Interview with… Friedberg

For one special night this November, London’s Lexington plays host to BBC Music Introducing, welcoming three new artists breaking through in their field. The night will see three top talents perform, with LION, Friedberg and Mealtime set to play.

Here’s your chance to get to know Friedberg, the London-based alt-indie outfit fronted by Anna Friedberg.

You’ve had a bit of a breakthrough year, how’ve you found it and what’s been the highlight?

It feels like the whole year has been a highlight, it’s hard to pick one particular event! So many great things have happened and exceeded all my expectations. Hearing my music for the first time on UK radio was really special to me though.

Your song, ‘Go Wild’, is on the FIFA soundtrack, does recognition like that mean anything to you?

Yeah of course, especially also because I’ve always been a huge football fan. Just received a copy of the game and can’t wait to play it with the band, we just need a console now 😉

Are you football fans yourselves?

Yes, super Rapid Vienna!

You’ve just been touring right? Tell us about those shows!

It was a lot of fun, but also super exhausting at the same time! We had 5 shows in 4 days including a super early live TV morning show performance – we only got about 2 hours of sleep every night and crashed on friends’ sofas all the time.  But playing live is the best bit, especially with these girls!

Any great stories from tour?

We had our first band-fight shortly before the last gig at Waves Festival in Vienna, since we all were so tired, and had a little bicker over the set-list. We didn’t speak a word to each other before going on stage, but then played a super energetic and great gig for an incredible crowd and celebrated after the show – happy ever after. A friend of mine came to me after the show and said that when we were all head-banging we looked like four rocker guys haha!

You covered ‘Forever Young’, where did the idea to release that cover come from?

I initially recorded it for a  TV commercial and then decided to put it up online as well as I really liked how it turned out.

You’re playing at BBC Music Introducing at the Lexington in November, how excited are you for that show?

So incredibly excited, I’m having sleepless nights already!

It’s a great bill, with Lion and Mealtime joining you, do you know much about these bands? Are you looking forward to sharing the stage with them?

Yeah I checked them out and can’t wait to share the stage with them!

 Will you be debuting any new music at the show?

Yes, we’ll be playing one or two new songs.

What can people expect from your performance?

Hopefully lots of fun, maybe a bit of head banging…