Photo Credit: Bryan SheffieldIt may seem like Fairfax, Virginia’s The Friday Night Boys have led a charmed life thus far, but to say they don’t deserve everything that’s come their way would be an out-and-out lie. Like many of today’s breakthrough musical acts, The Friday Night Boys—which features frontman Andrew Goldstein, bassist Robby Dallas Reider, guitarist Mike Toohey and drummer Chris Barrett—got their start on the Internet. However where their story goes from there is where things really get interesting.
Just one year after this group of tight-knit high-school acquaintances formed The Friday Night Boys, they decided to self-record The Sketch Process EP and distribute it online—but even The Friday Night Boys themselves were surprised by the way it took off considering that they only played regional shows at that point. “I put it on iTunes and the first month we had a decent amount of hits, but second month we had a whole lot of hits and it just kept increasing,” Goldstein explains. The EP would go on to be the catalyst for the band’s appearance on MTV’s Total Request Live’s “On Your Radar” segment for unsigned bands.
As you can probably guess, The Friday Night Boys didn’t stay unsigned for long—and they were introduced to Fueled By Ramen by one of the band’s early supporters: All Time Low’s Alex Gaskarth, who also decided to make The Friday Night Boys the first signing to his brand new imprint, The Party Scene. “We had played some local shows with All Time Low when they were in high school and Alex always used to tell us how much he liked our band,” Goldstein explains when asked how this relationship formed. “Alex worked so hard to promote us and help us out with recording,” Goldstein continues. “We feel honored to have him on our side.” The band also had the support of Photo Finish Records who have been longtime supporters of the band and have grown alongside the act.
To hold over their fans until the full album debut, The Friday Night Boys released the five-song EP That’s What She Said in October of 2008, which was the perfect introduction to the band’s raucous band of pop-rock. However, once you hear the band’s debut full-length Off The Deep End, it will be no surprise why MTV still supports the band and recently christened The Friday Night Boys “guaranteed to rock in 2009.” Produced by Emanuel Kiriakou, the album shows how much the band has grown in the past year and features everything from instantly accessible power ballads (“She’s Finding Me Out”) to energetic pop-punk rockers (“Suicide Sunday”) and everything in between. In fact, it’s not hard to picture songs like the electronica-tinged “Stupid Loveletter” as a dance floor anthem that’s will instantly get people moving—and the band wouldn’t have it any other way.
While The Friday Night Boys have toured with popular pop punk acts like All Time Low and Mayday Parade, they are in no way ashamed of their addiction to pop music. “I don’t really worry about where we fit in or how people want to categorize our music,” Goldstein explains. “I love pop and it’s my favorite genre of music,” he continues, adding that his favorite bands include everyone from Oasis to Avril Lavigne. “I love songs that are catchy and fun to listen to and that’s how I can relate to music,” he says. “Personally, I tend to gravitate toward songs that I can connect to on an emotional level.” In other words despite their fun-loving façade, not everything is one huge party for The Friday Night Boys. “We all love partying, but we also have a serious side as well; we’ve all gone through relationship issues with girls and heartbreak so it’s a two-way street,” Goldstein says when asked about some of the lyrical themes.
Ultimately The Friday Night Boys are just excited to get on the road and bring their music to their fans and soon-to-be followers. “We all feel so lucky and incredibly blessed to be working with the people we are working with,” Goldstein explains adding that the band grew up listening to artists on Fueled By Ramen. “We’ve all toured the country multiple times in other unsigned bands, so finally doing it in this band means our work has paid off—but we’re also extremely excited to work hard in this band and tour year round,” he summarizes. “We’re willing to do whatever it takes.”
Like The Friday Night Boys? Check Them Out Online:
Myspace - Fueled By Ramen - Photo Finish Records
