Avery Friedman Interview

[Transcript edited for clarity]

Absent Sounds: Hi, my name's Weajue. You're listening to Absent Sounds here on CJAM. And today we're talking to someone who is putting out a debut records coming up really soon, at least at this point when we're talking, but I think by the time this comes out, it'll have been out already. But none other than Avery Friedman. How are you doing?

Avery Friedman: Hey, thanks for having me. I'm doing pretty well. A little sleepy, but I'm coffee number two, so it's all good. How are you?

Absent Sounds: Pretty much woke up and I got dressed and I was like, this is like the first thing on my agenda to do, so I'm so happy that I get to start off my day with you.

Avery Friedman: I'm grateful to be here.

Absent Sounds: Thank you so much.

Avery Friedman: Welcome to the world this morning.

Absent Sounds: It's a welcome, beautiful baby. You're alive and you're well. So typically when we like to start off with artists and do introductions, we like to start from your very beginning of wherever you see yourself, like wherever you found your place within the world of music. But before I say that, there was something that I saw that was interesting on your artist bio, how you mentioned like you didn't necessarily feel like you fit into the category of musician. How about we just start off with the point in time where you started feeling like you could accept that term if you even do feel like you can?

Avery Friedman: Yeah, I mean I definitely can now, but I mean, I just orbited music, so heavily for my whole life. Like I used to be a music writer at my school, my college paper in Michigan. My work often in involved music, I was a huge music fan, went to so many concerts, played guitar, loved choir, but I just never tried to write a song myself. I just kind of figured like if you were a songwriter that you like woke up with songs in your brain. A few things happened where I just was like, I basically will be really sad if I don't try to do this myself. Like I went to like one pivotal concert by myself and I was like, on shrooms. I don't know if that should be included here. It was the big thief concert and I was like watching Adrian. And I just was like, oh my God. I was in awe of the way that she was expressing herself and I was like, I hope to one day be brave enough to like display my emotions like this. Just 'cause I identified with how she emotes and how she song writes (identify with like, I could never be as good as her). So anyway, and then I was dating a musician and I would watch her perform and I was so jealous, honestly. And I felt like that was a sort of catalyst for me too, where I was like, I need to, I can't be in such close proximity to people who are like making this happen for themselves and not try. So I really made a concerted effort, I started taking guitar lessons. I took a few songwriting classes and I just was like, I need to try to make this a practice basically. And that was like two years ago. So ever since then I've been just on the ups with it. But it's been a journey truly.

Absent Sounds: I love that. Adrian Langer's writing is a powerhouse force in its own self. I haven't seen her live. I know she came by Toronto and I missed it 'cause it was sold out. At Pitchfork I chose Phoebe Bridgers over Big Thief because I was like, maybe one day I could see Big Thief again. But I don't know if I can afford to see Phoebe Bridgers again.

Avery Friedman: That's fair. You had to get the bang for your buck with a festival ticket.

Absent Sounds: Yeah.I know when you're doing something new and entering into this process of figuring something like music out for yourself, there's often parts of yourself that you uncover that you didn't really recognize before. What were some of those things that you might've avoided that you, that became seen through singer songwriting?

Avery Friedman: I think for me, I was in choir forever growing up and I loved it so much, but I was way too nervous to audition for like a solo ever until I was like a senior in high school. And I think it was mostly because to me it just felt so vulnerable. Like, when I perform, I feel like I wear my emotions all over my face. And I think that it just was so, and I'm just like that in general. I'm very expressive. But I think it was really just scary to think about being perceived like within emotion in that way. I'm comfortable talking about my emotions, but after I've processed them. I feel like this isn't necessarily something new that I uncovered, but I just feel like the act of performing and like being emotional on main basically and showing myself that it isn't dangerous or that people seeing me being sensitive isn't threatening, but it actually like makes a good performance and it makes people identify better. You don't wanna be like a robot up there. And so I think it was mostly it's helped me reframe my sensitivity as something that's positive and inherent to like a high quality art maybe. Does that make sense?

Absent Sounds: Yeah, it does. The part where you're talking about being more emotive reminded me of something else that you had mentioned too, about turning off the metronome. And I know that there's like this rigidity towards not only a metronome, but like just, music sometimes where it feels like there's so much structure you can follow, or some people feel like you should. Like classical training. How does that, leaning into the organic nature of being loose- How did that look like for you?

Avery Friedman: Yeah. It's funny you mentioned the turning off the metronome. Are you referencing like in the recording process?

Absent Sounds: Yeah.

Avery Friedman: Yeah. I mean, it was also just like extremely humbling, like trying to record music for the first time. I worked really closely with my friend James. We'd sit in his room, we spent hours, we'd take one of my songs and he'd be like – okay, what do you think? Like, what do you hear? And I was just like, I don't even, I have no idea. I've never done this before. I wrote all these on a guitar, like I don't even know what's possible. So in the recording process, we, at first started out where I would play guitar over a metronome or like a drumbeat that was like from the computer. And then I would sing over it and we would layer, layer it in that way to try to build a song. And eventually we just were sort of like, we feel like this doesn't have the sort of groove or fluidity that is crucial for a lot of my music. And so then we tried, but the bulk of the songs were recorded in like a live setting where it was like playing and singing a bassist and a drummer. We got the bones of the song that way, one live take. And so it was cool too also because James, you know, he's a writer. Writing is his main like art form, but he loves like obviously music too and recording and stuff. And he'd never recorded like a live band. So it was also a cool opportunity for him to broaden his recording skills. And I feel like for me, I'm always sort of like in awe that people want to collaborate with me. I'm just like, dang, I'm so touched that my music is worth their time. But it was cool for him, this was an opportunity for him to broaden his horizons as well in terms of like recording engineering.

Absent Sounds: . Honestly, I feel the same. I feel so fortunate when people wanna have these conversations with me too. So equally as honored to have you here. And the fact that we can have this conversation feel special. I imagine that there were some conversations or moments that stick out into your mind when you think about, not only the recording process, but just anything that shaped New Thing. Is there one that you can think of right now?

Avery Friedman: Conversations?

Absent Sounds: Yeah. Or even, I don't know, just like memories that stick out the most.

Avery Friedman: There's been a lot of them. I feel like something that sticks out in terms of the conversations around the recording process…I'm thinking of the song Finger Painting and it was one of the last ones that we did. Something cool about that song is that it was just a kind of off-the-cuff take of myself and Felix Walworth, who was drumming with me. We just were about to leave the studio and James was like, hey, why don't you guys just like, let me just like try to capture this. Let me see if this even sounds good. And we just did a take of Finger Painting and I ended up loving it. And so we made that the bones of the song. But then when we were building the song around this I remember at the sort of climax of the song, James was like, what do you hear here? Like, do you think it's like a guitar solo? Do you think it's whatever? And I was sort of like, you know, this is towards the end of us making this record and I feel like I had finally figured out a little bit how to articulate what I want and what was possible. And I was like, I actually don't think it's a guitar soul. What if we did some vocal sampling? What if we like spliced up my voice and made it sound really glitchy and like weird and pitched it up? And it was a cool moment for me of like, oh, I can hear what I want here and articulate it. And then James like brought it to life in that way. But it made me really excited for future recording processes for myself because I just was able to clock like, dang, there were so many times where James is sitting here asking me like, is this what you want? And I was like, I don't know. I have no idea. And then it felt like by the end I had like a better vision and a better language around what was possible for my music and how I could best make the ethos of the song translate.

Absent Sounds: Yeah I love the fact, because I've kind of been obsessed over the song titles and Finger Painting is one of them too. I think there's just the tactile nature of it that just equally fits within the song.

Avery Friedman: Thank you

Absent Sounds: That is the perfect segue to get right into some of the tracks that you have. When I say some, I mean all. So we're gonna start off with New Thing. Title track. I love how it's right at the start can you just describe what inspired the title? I can almost assume, but I don't wanna assume here. So what does it represent to you? What does New Thing mean?

Avery Friedman: I'm curious what you were gonna assume.

Absent Sounds: Well, I always gonna assume it's like it's a new thing to put out music for you. So I was thinking it's like, hey, wanna see this new thing I'm doing? But also I feel like that gives it too much casual. Because it didn't feel as casual as that, but that's kind of like the idea that I was thinking. Quite literally a new thing.

Avery Friedman: It's funny, I was gonna call the record something else.

Absent Sounds: What was it?

Avery Friedman: I was gonna maybe call it Somewhere to Go. Just because I thought that like it was just a good title. And all these songs are about my emotions needing somewhere to go. But I thought New Thing was like meta and sort of like cheeky in that way like you’re saying. It's a little bit of a new thing speaking to the artistic process. But the song itself was actually inspired by a few years ago, I was robbed at knife point. Sorry to go drama.

Absent Sounds: Oh my goodness. Wow.

Avery Friedman: I know, I know. I was robbed at knife point and it really fucked with me in a way that I was really scared to walk around at night after that. And I'm someone who, ever since I've lived in New York for the past five years, the way that I process and the way that I get back in my body is I go for a long walk and like listen to music. But I didn't have that accessible to me for a little bit after I had this incident. It just did not feel cathartic to walk around anymore. That's all to say I wrote this song the night that I took the subway alone at night for the first time ever since getting robbed. And I was so anxious and I was like, what is this? What is this new anxiety? And I was so anxious I missed my stop. And I was like, what the fuck? And I had to take an Uber home and I was so embarrassed, like confused because this is so not how I used to be. And I went home and immediately wrote new thing. And so a new thing is all sort of actually just about having a newfound anxiety that I didn't have before and just being like, yeah, this is a new sensation. So it was spawned from the anxiety that has to do with the robbery but it definitely applies to music in hindsight too. Just the process of pursuing music has been humbling and disorienting and anxiety ridden in a way that is relevant.

Absent Sounds: I'm so sorry that sounds like a terrible experience. And I literally was taking the TTC subway here in Toronto home by myself recently. And I was like, wow you don't know what people have on them. Like you don't know. But just the process of getting through that new anxiety. I assume it's not only that you're gonna have new anxieties now, but throughout your life, you're always gonna have something new. What does that look like for you? How did you get through that?

Avery Friedman: I mean, honestly in hindsight, pursuing music was a main way that I processed all of this. I spent a lot more time at home and I was around a guitar a lot and was unable to do my usual stress reliever, which would be to go for a long walk. And so I honestly feel like music was such a crucial part of having a place to channel anxiety, because I think for me, when I feel anxious or when I feel scared, the sensation is kind of like a bit trapped. And so I think that having a fluid place for that energy to go was very helpful for me.

Absent Sounds: Mm-hmm. You talking about having somewhere to go and there's this dichotomy that's coming up for me. I'm thinking about not only like metaphysical with emotions moving, but also the physical part of you moving through the street or, walking down Green Avenue in Flowers Fell. And it also comes up again with Biking Standing, even though that's like, not really moving. But yeah, I wanna know more about Flowers Fell.

Avery Friedman: Amazing transition. I'm impressed. But yeah, I think yeah, with Flowers Fell, that the walking and the moving and the being out and about in Brooklyn definitely is so informative to a lot of my music. With flowers fell I was just, again, walking home. I used to live off the street called Green Avenue in Brooklyn and it's this beautiful street and in the spring, its these insane flowers on the trees, but they're only there for a few weeks. And I had gone on this little trip and when I came back all the flowers were already gone. And I was like, what the hell? But it's cool because they were leaves. It's interesting because I feel like it was like reverse fall in some ways, where fall the leaves fall off and then they're bare. But it’s such an interesting thing for the flowers to have been gone but then them have made way to leaves, which are still beautiful, still full of life, yada yada. I just was thinking about fleetingness and how much more I can cherish something if I know it's so temporary. And yeah, I literally was walking down that street and I was humming, the flowers fell off and I was asleep and I think I recorded it in a voice memo. I didn't make any of the verses to that song for a few months later. I actually ended up pairing that melody with this other guitar part I had written. And then I just wrote the verses. It was kind of like a collage in that way, which is cool because I think that like the song sort of feels that way as well. But yeah that's how that came to life.

Absent Sounds: I love that. Are you someone who likes to collect things too? Do you collect anything? I was just thinking of like, pressed flowers, I used to really love picking up flowers and leaves off the street and like putting them in places.

Avery Friedman: That's sweet. I don't really. Sneakers, I connect. I collect like little knickknacks. Like I have like a lot of stuff around. I have like this thing randomly.

Absent Sounds: For anyone who can't see, it's a little, like a little ram. Is that it?

Avery Friedman: It's a little wooden yak or like ram. But yeah, I don't have any. I used to collect snow globes, but, uh, in my adult life I don’t really collect anything specifically, but I definitely have a lot of knickknacks around.

Absent Sounds: You know what I realized? I think a lot of times throughout the transitional years from your late teenage to young adult/twenties you have to let go of a lot of knickknacks because you keep moving around a lot or you don't really have a home. And the process of you moving from Ohio to New York must have really shifted your idea of a home as well. What wwas that transitional feeling like for you?

Avery Friedman: Yeah. I'm from Ohio and then I went to college in Michigan actually.

Absent Sounds: What part of Michigan?

Avery Friedman: Ann Arbor. So I went to the university of Ann Arbor. You know, it's funny too because I look at my room here and I feel like I've always had. I I haven't felt super jarred by the transitions luckily because I think well one, I think because all these places have the four seasons really consistently.

Absent Sounds: Yeah.

Avery Friedman: And then also I think because my room, I've always sort of made very me and very cozy and I'm always bringing shit like this little wooden yak, um, that took years. And so, yeah, I think that transition was pretty smooth, luckily. I think that's just largely because of the sort of place I create within my little bedroom, honestly.

Absent Sounds: Mm-hmm. What do you need to make things feel like you're home?

Avery Friedman: I need stuff that I think is beautiful around me, like aesthetically pleasing. I have my little lamp

Absent Sounds: It's a very, it's a beautiful lamp.

Avery Friedman: Thank you. I have a million books in front of me. I have my little plants. Yeah. I have my Portrait of a Lady on Fire poster. Like I need to have little things that feel. Like me around and, and like cozy and a cozy bed. That's it.

Absent Sounds: Yeah. That is, yeah. That's all you really need in life. Four little walls and everything inside. I'm gonna switch over and go to Photo Booth now where, it feels like you're not only like capturing this carefree sense, but you also talk a little bit about your queer identity and how that instills this joy within you. Can you just tell us about how that approach was reflected throughout the song.

Avery Friedman: Yeah. Photo Booth is funny, I feel like it's my pop song, but I actually woke up with that melody in my head, which is the chorus, the curtain can't hide it when all the music quiets. But yeah, I feel like the past few years, being a young adult in Brooklyn and having a big queer friend group kind of for the first time. This song came about after one specific night out two years ago basically where we were at this bar and there's a photo booth and we all took pictures in it. There's photo evidence of us kissing in it and it just felt like we were being crazy teenagers in a way. It felt like we were having sort of teenage fun as mid 20 year olds. I think it felt really special because many of my friends you know, we all came into our queer identities, after high school, at least most of us. And so to have the opportunity just to have a group of people who you share an identity with andm you know, we never got to play spin the bottle with people that you're super attracted to. And so Photo Booth is kind of meant to capture that rambunctious, like mischievous fun that can come out of a night out with a bunch of people you're sort of flirting with. It’s really sweet and it feels unique and like a little bit deeper than that, just since that's something that a lot of queer people don't get to experience when you're like 16 or something.

Absent Sounds: For sure. I was wondering if that’s why in part, it felt important to include it on the album for you.

Avery Friedman: I mean, totally. Yeah. The song was so hard to crack too, we could not figure out how it was supposed to sound. But it definitely felt important to include for that way. And I definitely had a little bit of worries that it didn't sound like every other song on the record, that maybe it would sound out of place or something. But I just also had to put trust in the fact that, hopefully my songwriting is consistent enough where it feels like lends itself to having some cohesion or I think a lot of elements that are present on Photo Booth like funny synth sounds and a sort of driving urgency. I think these things are present elsewhere on the record, but in a more understated way. So I also think it was a cool opportunity to lean harder into different types of production and stuff that was more understated on other songs.

Absent Sounds: Yeah I feel like that's really important too with a lot of artists who are searching for this consistency within their work. I always think that the fact that you yourself are the one creating it means that it will be your own. Like, there's gonna be some underlying thread throughout it, even if you don't really outrightly see it.

Avery Friedman: Totally.

Absent Sounds: I feel like most humans spend the majority of their life like chasing this feeling of belonging. Do you feel like you've found that now? I know it's kind of a hard thing to pinpoint too.

Avery Friedman: I'm like, it ebbs and flows surely. But yeah, I think generally I do have belonging and I think I think it starts with yourself. Young adulthood, I feel like, has posed a lot of stops and starts and a lot of friendship and romantic reorienting. And there are times when I feel like, oh, I've got a big group around me and, we're all connected and we, we all belong. And then there's other times where you go through shit and you feel more alone basically. And I think for me it's the return to self that happens when you are stripped of this external belonging. Its extremely important and I feel grateful that yeah, even at times where maybe I feel like I belong less or like things are more uncertain around me, I can feel at home within myself at least, you know?

Absent Sounds: Yeah. That's, I guess it's the return to center part that's really important. What do you think people outside of yourself, like it's your family, your friends, how would they describe your relationship with relationships?

Avery Friedman: Well, I mean, family's one thing

Absent Sounds: That's true. That's true. Family…. I don't know about that

Avery Friedman: It's a timely question, I mean, I dunno. I care so much about my relationships and friendship has always been really important to me. And I've always just loved people and seen the best in people and have felt really empathetic towards people and trusting, which is yeah.

Absent Sounds: Pros and cons, for better or for worse.

Avery Friedman: Absolutely has pros and cons. My parents just like sold my childhood home in Ohio and I brought some stuff back. I brought this little picture of me as a child and this thing I won in preschool. My preschool award in 1998 that says “everybody's friend.” So kind of relevant, but yeah, I just love people and I think my friendships are so important to me, and so I, I hope that people see that,

Absent Sounds: I think if you could feel it, then it definitely radiates off of other people to people as well.

Avery Friedman: Fingers crossed.

Absent Sounds: Well, you seem like a very friend shaped person. Like, you're got great energy. I love how this is gonna be a perfect segue from the preschool thing, to finger painting. You did also talk about it already, but if there's anything that you wanted to bring up as well about it?

Avery Friedman: Finger Painting, thematics are not preschool, but the word itself definitely, or the words finger painting, but I mean that's about navigating the excitement and anxiety of new relationships and the anticipation that comes along with a “will, they, won't they” type dynamic.

Absent Sounds: We'll just shuffle down and go to Somewhere to Go. I love the title Somewhere to Go and the idea itself behind it. I don't care about tenses often, but with Somewhere to Go, does this mean like you already found this path? Are you currently on the somewhere to go path? Are you looking for it?

Avery Friedman: Hell no. The path reveals itself and then disappears, and then you have to find it again. And it's often not even the same path, at least in my experience.

Absent Sounds: Yeah.

Avery Friedman: But for me, again, that song like was a direct- a lot of these songs stem from me feeling sort of trapped inside of me and then like picking up a guitar basically. And that one is about like having emotions that feel like trapped inside of me that I can't express, that I'm scared to express. So it sort of circles around, you know, what if I can't say it? It's meta again, that song was the place for those emotions at the time to go.

Absent Sounds: You don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but what was the reoccurring emotion that kept flooding this place for you?

Avery Friedman: It was this sort of overwhelm or like a sort of trapped. A stuck feeling. A stuck feeling. Sometimes when I experience hurt or sadness or something, I then get a secondary thing around that feeling where I'm like, oh God, like now what do I do with this? Like, do I, can I express it to anyone? If I express it to people? Like, will it make it worse? Will I feel like invalidated? Mm-hmm. And so yeah, that sort of chapter overwhelm feeling come is like the secondary thing that I feel once I feel hurt, which kind of sucks.

Absent Sounds: Honestly, I feel that. There was a point in the summer where I really related to what you're saying. Well, the last half of 2024 where it was like, I have this feeling that I don't know what to do with anymore. And it's like I can't keep pushing it down and I can't keep pushing it out 'cause I feel like I've done too much, so I don't know what to do with it anymore. So where does it go?

Avery Friedman: Totally.

Absent Sounds: I don't know.

Avery Friedman: Yeah. Just realizing that it will go or it will change. Its not comfortable to sit in shit, you feel like you can't sit. And so I think like this was an opportunity to sort of like try to expedite the process of the half life of an emotion. Just like getting faster and like moving through it or something

Absent Sounds: Yes. That is awesome. The half life of emotion, it's not gonna stay there forever. And talking of emotion, it's such a reoccurring theme here. Nervous is a really big track that closes the album off with such a hopeful place too. Tell us about that cathartic release and where it came from.

Avery Friedman: Oh yeah. I feel like the production of Nervous, makes it feel a little hopeful. I don't know, something about it does feel hopeful which is cute. Even though the lyrics don't really get that much more hopeful, they're not despair. It's like there's some sort of acceptance and forward motion I think that happens in that song. But yeah, that one is really meta again. I remember I was trying to explain to my ex how petrified I was before my first ever live performance. And I was like, I don't think you get it. Like I'm really scared. I was trying to just explain the depth of my nervousness. And it was also sort of coinciding with our relationship being new. And so yeah the vulnerability of feeling so exposed in terms of musically expressing and then just doing that in front of a partner who's also a musician.

Absent Sounds: I don't know if they made you feel invalid or anything because I always feel that with musicians, it can kind of be like this...well, I'm thinking of so many things 'cause my ex is also a musician. And I had the same thing, like, oh man, I feel like I have to impress them or something. But did you feel that at all? Did you get over that point?

Avery Friedman: I definitely felt it. She didn't impose that on me at all. She was extremely encouraging and extremely generous in terms of believing in me and sharing resources with me and all this stuff that I feel like is so crucial especially in early days of musicianship. It was just an internal thing. It was just a pressure that I was putting on myself and a comparison. I just was struggling with feelings of validity as a musician, and so I think that it was easy just to sort of feel stupid. I'm kind of prone to thinking I should know everything before I do. So even stuff about the recording process or playing with different types of musicians. There was so much. It felt vulnerable just to be figuring that out in front of someone who knew more than me. That was all my own neuroses.

Absent Sounds: Mm-hmm. In putting [the album] out, have you felt that's a similar nervousness?

Avery Friedman: I feel like I'm just sort of like, no one's gonna listen. I don't have any crazy expectations about like it's reception or anything. But I mean even this is like a big thing for me. This is one of the first times I've ever like spoken to someone in depth about my process and about the songs in the record, and I'm just kind of like zooming out and being like, wow, you seem really you have a lot of anxiety, like watching myself talk about this.

Absent Sounds: You’re talking so normally. I feel like you're so relaxed with this.

Avery Friedman: I am feeling relaxed, but then I'm realizing what I'm talking about is like just being anxious in every single song. But no, I feel so grateful. The past year and a half of like my musical journey and has been just exposure therapy. I feel like I am more resilient now than I was, and I'm less nervous now than I was, so I'm grateful for that.

Absent Sounds: Doing it again and again and again, and maybe every time will have some sort of anxiety, but yknow I'm proud of you for doing it if nobody says it today.

Avery Friedman: That's so sweet of you. I appreciate it. And I also, I really appreciate the thoughtfulness of your questions and I feel like you're been a lovely, lovely interviewer, so I appreciate that.

Absent Sounds: I appreciate it. Thank you. I did also name drop this already but Biking Standing, tell us about this one too.

Avery Friedman: I feel like this is the one song that came from a leisurely place for me. Yeah, seeing this show, it was the summer with this band called Fus, they’re kind of country-ish. And I was biking home and I was like oh I wanna try to write a song that uses country chords, like C and G. I was raised in the Midwest and listened to a lot of country music growing up, which is funny. So I think for that one, I just wanted to capture the sort of summernight type feeling.

Absent Sounds: Mm-hmm. It does feel like there's a sort of like a flowing of this- I always call it the motion of movement you know, when you're on the train and you're just like relaxing, taking, going with the sway and then also if you're like riding a bike and going with that. So I definitely feel that on the song as well. Coming back to more of an overview of the whole album, is there any lyric that you feel describes the entirety of the record for you?

Avery Friedman: I'm not sure. I just was going chronologically in my brain and I was thinking of New Thing and I was thinking of the lyric in the last verse. That's like “a little lace of black licorice pulling knot in my chest.” Which is, I think again, speaking to the sort of Somewhere to Go, like physical feeling of having a lot of physical emotions and needing to have a release. That line of I think is like kind of the climax of the song in some ways. I also think lyrically, I like the image and yeah, I think it's a nice little sample sampler of the record. What do you think?

Absent Sounds: Well I love that, I mean the there was a part in Photo Booth where you're talking about- I had written it down 'cause I did wanna ask you about that too, but I forgot to ask. It was like four strikes, I dunno why that kept coming back to me.

Avery Friedman: Oh, like the four strikes and you’re out/photo booth?

Absent Sounds: Yeah.

Avery Friedman: I think it's because there's like four things on a photo strip. And then also a part of like this sort of queer renaissance of post high school fun. Post high school fun is that I've been on a softball team for the past few years, which is where the four strikes kind of came from. That’s also been core to my friend group for the past few years.

Absent Sounds: I'm gonna use that to ask if there are four things that you can think of that you are looking forward to in 2025 or you've been loving. Absolutely anything.

Avery Friedman: Oh, doesn't have to be music related. Anything. Wow, okay. I'm into writing with pen and paper, I'm into analog, like taking, taking notes by hand. I'm into wearing a lot of layers because it's freezing in 2025. Working chic. It's for chic purposes and function. I'm into, again, analog again. I'm trying to read more, trying to scroll less, read more.

Absent Sounds: Mm-hmm. What have you been reading?

Avery Friedman: I'm reading my first Elena Ferrante book right now.

Absent Sounds: I'm not familiar.

Avery Friedman: Yeah, she's like a classic. She writes a lot of coming of age stories but I have a few things I'm excited to read. I have this Maggie Nelson book. It's called Jane, I'm really excited to read, it's based in Michigan and it's like, I think a hybrid of poetry and prose, so I'm excited about that. Then my last thing I would say. I don't know, man. Fresh air.

Absent Sounds: You know what, I feel like we will have a point in our lives where we won't have fresh air anymore. So we thank and appreciate it while we have it.

Avery Friedman: Gotta get on it.

Absent Sounds: Yeah. Get on the fresh air wave.

Avery Friedman: Absolutely. That'll be my second record. The fresh air wave.

Absent Sounds: Yes, the fresh air wave. It'll be a psychedelic rock album. But thank you so much. This has been such a pleasure talking to you and getting to know your record a little bit more and, and you and as a person. You seem so lovely, I can't wait for everybody to hear this and to dive into your stuff. It's beautiful.

Avery Friedman: Thank you so much. I’m really glad that you like it. And thank you again for like taking the time. I'm very touched.

Absent Sounds: I appreciate it.