Weakened Friends' New Album Speaks to the Times

Last month, Weakened Friends, a punky trio out of Portland, ME, band previewed its third album, Feels Like Hell, at Riot Fest in Chicago, playing an after-show with indie veterans Shudder To Think in the process. The high profile gigs suggest how the band’s popularity is on the rise.

“Riot Fest was probably one of the better festivals we have ever gotten to play,” says singer Sonia Sturino, who identifies as “they,” via phone from a Chattanooga tour stop. Weakened Friends performs on Saturday, Nov. 8, at the Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights. Rodeo Boys and Cool Party open. “It’s like looking at the Grand Canyon. My brain couldn’t wrap around the idea of how many people were there. It was great, and Shudder To Think were the sweetest guys. We were instant friends. It was a very cool vibe. We got to the venue and the club was so small that it was hard to load-in. They told us to just use their stuff.”

While the Feels Like Hell songs didn’t come quickly for the group, the cohesiveness of the album emerged when the writing process hit its stride in the latter part of 2024.

“We put out last record out in 2021, and it took a while to get back into the swing of things,” says Sturino. “I was burnt out. It was a weird time with COVID, and I was stressed out. We had a whole other set of weird songs that never fit right. We put out the single ‘Awkward” that sounded like those songs but became a stand along. We went in a different direction after that.”

The songwriting became more collaborative than it’s ever been on this outing as well.

“[Singer-bassist] Annie [Hoffman] and I live together and founded the band together,” says Sturino. “Historically, I have been the force behind the songwriting. I come up with lyrics and melody. For this one, we did things a little differently. We spent time in our home studio space and hashed out ideas. I have this bad habit of abandoning ideas before they’re seen through. She helped me to stick it through and make it to the finish line. She was almost coaching me into finishing songs, and I think everything is better because of it.”

Sturino admits the unstable political climate inspired many of the songs as well as the album title, which she describes as “for the times.”

“There is a sense of helplessness and hopelessness [today],” she says. “There is like a forced nihilism. I feel like forced nihilism is how the system wins. They want you to feel like you have no control, but I love the world so much. There is so much beauty and so much greatness. I think that is what fuels the hatred. It’s the effort to pull people apart and sow this seed of hatred. believe the world can be better than that. There is a sense of hope in my songs. We have to do something. I have seen the people coming to our shows and being there for a positive reason. That’s a glimmer of hope in a sea of hopelessness.”

The loud and then quiet dynamic approach of songs like “Tough Luck” evokes the post-punk sounds of acts such as the Pixies and Nirvana.

“We definitely made an intentional point of being more dynamic on this record,” says Sturino. “On records past, there has been this desire to be make biggest and loudest sound and fill up all the space. On this one, we wanted to be more thoughtful about how we used the sonic space to capture the emotions.”

A friendship with guitar hero Buckethead led to his appearance on the tune “NPC.” Sturino met him at Portland’s State Theatre, where she works as a house manager.

“He was a fan of the band,” says Sturino. “He’s been a strong supporter and kind of a mentor and shared musical ideas. He’s a really creative person.”

The album’s final track finds the band punking up the ’90s Natalie Imbruglia hit “Torn.”

“That song rocks,” says Sturino. “I grew up in the ’90s, and it was on radio all times. In later years, when the ’90s had a resurgence, I remember thinking the lyrics were kind of heavy. It was a cover of a cover, and the original version is much darker. I had this idea of making it really heavy. It’s a fun thing to do. It went over well at the live show, and we decided to record it. It’s become a staple of the live shows.”

Over the course of the last decade, the band has played Cleveland a number of times and has some great memories of the shows.

“We’ve played Mahall’s and the Happy Dog,” says Sturino. “We’re no strangers to Cleveland. We have played the Grog in the past and are playing there this time around. We even sold out the Mahall’s Apartment. I think we had 80 people in that room. It was a wild show.”

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