Oakville trio Friday Project released their debut album Nine Lives on November 28th. Jack Galloway (vocals, guitar), Aidan Girardo (drums), and Noah King (bass) wrote these nine tracks when they were 15, then spent a year getting them produced with Geoff Hlibka from Metal Works at Jack’s house. The band met in Grade 8, and they’re 17 now, pulling from Blink-182, Dominic Fike, and Nirvana across a record that hops between pop rock, alt rock, grunge, and punk. Their first single, “Capitola Coast”, has racked up over 40,000 Spotify streams, and the band sits at 16,000 monthly listeners with 7,700+ Instagram followers and over 3 million views.
The album begins with the band’s first single, “Capitola Coast”. There is a reason why it has the most streams; it has the widest appeal out of all the songs on the album. As the band takes us on a tour of nine different songs/lives, you’ll understand how different the music gets. With this one, it’s in the pop-rock realm, but “Pick Me Up (When I Fall)” and “Something, Anything” fall under the alt-rock umbrella. We’re seeing more and more of this trend of musicians breaking genre boundaries because, in reality, it’s all just music expressed from a group of people, and people contain multitudes and vast internal worlds.
Inside the world of the Friday Project band members, there is a lot of heaviness that wants to be expressed, and we start to see the first actual example of that with “Gunfight”. The drums here attack relentlessly and create that rock drive, and the vocals give us a glimpse of how heavy the band can be. They then ease us in with a delicate intro before giving us a full showcase of their heavy sound with “Domestic Disturbance” and its grunge-influenced sound. I personally think the band shines more in this sound, and the chorus on this song demonstrates the band’s power when they are in perfect sync with this heavy attitude; it’s remarkable.
“Kick Me” is probably the catchiest song on the album, and that is largely due to the great bassline hooking us the whole way through. The bass melody works in tandem with the rhythm section to create something memorable. The vocals here are delivered with the punk disregard for authority that works beautifully with the lyrics.
Taking a complete left turn, we find ourselves in country-rock land with “Mockingbird”. Acoustic guitars take centre stage, and with a laid-back drum groove, and lyrics talking about falling in love with a woman, we’ve got all the bells and whistles needed for a good ol’ country yearning song. However, the band’s voice still comes through as the sections where they drive up the dynamics, you can hear that grungy-grit creep back in, giving the song a unique edge and not trying to just be a parody of a genre, they really do have their own style.
The band ends the album with what is, in my opinion, the band’s best overall song, “You’re All I Need”. The song structure, melody, and lyrics are all polished and produced immaculately. How the song builds up and crashes back down is masterful from a songwriting perspective. The final lyric the vocalist screams out in the final song is “Please don’t leave me”, which is beautifully poetic, whether intentional or not.
There is a lot of great chemistry between the members of Friday Project on display here, which is a great sign for the longevity of the fans because it means we’ll get to enjoy their work for longer. These three have been playing together since Grade 8, and that foundation shows in how tight they sound across such varied material. They played their album release show at Monaghan’s Sports Bar on November 29th to over 200 people, so clearly there’s an audience already paying attention. For a debut from teenagers, this is a solid statement.
