• Brand New Friend Virtual Tour Kicks Off Tonight

    March 27, 2020 - By 

    One of the many acts hit with a postponement were Brand New Friend, who were to play one of their biggest headline shows at the start of the lockdown. Johnson siblings Taylor (vocals/guitar), Lauren (vocals/synth) and Logan (bass) will be streaming a series of intimate live acoustic performances on their Instagram & Facebook. Fans can decide setlists by voting via social media channels, and this Monday, March 30, they’ll perform their debut album Seatbelts For Aeroplanes in its entirety. You can catch them on the following dates at 8pm, starting tonight – with Gerry Norman, aka Tour Alaska ‘opening’ at 7.30pm:

  • NI Music Prize Line-Up Announced

    September 20, 2018 - By 

    The nominated artists set to play this year’s Northern Ireland Music Prize have been announced. Previous winner Ciaran Lavery, Brand New Friend, The Wood Burning Savages, Hannah Peel, Ryan Vail (featuring the Arco String Quartet) and Roe will perform at the event, which takes place at Belfast’s Ulster Hall on Thursday, November 11. The event host is Rigsy (BBC Radio Ulster), with the winners of all four categories to be announced by special guests on the night. The evening will end with an after party at Limelight 2. Charlotte Dryden of Oh Yeah said: “After five fantastic years at the…

  • At The Drive-In w/ Brand New Friend @ Vicar Street, Dublin

    July 11, 2018 - By 

    When Brand New Friend take to the stage of Vicar Street, the four fresh-faced Northerners unleash a wall of noise on the reasonably-sized audience that has congregated to cheer them on. The Castlerock four-piece have been causing a stir in the Irish music scene over the past year, playing a hugely successful set at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend and releasing their debut album, Seatbelts For Aeroplanes. Onstage, they have a definite sense of self-assurance, and it’s well deserved. Kicking off with their song ‘Cold’, the groups influences are immediately evident. Think Weezer featuring Hayley Williams and some questionable (but forgivable) synth lines. They’re…

  • Brand New Friend – Seatbelts For Aeroplanes

    April 24, 2018 - By 

    Unless you’ve been living under a rock up north, you might have heard about the crest of a wave atop which Brand New Friend have been surfing for the past couple of years. Hype was high based on their live shows even ahead of the release of their almost dangerously-earworming debut EP, American Wives, back in 2016. Fronted by the impossibly charming sibling duo of Castlerock-born Taylor & Lauren Johnson, the band’s brand of starry-eyed, harmony-driven indie-pop is on full display on their forthcoming debut album, Seatbelts For Airplanes.  Johnson’s confessional lyrics allude to the unspoken things in relationships, the nature of overthinking and self-doubt – shaped by the purity of a youthful mind and the Brand New Friend…

  • Premiere: Brand New Friend – Seatbelts For Aeroplanes

    April 23, 2018 - By 

    Few Northern Irish acts are on the up quite like Castlerock quartet Brand New Friend. From their release of almost dangerously-earworming debut EP, American Wives, back in 2016, the band’s brand of starry-eyed indie-pop will be on full display on their forthcoming debut album, Seatbelts For Airplanes. A sub-three minute burst marrying starry-eyed, harmony-driven sounds with confessional lyrics touching on the unspoken things in relationships, the album’s title track distils the Brand New Friend sound (essentially – once you hear it, you know it) perfectly. Shot by Gregory Nolan and edited by OneThirtyEight, have a first look at the video for the single below. Seatbelts For Airplanes is…

  • Premiere: Brand New Friend – Hate It When You Have To Go

    September 1, 2017 - By 

    Few Irish bands have had a stronger 2017 than fast-rising North Coast quartet Brand New Friend. Having featured them as an Inbound one-to-watch act in our magazine this time last year, we’re pleased to present a first listen to the band’s virulent new single ‘Hate It When You Have To Go’. Clocking in at just over two minutes, the track – conjuring everyone from Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle ato early Ash – perfectly distils the Taylor Johnson-fronted foursome’s peerless brand of starry-eyed lo-fi indie-pop. Check out the band at Cosby Stage at Electric Picnic this Sunday at 2pm and a…

  • Inbound: Brand New Friend

    September 8, 2016 - By 

    As the seasons inevitably turn and summer ambles into autumn, sometimes you need music to augment the mood and bridge that interim between the party and the comedown; the wind-down from long evenings boozing by the canal and the sinking realisation that it all has to finish up sometime. That seems as good a time as any to welcome a brand new friend into your life – four of them, more accurately – playing a blend of sad and raucous, joyous and melancholic songs about love and other less important things. Initially Taylor Johnson’s solo endeavour, the addition of his…