We are excited to announce the release of Quitter, the new full-length album from Portland, Maine indie-rock band WEAKENED FRIENDS. Following their acclaimed 2018 debut album Common Blah, Quitter will be released on November 19, 2021.
Weakened Friends dive into the honest truth of being a working musician on Quitter, reflecting on lost friendships and self-worth swallowed up by burnout. Songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist Sonia Sturino is supported by Annie Hoffman (bass/vocals) and Adam Hand (drums), filling out a mature and emotive sound.
Central to the record thematically is the empty threat of quitting music and “getting a real job.” Sturino wrestles with her relationship with music on the title track, shouting “I love it, but it never really feels okay” over scorching guitars. Despite the implications of the title, quitting is not an option for the band. Even as friends settle into adulthood, Weakened Friends find themselves trapped in a fortress of their own creation, inseparably attached to the eternal youthfulness of life in music. In this liminal zone, life passes by and friendships are weakened, and Quitter takes plenty of time to mourn these losses.
The album's title track “Quitter” is out now, as is a music video accompanying the song. The song embodies the album's central theme of burnout in the music scene through chunky guitars and snarky vocals. As competition turns friends into rivals and pressure bears down on songwriter Sonia Sturino, she feels trapped by the time and effort she’s put into her life in music, despite the fact that “it never really feels okay”. This grungy number is equal parts personally introspective and broadly cathartic, resonating with a wide reach of emotions non-specific to Sturino’s individual experience.
Though the record acknowledges a perpetual state of arrested development that comes with being a musician, the band is anything but stagnant musically. Opening themselves up to ideas outside the constraints of their slacker rock sound, Weakened Friends puts the full force of their creative ambition into Quitter. Inspired by watching peers go above and beyond what is expected of them, the band sought to explore each song’s fullest potential, with their most extensive pre-production and arrangement work to date. Incorporating banjo, pedal steel, horns, extensive synth arrangement and a number of non-instrumental sounds such as ovens and camera flashes, Weakened Friends expand on their universe of sounds on their new LP.
Catch Weakened Friends LIVE On Tour This Fall:
9/25/2021 - Atlanta, GA - The Masquerade (Hell)
9/27/2021 - Columbus, OH - Woodlands
9/29/2021 - Grand Rapids, MI - Pyramid Scheme
10/1/2021 - Chicago, IL - Cobra Lounge
10/2/2021 - Ferndale, MI - The Loving Touch
10/3/2021 - Lakewood, OH - Mahalls
10/4/2021 - Pittsburgh, PA - Craft House
10/5/2021 - Buffalo, NY - Rec Room
10/7/2021 - Asbury Park, NJ - House of Independents
10/8/2021 - Brooklyn, NY - Knitting Factory
10/9/2021 - Boston, MA - Brighton Music Hall
10/11/2021 - Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
10/12/2021 - Greensboro, NC - Blind Tiger
10/13/2021 -Columbia, SC - New Brookland Tavern
10/15/2021 - Nashville, TN - Mercy Lounge
10/29/2021 - Gainesville, FL - The Fest
12/2/2021 - Burlington, VT - Higher Ground Showroom
12/3/2021 - Portland, ME - Portland House Of Music