Photo by Katrin Braga
Debby Friday got her start as a DJ. For a former self-professed “club rat,” born in Nigeria and raised in Montréal, the move made sense. Her taste in music has always been eclectic—growing up, her parents played a lot of gospel and Nigerian music around the house. But Friday also came of age as the internet was taking off, with file-sharing sites like Limewire allowing unprecedented access to music.
“I think that’s also why so much of my music has these bits and pieces of so many different genres,” she says. “It’s very much like hybrid music, and it’s because of growing up in this modern context where essentially you have access to this archive of all of human thoughts and ideas, including music.”
After DJing for a year in Montréal, she moved to Vancouver, ready for a change. There, in addition to receiving an MFA, she taught herself how to produce by watching YouTube tutorials and reading blogs. In 2018, she self-released her debut EP as Debby Friday, BITCHPUNK. A mix of dark electronic punk and industrial sounds, the EP was a bold declaration of sexual energy and feminine power.
Vinyl LP, Compact Disc (CD)
Her time in Vancouver—which coincided with the outbreak of COVID-19—was isolating. Friday wrote her debut full-length GOOD LUCK during the pandemic, and as such, it is full of self-reflection. “You just [had] a lot of time to sit down and think because we weren’t doing anything else,” Friday says. “So I was spending a lot of time reflecting on my life, on my experiences.” On the slow-burning “Let You Down” Friday whispers, “I’ve been a sinner / Oh all my life…I know I let you down.” And on the guitar-centric “What A Man,” which looks back on an unhealthy relationship, Friday sings, “I had a dream / I had a love / I closed my eyes / I saw what it was.”
While GOOD LUCK offers plenty of the hard dance beats and sensual lyrics found on Friday’s past releases, here she finds confidence in showing other parts of herself, too. “I think my sound now reflects this kind of openness that I also have in my life,” Friday says. “I feel more solid, more confident, and because of that, I feel able to express different sides of myself.” That openness was reflected in the choice to release “So Hard To Tell,” easily the softest track on the record, first. But don’t let the lead single fool you. On the bouncy, alt-R&B track Friday may slip into a falsetto—a cross between SZA and Nina Persson—and chide herself for crying, but the brash Friday, who’s unafraid of being aggressive or sexual, is still present, still rebelling.
While GOOD LUCK may not be as angsty as Friday’s earlier work, she is grateful for the life experiences that inspired that sound. “It was important for my development because I think so often, especially when it comes to women, you suppress your anger,” she says. “And I just didn’t want to do that anymore. I worked through my shit and you can hear it in the album like, ‘Oh, she worked through some things.’”
Vinyl LP, Compact Disc (CD)
Last year, ready for another change, Friday moved to Toronto, which has been a boon to her creativity. Not only is the music scene robust, Friday says, but the city is full of creative professionals. ”I think it’s the mecca of the creative industry in Canada,” she says. “Everyone seems really open and wants to work together and collaborate. I just feel like you can get things done here.”
Friday is primed for greater opportunities. This album, which she co-produced with Graham Walsh, is her first with Sub Pop. The choice to work with the storied label was an obvious one for Friday, as it gave her “full creative control.” The album is being released alongside a short film of the same name, which Friday co-directed with Nathan De Paz Habib, and which explores similar themes to the album. And she has already just begun what will be a wide-ranging international tour—staggered throughout the year—bringing her to the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Australia.
As Friday says on the title track, “You got shit to do, you got a lot to prove. Give it what you got!”
