American heavy rock duo Friendship Commanders premiere new single and music video »Blue«!

Nashville, Tennessee based heavy rock duo Friendship Commanders premiere new single and music video »Blue« taken from their forthcoming album.

»Blue« just dropped today, March 24th, 2023 and is available now on all streaming platforms!

Produced by Friendship Commanders & Kurt Ballou.
Recorded and mixed by Kurt Ballou at GodCity, Salem MA.
Mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosige.

Courtesy of Clarion Call Media:

“If you don’t yet have the language for what you want to say, you will.”

This is the thesis statement contained within »Blue«, the new single by Nashville heavy duo Friendship Commanders. »Blue« is the first track to be released from their forthcoming body of work, a collection about memory, language, and the state of Massachusetts. The work explores finding new vocabulary around lived experiences that were once cloudy and confusing; it gives shape to stories that songwriter Buick Audra long avoided.

“Writing this project was largely prompted by the suicide of an old Boston friend. When he died, I glanced back at things I’d never wanted to, and I wrote a whole record about it. The process was like going underwater for short bursts and coming back up for air when I needed to. While I was down there, I was like, I suddenly see what all of this was, and I’m going to name it now.”

»Blue« sets the table for the rest of the work, making general observations around pressures to stay, to work things out, to see things through no matter what. In the choruses, Buick sings:

The sky was blue in Massachusetts / the sky was grey inside my head / and it told the truth”

Photo by Anna Haas

“I knew things were bad when I was there, and I was told that I was judgmental. That’s how people spelled ‘honest’ in that particular time and place. I’m lucky that I had the wherewithal to get out and start a new life elsewhere, but I wanted to circle back and say, so can you. If leaving will save your life, get gone. Whatever chapter you’re living through, you can get free. There’s no shame in leaving.”

The band co-produced and recorded this new project with Kurt Ballou (Converge) at his GodCity studio in Salem, Massachusetts. This decision was intentional, and the product bears the impact of the in-person collaboration, sonically and energetically. This marks their third year of working with Ballou who has mixed everything they’ve released since their 2020 EP, »Hold On To Yourself«.

The color blue is a theme throughout all of the visuals for the record, as Buick says that the trauma she experienced has since stained her memories of that time and place – all blue.

The video for »Blue« was shot and directed by drummer/bassist Jerry Roe, who says, “I wanted the video to present the color blue as a menacing presence with a strange duality. It’s beautiful, but it’s surrounding us, blinding us, and trying to drown us. Like water and blinding light – things we can’t live without but can’t be exposed to for too long.”

Friendship Commanders are proud to present »Blue«, a nod to the past with a statement for the present.

Friendship Commanders is:
Buick Audra – Guitar and Vocals
Jerry Roe – Drums and Bass

Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well