Brand New Friend

In 2014 the Northern Irish indie pop-punk quartet Brand New Friend came together in Castlerock, a modest seaside village in County Derry. Guitarist and vocalist Taylor Johnson first asked his sister Lauren, who contributes vocals and keyboard, to expand his solo work into a full band. School friends Aaron Milligan on bass and Luke Harris on drums soon completed the lineup. Their father proposed naming the group after the Lloyd Cole & the Commotions song.

Drawing from influences that stretch from Morrissey and Soundgarden to Fugazi and Paramore, the quartet adopted the raw, energetic approach of fellow Irish acts such as the Undertones. Their brief, punchy songs, centered on ordinary routines and early romance, derive momentum from the Johnson siblings’ buoyant shared vocals and Lauren’s unadorned keyboard parts.

After developing a regional audience through live shows, they captured numerous bedroom demos and posted them online in 2016. Producer Rocky O'Reilly noticed the tracks and invited the band to record its debut EP, American Wives, at his Start Together studio in Belfast—an experience neither Johnson sibling had previously encountered. The EP stirred significant interest, prompting an Irish tour and a performance at the BBC’s Big Weekend festival.

The group signed with Xtra Mile in 2017, and the label released the debut album Seatbelts for Aeroplanes the next year. O'Reilly again handled production, and the record arrived after the singles “Girl,” “Mediocre at Best,” and “Hate It When You Have to Go.”