This article is part of SCAD Radio’s SXSW collection, in which some of our radio members visited the music portion of the SXSW Festival and Showcase in Austin, TX.
In Tribe Friday, Noah is on vocals and guitar, Zack on Drums, Isak on guitar, and Robin on bass. The members of Tribe Friday all joined at different times. Isak and Noah have known each other for approximately seven years, as they used to hang out at hardcore shows. Noah asked him to play guitar in his band, not because he could play guitar but because of his work ethic. He called Isak and asked, “Can you learn how to play guitar and join my band, then come to the US with me?” Isak said yes without much thought. They did their first show together in LA, and that’s when Robin joined, now about five years ago. They met Robin in a similar manner: they had shows together, hung out at parties, and Noah recorded for his band as well. Shortly after, the pandemic hit. It was a stressful time for the band. Then, Zack showed up one day and said, “Hey, I’m going to hang out with you guys now.” And that is how Tribe Friday became the band we know today.
Tribe Friday labels themselves as a bubblegum emo boyband. Noah states, “In the beginning, it was really a joke, but then we leaned into it really hard. And then we actually became a bubblegum emo boyband.” The term bubblegum emo is used as an adjective to describe the band because they make upbeat music with depressing lyrics; they are all emo kids, after all. So it’s the contrast between the upbeat sounds and lyrics behind it that make the music “bubblegum emo.”
All the members also have side projects to keep them busy, in addition to being in Tribe Friday. Because he’s a drummer, Zack has ten different bands he is a part of. Zack explains, “Being a drummer in Sweden, you get a lot of calls. There’s not a lot of us; we’re a dying breed.” He ranges from pop to hip-hop, to grunge, and so on. Luckily, it hasn’t affected Tribe Friday from touring, and until it does, Zack plans to keep bouncing around. Isak also tends to bounce around. He and Zack are doing a podcast about music and teaching music to teenagers. The podcast is for those who don’t know how stuff works but are afraid to ask. Isak states, as an example, someone’s thoughts may be, “Oh, you should know this by now….” Zack adds another example of why someone would be listening to their podcast, saying, “You learned your instrument and got good at that, but how do you come to the point of being a musician and playing for other artists, so that’s just the gap in between.” In addition to the podcast, Isak mixes and produces music, and plays guitar for his solo project. Contrastingly, Robin and Noah both only have one side project, but Noah would like to remind the audience, “Being in Tribe Friday is like a full-time job. We all have stuff that we do on the side, but this definitely takes up the majority of our time.” Not swaying too far from Tribe Friday’s genre, Robin’s other band plays 2005 punk. Lastly, Noah hosts Death Disco. He explains, “It’s like a musical theater, EDM, and Apocalypse project. We wear suits and corpse paint. And then we have theater numbers and make like crazy sets.”
Their number one bucket list item is playing at Madison Square Garden. Besides, of course, world domination. The band exclaims, “World domination is the goal, eventually.” Noah adds how he’d love to do a proper US tour; from his observation so far, he states that a lot of music is happening in America. He continues, saying, “There seems to be a lot of cool alternative scenes going on most of the time.” Along with the US tour, his dream would be to open for My Chemical Romance or have My Chemical Romance open for them.
There are a few different moments that come to mind in response to what their favorite memory of their career is. Robin starts the conversation by declaring the Melody Festival, which is part of Eurovision, a European song contest. Zack explains, “All the European countries compete against each other with one song.” Noah adds, “We were in the Swedish qualifiers for that, which is a huge event in Sweden, so we played an arena show. It was a proper arena stage with three million viewers. That was awesome. Definitely cool.” However, Noah’s favorite memory is a few months after that. They played a small show in Stockholm with only about two hundred people in the audience, but as soon as they started playing, everyone knew all the words to every single song. Noah remarks, “I was just sort of crying watching that happen.” Isak’s favorite memory is their show in Germany, where they had insane amounts of crowd surfing and mosh pits. Noah notes that it was the first show after the pandemic, so the audience was very excited to be back. “There were too many people all in the place, so they stood on each other’s shoulders so they could grab the lighting rig and swing from it. It was really fun. We get crazy crowds, but I think we also like that that’s the way we act on stage; I think people just pick up on that and go wild, which is fun,” Noah comments.
This is Tribe Friday’s first time at SXSW. Their favorite part of the experience so far was their show on Tuesday night. “It was a pretty packed house, and the audience seemed to enjoy it. We even got a mosh pit happening,” Noah states. Being at SXSW also introduced Tribe Friday to some of their newest favorite bands. Noah reports that Alaska Alaska “were just absolutely brilliant; like really, really good. I just saw them once yesterday. Then also this band called Little Island that also played here. They’re from the UK.” Robin adds that Dead Pony was awesome as well. Zack piles on to the conversation stating, “There’s been so much amazing music here.”
I then asked the band how they deal with mental health while on the road and any advice they’d like to give others in the industry. Noah states how the band does a lot to make it work on the road when they don’t have much of a budget, and all usually have to share one hotel room. He explains that they have a twelve to twelve rule on when it should be quiet. In addition to that rule, “Communication, just talking about stuff, because otherwise you just get caught up in the stress of it.” The band also now limits their alcohol intake and how much they party while on the job. Of course, it hasn’t always been that way, but it’s been something they’ve learned to improve on. Noah reveals that initially, “We were just partying all the time and everyone was so tired. It’s not good for you; it really fucks you up after like a week. So now we’re like, if we have a day off, we’re probably out partying, but if we have a show the next day, then we’re pretty chill.” Zack mentions how there’s this expectation as a rock band that they would be partying afterward with the people they meet at the show, but the reality is performing is their job, and they have to treat it responsibly. Noah adds, “That’s the real thing. When you’re touring the country or Europe, and every city you’ve come for the audience, it’s their night out, so they want to go out and party. Like if you meet someone, they want to bring you out, they want to buy you drinks and stuff. But for us, it’s like a night on the job, so it’s kind of weird balancing it all, that’s for sure.”
The band is getting around the music scene in Austin, but it’s not precisely the case regarding food. They’re pretty busy, so they haven’t had much time to try new things, but something they can all agree on, and Robin could definitely testify for, is Domino’s Pizza. They plan to go for authentic Texan barbecue before they leave, as Zack’s friend from Austin reminds him every night about it. However, as the rest of the band may try barbecue, Robin may still choose Dominoes. Isak laughs and says in context to Robin’s statement, “No water, only pizza.” This reminds Noah of a funny incident with Robin in New York; Noah asks, “Can I tell them about the water thing?” Then continues to explain, “We were in New York, and we’ve been out for like four days. We were in the BNB, and Robin came out and was like, ‘Oh, you guys are drinking water?’ And we’re like, ‘Yeah, you want some?’ And he thought about it for a second and was like, ‘I haven’t had water in four days.’ He’s just been drinking beer, Redbulls, and Coke.” This is a lesson for everyone to stay hydrated. Traveling and doing events like these, people tend to forget to drink water, but it is crucial for you to do so.
Their song “Swimsuit” came out recently. In asking what the inspiration behind the song is, Noah explains that it is pretty introspective. He continues by saying, “I traveled back home for the first time since moving; I moved away after high school and didn’t come back. So, I went back there and sort of wrote for a couple of weeks. And “Swimsuit” specifically, is about survival skills.” He doesn’t want to say too much since it is about actual people, but basically, he has some friends back home who are not doing great, so that’s what it is about. So go listen to “Swimsuit” now on Spotify!
Go check them out at: https://www.tribefriday.com/Listen to the latest: Spotify – Tribe Friday
