Interview: Just Friends
Just Friends aka The JF Crew
Ending the summer with Just Friends' latest album Gusher was one of the most fun releases we heard this year, showcasing the band at their peak as they expertly blend funk, pop-punk, 90s hip-hop, and disco into the ultimate summer party soundtrack.
Freshly returned to her Bay Area home after the band's autumn North American tour, we caught up with vocalist Brianda Goyos Leon, known by her stage name Brond, to delve into the creative process behind Gusher, her experiences of crafting lyrics as a non-native English speaker, and the allure of patiently awaiting Keyshia Cole's "Love" on the radio.
To kick things off, for those out there who don't know your music how would you describe Just Friends?
“It sounds like the kind of party you remember for the rest of your life.”
From the outside, it seems you have been super busy with back-to-back albums this year and last.
“It would seem that way, but Hella had to get shelved during the pandemic. It was mostly done in 2018/19. We did a couple more tracks during the pandemic itself and released those EPs that have some singles from the record during the pandemic just to keep the ship afloat a little bit. We also used them to experiment with a more produced pop sound.
It's funny, people had mixed opinions about the EPs, but now they seem relevant and contemporary. By the time Hella came out in 2022 it was two/three years after we recorded it. So we were over it by the time it came out and were very eager to get going with Gusher. In those couple of years, we had grown and changed so much as people.”
Have you had much of a chance to play the new songs live yet?
“Only on our headliner tour in the fall. It was mid-September to late October. Before that, we didn't tour this year. ”
Are you looking to tour more next year then?
Yes we are, we have the Mom Jeans date, a pair of headline dates in January, and the Hot Mulligan tour. We also have a couple of other situations still baking; we're looking to go to Europe, so maybe we'll see you in the summer.”
Have you toured much in the UK at all before?
“I've been to the UK once on tour, and that was maybe in 2017/18 it's been a while. It was horrible (Brond laughing). The crowds are amazing, but we went in January and I was not ready for winter whatsoever it was difficult.”
You're from the Bay Area aren't you, so probably not used to how grey, cold and bleak it is over here in the Winter.
“Yes man, and I am originally from Mexico City. So you can say I'm a tropical person, so it was tough for me in winter.”
Even though the temperature doesn't get super low here it always seems to hit harder here.
“It hits you right in the bones.”
That hometown date with Mom Jeans next year must be pretty special.
“At the Fox (2,800 capacity historic venue). Can you believe they're headlining the Fox? That's insane.”
It must be heavy on Sammy (vocals and guitar in Just Friends is also Mom Jeans’ bassist) to do multiple shows in a night.
“He loves to do two/three sets in a row. Sam and Yanko (Matt Yankovich), our lead guitarist, will do double duty because Yanko guitar techs for Mom Jeans.”
Do you have any other plans for the next year outside of touring?
“We’re itching to get back in the studio. We just love writing music and Gusher was such a great experience that we want to do it again. Right now there isn't anything planned, but we are keeping it in the back of our minds.
Also, I'm working on a solo EP. I had a jam with the boys this month that was amazing. I'm very happy and very excited. I know Sam also has a solo project already recorded and he's just waiting for the right time to focus on that. But I think as soon as we can get back into the studio we will.
Until then we’ll be pushing Gusher on TikTok because there's just so much to celebrate and share about that album. It’s streaming consistently, but we think that it can reach a little bit higher than where it's at right now.”
Talking about Gusher what were your influences on the album?
“When thinking about Gusher we had this collaborative playlist to be in each other's brains and understand where everyone was at musically. The songs that I contributed were ‘Promises’ by Cleo Sol which is a very laid-back soul/RnB acoustic arrangement. ‘Baby One More Time’ by The Marías which is so cool. ‘Over My Head’ by Alabama Shakes and Beyoncé of course, I gotta have Beyoncé in their ‘Déjà Vu’ live from the Homecoming album. We had a lot of Paramore on the list. One of the songs I loved that was added on here is ‘Love Like This’ by Faith Evans which was a Brandon (rhythm guitar) contribution. I was listening to that every day, as well as Gorillaz and Daft Punk from Ben, our drummer.”
What's the creative process like for the band?
“It's been interesting to be in a band for so many years because the process has changed. It kinda grows along with you. The process for Gusher was very, very collaborative, and very democratic, and we needed that.
Because there were people in the band previously that had a more dominant role, we were young and we weren't sure of what we were supposed to do. We were trying to do the right thing, and I think a lot of us, myself included, were not super open to suggestions. Because some of the suggestions to me from a previous member seemed like they were more about changing the expression that is my perspective. Adjusting that in a way where it almost cleansed the end product of me, my perspective, the way that I express myself, and the way that I speak. We were having a lot of arguments over semantics, punctuation, and things like that. I understand now that it was an attempt to collaborate or refine the music. But I don't think that there's anything about the way that I express myself that needs to be refined.
We hadn't written together in a while, and everybody was feeling a little bit burned by the process of Hella. It was just challenging on so many levels. So for Gusher we needed collaborative and democratic processes, and went to work at Barbershops Studios in Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey with Brett Romnes. He was such a big part of the writing process. He provided the structure for us to develop the songs allowing us to do a song a day.
We stayed together at an Airbnb five minutes down the road. It felt like living in a cool fraternity/sorority/dorm room kind of situation. We'd get up, get coffee and bagels and come into the studio. Everybody would get their good morning hug and settle in. Then talk about what's the mood today what are you looking to elaborate on? We had a little bank of demos that the boys did a lot of the groundwork for, in the hot practice room getting through the writer's block. We would pick a song and jam on it for maybe 30 minutes or something everybody gets a couple of takes and finds their inspiration within the song. Then we would start tracking the instruments.
A lot of the time I would just sit in the control room and just listen to the song over and over again just letting it get into my brain. We only did vocals every couple of days. That would give me time to take the song plop it into my computer and find the tune. I stayed up to 5 am writing vocals in my room. It was super chill, super relaxed and honestly one of the highlights of my life to be able to create in that environment with so much space and peace around it. I’m very happy with the record and when I listened to it I think about what a beautiful experience it was.”
The recording process for Gusher sounds a little like the fantasy that people have about being in a band with everyone living together in one giant house, such as in The Monkees or Miami 7.
“Or if you saw the documentary of when the Red Hot Chili Peppers were recording Blood Sugar Sex Magik and they were in that house and got to be very experimental. It was the fantasy and it's hard to go back to the previous ways.
Normally, you don’t have much time, so you have to jam the songs beforehand until you're very sure of them, then you have two days to track everything and just four hours for vocals. So it was wonderful and we got to the point where we were wondering how we even made it work before, hopefully we can extend it even more next time.
Not to discount the creativity for our previous records or anything. I think music has a way of creating itself, no matter how much time you can spend on it. And I think whatever you end up with is the right thing in the moment. But god It sure does help to sit on a song for at least a day or two and really be able to get to know it before you add something else to it.”
I think you can hear the collaborative nature of the writing process in the songs on Gusher. Are there any hidden in-jokes and references in those songs? For instance ‘Cream & Sugar’ jumps to mind as a track that might have one or two.
“Well ‘Cream & Sugar’ originally wasn't going to be on the record. It was just a goofy song idea, a lot of Just Friends songs start like that they're kind of just bits. We went to Brooklyn on our day off and driving back at night and I put on this folder full of song segments that I made. I record our practices and jams on my phone.
I go through those cut-out little sections and throw them in a folder. I remember being really intentional about ‘Cream & Sugar’. I said to myself I like this piece, I'm gonna put it right here where the other approved demos are and put it in people's brains. As we were driving back running through what we had on that folder that one came up and everybody started singing along.
Everybody loves to sing in the band, we do these weird Gregorian chant harmonies but sing something like Big Booty something something… and everyone loved singing to that track so we did it the next day. I don't know if we were trying to get sexy with the track but she just did it by herself, a lot of the songs do what they want.
The beginning of ‘Life I'm Living In’ has this eight-bit intro. Brandon (rhythm guitar) was playing with this eight-bit computer and programmed a version of the intro, we loved it and decided it had to be on the track. ‘Brain Hurt Bad’ has a lot of jokes but they’re not so hidden.”
If you could show anybody any single track from Gusher what would it be?
“I love different tracks for different reasons. But if I had the opportunity to show somebody just one track from the album I would choose either ‘Zaza In The Sun :-)’ or ‘Love Bug’, I love that track.”
What's your approach to lyrics? Do you typically write them in the studio under pressure, or do you have some pre-planned ideas and themes that you bring in with you?
“Sammy is the latter, he keeps words and thoughts on his notes app and holds them up to a song and see if they could fit. I prefer to write in the moment sit down with a song and let the lyrics uncover themselves.”
As a non-native English speaker, and from Mexico, do you find that influences the way you write at all?
“Yes, I hail from the land of Mexico, Mexico City. I grew up there until I was eight years old and my first language is Spanish. That comes back to the semantics of the expression that I was talking about because I do utilise English mostly in the way that I learned in school but I do bend phrases a little bit. Sometimes on purpose but mostly because that's just how my brain is doing it. To some people, it's quirky, but to some people, it's just grammatically incorrect though I don't care what they think.”
At the end of the day, it's you, and it's the way you speak.
“Exactly and I think it's really important. I'm not an activist really by any means. But being a person that is a minority in pretty much every room, you have to keep an eye on those things a little bit more.
I know that when people see and hear me they are maybe seeing an archetype or they may be seeing something new and I could be their first or lasting impression of a Mexican. But what's at the core of what I push for in not being restrained in the rules of other people, is that I’m doing it for the other little Mexican girls like myself.
When I was younger, I only saw non-Mexicans on TV or as singers. That’s why I get protective over my identity. I'm not a person that likes to be restrained or told what to do. I've come a pretty long way to be here and I just don't think it's fair or right to restrain myself for others it comes down to ‘I've had bigger problems than you, so you're not about to take me down’.”
Do you incorporate Mexican sounds and influences into your songwriting?
“In the context of Just Friends, I bring it through the lyrics and probably the phrasing, although it's not necessarily intentional. Instrumentally I would say probably not, although Ben the drummer and I have this great synergy. He appreciates me and he appreciates Mexican culture. He's always trying to find ways to sneak a few Mexican-inspired beats in.
For the other instruments it doesn't happen as I don't presume that I can write a better guitar riff than Yanko or a better baseline than Kevin and I refer for them to bring their own expression into their instruments. So in the lens of Just Friends, I just stay hands off of the instruments themselves. Unless there's something that I really don't like, then I'll bring it up and say can we try something different here?”
Can you describe your journey into the alt-scene, and how your experiences of seeing few Mexican performers in mainstream media shaped your musical aspirations?
“When I was first exploring the possibility of singing in public the only Mexican artists that I knew was Selena, may she rest in peace, and the artists of my parents’ generation. I didn't know a lot of alternative artists growing up. But I remember connecting with Rage Against the Machine because of Zack (de la Rocha). I thought, this guy's cool, he's saying something, he's mad about it and I liked it.
As for the experience of getting into performing, I've always wrote songs, but it was more of a hobby, just a little thing I would record on my phone. I wasn't thinking I'd ever put them out. They were just these cute ideas for me to write down and listen to by myself for the rest of my life. Then in high school I tried out for the High School Musical and I ended up getting the lead role, which was surprising and validating because I had no training, nobody in high school did, but to go from not being involved in those things to getting the lead was a shock as I was just was expecting some smaller part.
After that, in college, I was majoring in psychology, but music fulfilled one of the requirements and I thought, oh yeah, let me take music theory, I love music, and I'd love to learn. By taking that class, I met other musicians and joined a jazz-rock combo and it became very clear that I could sing a little bit more naturally than other singers. I ended up in a band called Sweet Peaches and through that band, I met Just Friends.
We played a couple of shows together at a laser tag place. I had a little bit of a falling out with Sam over little kid s**t. We're just fighting over weird stuff and so I didn't see him for a couple of years and then he hit me up one day, asking if I wanted to sing backup vocals on a song for Just Friends. I loved it and the boys loved it. They said, just do whatever you want on the song. I did a lot of Wow wow waws. Then they had me doing more songs. I did everything that you hear on Nothing But Love in two or three sessions. It wasn't until I found myself in a parking lot in Florida, playing The Fest with Just Friends that it occurred to me that I was probably in the band and it's been really cool since then.”
Before we wrap this up are there any questions that I should have asked but haven't or anything else you want to talk about?
“I have a really nice dog, he’s a beautiful and very cute Siberian Husky with cinnamon colouring. He's red and white with heterochromia so has two different coloured eyes.
Something relevant would be about our lives when we aren't touring or recording. It's a very extreme lifestyle. There's these big, ginormous overwhelming highs. If I want to get real poetic I would call it these ecstatic moments. You hear people talk about wanting to get in the flow, line up their chakras and reach the Buddha state and that’s how I feel when I perform. It's interesting, I think, to be able to access that when you play music with your friends, when you play a show, or when you're singing on a record. But then you come back to the rest of your reality, where you have a secondary job and you’ve got to go clean your toilet.”
The reality of the life of a modern musician is something a lot of artists we talk to bring up, people look up to you on stage and don’t think about all the spreadsheets and expenses you have to make sure you actually survive the tour.
“Yes, enjoy your tour, but are you gonna come back positive? Even then creatives, musicians, and most people in society don't get paid well enough for their jobs. And I feel artists are near the bottom. It's tough to be so passionate about something and love it so much and find so much meaning in the work that you do and just have that not be reflected in how you operate in society. Music takes so much work, producing the record was very expensive. Plus everybody had to take a month off of their lives and their jobs and stop earning money so that we could do it.”
I assume it must be a big juggling act working out time off, taking sabbaticals or even just having to quit so you can do the thing you love.
“It's an interesting lifestyle. I think there's a lot of glamour around it by design but also it's not easy, it's a labour of love. It's not just not just the financial sacrifices. But all the kinds of hats that you have to wear to make it work, because now not just musicians we're social media marketers, content creators, editors or graphic designers as well it's such an endeavour. Plus the way that the industry is different now, it's definitely a lot more accessible, but it doesn't pay as much anymore and you're working more jobs.”
Last question: if you could only hear one if you could hear one song again for the first time? What song would it be?
“It’s ‘Love’ by Keyshia Cole, that song goes straight to the heart. It's this R&B track that came out around the time when I was in middle/high school. I didn't have a Napster or Limewire downloading situation set up and when I tried to download the track it almost downloaded a virus and freaked me out. And I said to myself, “No no, I'm just gonna listen to it on the radio”. So I would sit by the radio, just waiting for it to come on and I don't know why I didn't think to call in but I didn't I would just wait for it. And when it came on I would try to sing along, there's a very difficult riff in there that I still cannot do. It made me fall in love with the voice as a virtuosic instrument in a pop way.
That's how I would describe how I like to sing. I'm exploring the more subtle arts of the voice now. But at that time, or when I was coming up and finding my sound it was all about how hard can I sing on this pop song, and how close could I sound to Beyonce, she is a great example of virtuoso singing in a pop context.”
Gusher, the latest album from Just Friends, is out now via Pure Noise Records. If you are stateside catch the band on tour with Hot Mulligan next April!
