable product design techniques and their various applications on music and music-adjacent processes. Give “THERAPY” a spin and check out the playlist he made just for us, linked below.
INTERVIEW
Interview by Bridgette
January 27, 2021
Happy New Year! I’m so excited to be back and I’m so excited to welcome young friend to Invertebrate. Thank you so much for being here!
Hey, thanks for having me!
You’re starting off the New Year right: your newest single “THERAPY” was just officially released yesterday. Congratulations!
Thank you so much! It’s exciting to have it out.
I’d love to hear more about this song: how it came about, the inspiration behind it, etc.
I wrote it about five months ago in my room in my house. I just wanted to write something about mental health; obviously, during quarantine there has been a big discussion about how it’s affecting everybody’s mental health. So I wrote this demo and I sent it to a few of my friends, and this one friend of mine was like “It needs a hook. It doesn’t have a chorus, you need to write a hook.” I was like “okay,” so I called my friend Kate, she lives in London. She’s the best topliner I know, she writes the craziest hooks. She helped me write the hook in like 30 minutes for the song. Everything after that just came together so quickly, and now we’re here!
In keeping with this theme of mental health, I know that you first released the track on Bandcamp to raise money for the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre. I would love to hear more about this and what it means to you!
The Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre is an organization from Vancouver. I’ve been paying attention to them and donating for a few years now, I just love everything that they do. In Vancouver, we have a big homeless population here, and they just provide support and resources for people that identify as women on the Downtown Eastside and help them get anything that they need. So it’s an organization that means a lot to me, and when we were thinking about things that we could do to give back, as the song is all about reaching out and taking care of yourself and others, they were the first organization that came to mind when we were having that discussion. It’s been really nice to be able to support them a little bit through this.
That’s some great work you’re doing, and we definitely need more of that. Did you grow up there in Vancouver?
Yeah, I’m born and raised in Vancouver. Grew up here and have lived here pretty much my whole life.
Wow, so you’ve been able to see the good work they’re doing and you wanted to help.
Absolutely. They’ve been around for a while, as well. I first heard about them through a friend when I was in high school and ever since then I’ve just been really impressed and inspired by the work they’re doing.
That’s great, and now you’re doing some work yourself!
So exciting, yeah!
More of a reason to listen to the song and become a fan! And I understand that you’re not just a musician, you’re an all-around artist. You’re also a student right now; I would love to hear more about what you’re studying and how that affected your music.
Yeah, I study Product Design here in Vancouver. There’s a big focus on sustainability in the program which is obviously very important to me. It’s been cool to learn about different textiles and things that we can use like in merch going forward, and things that we can do on tour that can help us be more sustainable and eco-friendly as we go about our work. But yeah, it’s definitely a lot balancing school and music at the same time. It’s a new routine that I’m getting into, but I think I’m starting to get into my groove here.
That’s really cool how you mentioned touring and merch: these are really important things for artists that are on pause right now. Has that allowed you the time to plan out what you want to do with this in mind?
Yeah, absolutely. Especially learning so much about sustainability and having all this time where we’re not playing shows and we don’t get to go on tour, it definitely gives me a lot of time to plan and think about okay, when we’re on tour, we want to try and do a zero-waste initiative and be as green as we can while we’re going from show to show. So it’s almost been nice, in a way, to have that time to really think about what kind of goals we want to set for ourselves when we’re back into the cycle.
That’s so cool to hear. And I know that in addition to that, you also used to be a dancer, right?
I did, yeah (laughs) that’s so funny. I was a dancer for 11 years: I started when I was six and I stopped when I was 17. I think that’s part of the reason why I enjoyed music so much and gravitated so much towards it, because I was around it since I was born, pretty much.
So what came first for you? Dance?
Yeah, I mean I’ve always been a creative person; I was a really creative kid growing up. But I didn’t start writing and playing music until I was 17, right when I stopped dancing. But I definitely think that that transition made a lot more sense after having all of the experience of being a dancer. And a lot of my really close friends are musicians, so it felt like a no brainer. It felt like that one thing that had kind of been waiting to happen; everyone was like, “when is he going to start playing songs or writing music?” And then it finally happened and now here we are!
Who were some of your earliest influences in music?
Growing up I listened to a wide range of things. A lot of classic rock: I listened to a lot of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin. But I also loved Al Green, Johnny Hathaway, and Nina Simone growing up. So it was a mixture of rock, kind of folk, as well, and then also this more blues/soul side of things. As I’ve gotten older it’s gotten even more eclectic. I feel like I listen to the widest range of stuff.
I can definitely hear that in your sound. I love that story of starting with dance and now studying product design and sustainability, and how it’s all contributed to your music. Do you have any other hidden talents?
(Laughs) I can juggle! That’s my hidden talent-- that’s my party trick. Everytime I’m at a party and there are limes or lemons or something, I’ll whip out my juggling skills.
That’s amazing! So you’re definitely a good person to have at a party!
(Laughs) I like to think so, maybe sometimes!
I'm curious, has being in lockdown allowed you more time to explore your other interests outside of music?
Yeah, it definitely has. It’s given me a lot of time to focus on my own health, as well, both my physical and mental health, which has been really positive. I think, as a whole, it’s a really common thing for us to just get so caught up in everything that’s going on and be worrying about work, school, and your social life. And when we locked down we kind of had this first moment to ourselves where we were I have nothing to do and nowhere to be, this is my first time with nothing planned. Obviously it took a lot of getting used to, but I took it as a moment to evaluate where I was at and think about how I wanted to improve. And even with music, it’s given me so much more time to really focus on the sound and the style that I want to go for, and experiment and try new stuff, as well.
Has your creative process changed at all in lockdown?
A little bit. Before lockdown, I hadn’t worked with any producers, hadn’t done any sessions or anything like that. Since I locked down, I’ve been doing lots of Zoom sessions and it’s definitely different. I was in LA for some sessions at the beginning of December, and it’s definitely different doing a session over Zoom than it is in person. But that’s been a change in the process for sure: collaborating more.
For sure, you were even saying for “THERAPY” you collaborated with your friend in London. That kind of stuff is so normal now.
Absolutely. We are so lucky to have the technology that we do, because I couldn’t imagine what it would’ve been like if we didn’t have that. But yeah, it was so easy, I just called her and was like, “hey, please help, I need you right now!” and she came through.
Right, and now we have “THERAPY”! Congratulations again on that release! Is there anything else we can look forward to in the future from you?
Yeah! I don't know how much I’m allowed to talk about: lots more new music. A couple more singles coming and then a project coming hopefully just before summer.
Exciting! That’s so much to look forward to!
Yeah!
Thank you so much for coming in and doing this! I really appreciated getting to hear more about your track “THERAPY;” I love what you said about lockdown being the time to reflect and look at your own mental and physical health, and I think this song has a great message. And I love what you’re doing with the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre so congratulations on all of that!
Yeah, thank you so much! I appreciate you having me, it’s been lovely talking to you about everything, as well!