Nameless Friends Know What You Need

The alt-rock activists address climate change & income inequality in their new cut.

Nameless Friends feed your Need with their hard-hitting new single and video — showcasing today on Tinnitist.

Nameless Friends think big — big music, big sound, big ideas. So naturally, the ferocious rock band from London, Ont., wrote their new single about one of the biggest problems of the modern world: Climate change and its relationship to economic inequality. Fun times, right? But Nameless Friends are not dour. Far from it. Case in point: They once put out a live album of Queen covers — because they’re the kind of band that can pull off a Queen cover set, with all the musical chops and camp that requires.

Their forthcoming album is called Blasphemy, and in their own words, “it’s a high-concept record about intense, personal subjects.” Which is nothing new for them. They’re likely the only commercial rock band in the world to write a song about reproductive and menstrual rights.

Their debut EP, 2018’s Mezzanine, was a song cycle about grief. The songs by this female-fronted, multicultural, queer-inclusive band have struck a powerful chord with audiences, including a recent hometown crowd of 15,000 people.

Despite their serious subject matter, “Joy, hope and love are also intense personal experiences,” says the singer, producer, guitar-maker and founding member known only as Number One. “We’re trying to present those truths with as much courage as the hard stuff. We’re trying to make music about the justice we want to see in the world, that’s also really bloody fun to listen to.”

Blasphemy arrives May 19. It was mixed by Andrew McLeod (Sunnsetter) and mastered by Darcy Proper (first female engineer to win a Grammy). Nameless Friends are touring Ontario and Quebec in May and June, and head to Western Canada in fall 2023.

Watch the video for Need above, check out more from Nameless Friends below, and meet them on their website, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter.