Bombastic and intimate, sarcastic but vulnerable; Montreal’s Fake Friends lives on the edge of duality. Fuelled by the manic charisma of frontman Matthew Savage, the six-piece post-punk outfit is an engine that runs on making tunes and ripping gigs with a sincere bravado that is downright infectious to witness.
The many lives of the band are hard to track; starting out as a reason to hang out throughout 2020, the band has since rotated through enough members to roster an NHL team. Through it all, the band’s founding fathers Matthew Savage (vocals/cult leader) and Luca Santilli (guitar/rock god) – who history will remember as roommates – have retained the same ethos of making danceable rock with dedicated unseriousness alongside good friends. Now rolling out a lineup with Michael Kamps (bass/aura farmer), Felix Crawford-Legault (guitar/golden clown composer), Bradley Cooper-Graham (keys/disney adult) and Michael Tomizzi (drums/gambling savant), Fake Friends are as wild and productive as they’ve ever been. “A lot of us have known each other for many years,” explains Matt. “It just sort of came together organically as different people moved out of the band, and I just replaced them with all the people I’ve always played music with. For whatever reason, this time, it’s cookin’.”
That recipe – along with 2024’s Always Worse/Never Better EP – has carried the group on many rowdy runs through Ontario and the Maritimes, a placement on Hockey Night in Canada, and shows opening for legends Me First and the Gimme Gimme’s, Buzzcocks and Wine Lips. Those road hours have helped the band become a well-oiled machine, bringing grease and good times to dive bars and concert halls across eastern Canada.
All that road dog activity has led to the Let’s Not Overthink This LP, Fake Friends’ first full length effort and first record with their current lineup. The album sees the band thriving in their comfort zone: peddling in esoteric conspiracies and creating anthemic rock that is at home with fans of The Talking Heads as it is on a Big Shiny Tunes compilation. Songwriter and notable straight edge king Felix Crawford-Legault describes the LP’s story as “a night of binge drinking, bravado and lack of self-awareness that torpedoes into a self loathing 4 AM cigarette in the aftermath of obliteration” that leaves the protagonist unsure of reality yet nevertheless “thriving in the slum.” When the rest of us know what that means, we’ll let you know; until then, Fake Friends are going to keep the chaos moving onward and outward through 2026 and beyond.
