Real Friends: "It’s ok if things don’t come out the way you planned"

“Getting older scares the shit out of me,” admitted Real Friends on debut album ‘Maybe This Place Is The Same and We’re Just Changing’. Two years later and the band are facing their fears with ‘The Home Inside My Head’. “It still does,” shares vocalist Dan Lambton, “but this record is definitely coming to terms with that. Life happens. There are things we can do to steer it in certain directions but we’re not always going to be in control. That’s the biggest thing to take away from it. Letting life run its course. It’s OK if things don’t come out the way you planned ‘cause that might mean it comes out better.” It’s an attitude the band - bassist Kyle Fasel, guitarist Dave Knox, guitarist Eric Haines, drummer Brian Blake and Dan - took to heart when creating their second album. Written over the course of months, not weeks, the band had space to feel things out and ensure nothing slipped through the cracks. “It’s just weird how these things kinda materialise. After we put out our first album I remember thinking, ‘Oh, there’s eventually going to be an album two’, and you think about certain things, what that album’s going to be and then it just shows up, nothing like you originally pictured. That’s awesome. It’s how life is. If you predicted every single thing that ever happened, it would be pretty boring.” The band’s debut album was the perfect summation of everything Real Friends were up until that point. ‘The Home Inside My Head’ sees them head to pastures new. “We never set out to sound a certain way when we put the songs together. We did the bulk of the record with Steve Evetts and a big reason was because he was so passionate and adamant about this record being the best version of Real Friends that we could possibly be. “We’d never worked with a producer up until this record and we just felt it was time to go to somebody with a little more experience. We went through pre-production for the first time and we were able to put the songs under the knife and let them breathe. That was the big thing that sets it apart from everything else that we’ve done.” With space at every turn ‘The Home Inside My Head’ was a lot less stressful than what had come before. “We didn’t have the luxury of time before. Having more time made the record much more cohesive and definitely brought out a lot better songs.”