The Mansion welcomes New Friends

Alternative pop-rock band to take the stage this Thursday

Image supplied by: Supplied by New Friends
The four boys met in university and became New Friends.

The Mansion, one of Kingston’s many venues for live shows, is hosting the band New Friends on their Locals Only tour.  

The four-man alternative pop rock ensemble is reminiscent of the boy-band era we cherish today and brings nothing if not likeable personas to the stage. 

Stefan Boulinaeu, Ayden Miller, Cole Wilson, and Conrad Galecki are the lads that make up New Friends. They met at the Music Industry Arts (MIA) program in London, ON. 

Boulinaeu, lead singer, and Galecki, bass player and production enthusiast, chatted with The Journal about their journey (which began in university), their favourite parts about performing, and projects listeners can expect from them in the next year.  

“We somehow ended up going [to Music Industry Arts program] at the same time, same year, despite being all different ages,” Galecki said, reminiscing on the happy coincidence that brought them together in 2018. 

Galecki told The Journal that early into their time at school, Miller had begun writing “Purple Candy,” which eventually became the band’s debut song. According to him, once Miller heard Boulinaeu’s voice, he knew he’d be the person to sing it.

“It was all very papier mâché’d together, initially for a school assignment, but then came the creation of a great song,” Galecki said. “Then all the professors said, ‘hey, you boys who made this should join a group, maybe put it on Spotify.” 

“Purple Candy” went from having a couple hundred streams to skyrocketing in those first few weeks—it was a response none of the band members could ignore.

“The name of New Friends itself is exactly how we started: the song was made, but no one really knew about each other [and] now we were almost X-Factor-ed together to be a group,” Galecki said. 

Boulineau, meanwhile, had chosen the program at MIA to become an EDM producer, but somewhere along the way ended up as the lead singer of an indie band. 

“I grew up listening to whatever my parents listened to—Earth Wind and Fire and Aerosmith, all that kind of stuff,” he explained. 

“Once I became my own person, I started liking EDM and rap exclusively. I got into this program in LA that I was accepted to but couldn’t afford [it] so my mom found MIA that was so similar in design.” 

During their first weeks at MIA, the boys were asked to fill out a page of all their musical skills—Boulinaeu put down ‘singing’ as an afterthought, but was quickly asked to perform in the class.  

“I completely blacked out that first performance. My vision was fully tunnelled—I couldn’t see anything, but I was playing and singing,” he recalled. 

“Not even a week later, Ayden came up to me and was like, ‘yo, you’re gonna sing on my song.’” 

The pandemic put a wrench in the band’s plans, as it did for many others, but their infancy as a band allowed them to hone their music during restriction times.

“Our first show as a band was in November of 2021,” Galecki said. 

“I remember it so vividly and since it was our first one, it still holds real estate in my heart. We didn’t know anything at that point. There was so much pressure that we didn’t speak much about to one another. We had to figure out the tiny things, and that was the most fun process.” 

Boulinaeu loves watching the crowd dissipate after a show with smiles plastered across their faces. He told The Journal that being able to connect with people and seeing them enjoy the band’s music makes it all worthwhile, regardless of how big the crowd or venue may be. 

The band is comfortable in their groove now, experimenting with their skills and no longer limited to the roles imposed upon them in the beginning. 

New Friends’ new record, Camaro, is set to come out sometime in the new year, with a new single in the works to release a few weeks from now. 

Missing them at The Mansion this Thursday is simply not an option—tickets can be purchased here.

Tags

Live Music, The Mansion

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