“We believe in our fans and we wanted to take a shot.”
Real Friends’ new album, Blue Hour, is their first full-length with new vocalist Cody Muraro. You must remember that this band has been in the emo spotlight for a decade now, and even with this lineup change, they are successfully standing the test of time. In 2020, the interpersonal changes caused the band’s future to be uncertain, but in 2024, after officially dropping their best record yet, it’s clear that Real Friends are not a passing fad. Their music is proof, and every song means something special to so many people. That could make for a lot of pressure of bandmates new and old to create tracks that hold weight, but that pressure is what keeps them consistently producing quality material.
Blue Hour, in particular, sees the band tackling the most emotional topics yet. That gives the record an overlying sense of sadness and grief. However, that also makes this record the heaviest output from Real Friends. This collection of 13 songs showcases the band stepping out, prancing into new and emotional territories, and absolutely nailing it.
We had the privilege to catch up with Muraro, the new lead singer, and longtime bassist and lyricist Kyle Fasel. It was an exciting conversation held mere hours before their New York City concert at Irving Plaza, and it began when the band invited us on their tour bus for the chat. We took that time to discuss the album, the writing of sad songs, the importance of connecting with the audience, and even the underrated EPs the band dropped post-pandemic.
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Kyle and Cody – Blue Hour has been out for two months, how have you been feeling?
Kyle: Feeling great! We worked very very hard on it. It’s been cool. We’re on tour right now, but almost done. It’s been very enjoyable to have a record come out a week before the tour started; it’s been really cool to see the reaction in-person. It seems like as the tour goes on, the people are singing the new songs more and more. As much as internet comments are great, in person… there is something cool about that. Not every band gets that! Sometimes an album comes out and you tour three to four months later, but we’ve really seen it be out and people in-person tell us every night how much they’re connecting with it.
Cody: Yeah ,everything Kyle says is pretty much the same I would say. It’s been really nice to see it in-person every night and have people come up to us and tell us how much the record has meant to them already. It’s also the first full-length I’ve done with the band. That’s been a really special moment for my chapter in this band.
The last EP, There’s Nothing Worse Than Too Late, came out in 2022. Did you start writing this album right after the EP?
Cody: We’re always writing. We have demos coming in. I don’t think we went into the studio right after the EP, but we probably wrote maybe 15-20 songs before we went into the studio to record Blue Hour. We had a bunch of demos and instrumentals. When we went into the studio to record, we had a couple of songs that we had from previous writing sessions that we brought in for Blue Hour, but the majority of the record was written on the spot. Even the instrumental demos we had, we put them to the side and soaked into what we were feeling at the time, so for the most part we wrote it all there. We went in with an intention for this record, and it was not even fully realized when we went in the studio, but while we were making the songs, the vision/big picture started to come together. A lot of the older demos we had didn’t fit the direction of what Blue Hour came to be.
Kyle: We ended up mending the older ideas. There is a song on the record, “Cold Blooded,” and we used the chorus and then rewrote everything else. As Cody said, as we were in the studio we had more direction of what we wanted to do. It became clearer and clearer as we went on. That was really just us trying to make the heaviest and saddest record we could. Once we hit that mindset, we were like, “Alright, let’s go!” Looking back at some of the stuff we wrote prior to the record, it didn’t make sense with this record.
There’s Nothing Worse Than Too Late is very upbeat and positive, while this one is very emotional.
Kyle: So many songs we’ve written over the years and experimented around with… we really came back to the core of Real Friends on this – the spirit of Real Friends from 2012 and 2013. “Let’s just write songs and not worry too much about writing the catchiest song that we can.” That still is a factor. I think that, for us, it was trying to make the most emotional record we could and every single song is about a real thing. These songs are very special and real. Once we focused on emotion [as] our number one, that was when it all started to come together.
Real Friends has become known for sad music. One of your biggest hits is “I’ve Given Up on You.” Tell me about channeling that sadness. Does it weigh on you?
Cody: In the studio, it can! [Laughs] When you’re sitting there trying to think of lyrical stuff, there’s been moments where we go in with an instrumental and we think, “What kind of song do we want to write today?” It becomes a full-on therapy session. “There’s this traumatic event that happened in my life, and now let’s talk about this for the next hour.” You start spitballing all these things and it can be very emotional, because, like Kyle said, these are true stories. We’re not just pulling shit out of our ass for a sad song. It can be heavy in the studio to open up. Not only do you get that experience in the studio, and it may be challenging, but you’re creating music that means something and you can see that translate with the fans who are singing those words back to you. I think that’s what makes Blue Hour so special. To me, it [has] very meaningful songs.
Kyle: In the studio, it can be hard to relive that stuff because it is sad, like your initial question is asking. It is sad, but it is rewarding to see people get something positive out of it. For me, a lot of the early Real Friends songs are about a break-up I went through in my early twenties then, so many songs are about that [Laughs]. Now, years later, totally out of that and more of an adult, I was very heartbroken and depressed over things, but it makes [the situation] make sense to me. That gave me fuel to write these songs. With Blue Hour, it’s the same thing. There are so many deep topics on the record about grief and suicide. Yes, it’s hard at that moment, but it starts to make sense. To me, once someone messages us, “Insert-whatever-song-title – this song helped me, it makes the bad stuff make more sense,” it’s therapy for us as artists.
Tracks like “Waiting Room” connect with the audience so positively live.
Kyle: That’s been really cool! Something a lot of fans have said on this tour is just how it’s been cool for them to grow up with the band. To go from breakup songs – and then our fans get older, we get older, they lose people – to be growing with them with the subject matter of the songs, as well. People on this tour have mentioned that to me. That’s such a cool thing and not every band can say they do.
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This is also your first new album in six years, so when was that ‘click’ moment of saying, “It’s time for another record,” and not another EP?
Cody: I’m pretty happy with how we’ve done it. When I first joined the band it was actually during COVID. We had written a shit ton of music and we weren’t able to release it, so we sat on it for a while. That allowed us to develop a sound and my place in the band. It allowed us to take some time. We wanted to take things slowly at first. We had no idea at first how it was going to go; everyone could have hated it and thankfully that’s not the case. We released the EP and decided to do another. The first one went over well and we felt like that was the right thing to do. With doing this whole album, we definitely felt like it was time. I was really keen on doing a full-length record. Yes, it has been six years since the last Real Friends record, and it’s first one with me, so I think it was very much time for it to happen. It was also perfect timing for the record cycle for the label. We were on Pure Noise and were only obligated to the two EPs with them. Once that finished up, it was time to release a record independently.
That is the perfect segue into my next question: you guys are independent for the first time. Congratulations! That’s always exciting. Tell me about how that’s been and what you’re looking forward to.
Kyle: I think it’s always been something in the back of our heads. We technically were an independent band from 2010-2013, so we did release a couple of EPs independently. Then we signed to Fearless Records in 2014. There’s just something about being on a record label… every time you release something it’s like, “What if we did it on our own?” Then we signed to Pure Noise. Both record labels did a great job. It was awesome being part of a bigger network. It really was cool. Then you get this chance of being independent – and not every band gets that chance – especially like Cody says, when the record lined up, it was a big swing for us to do it on our own. For us, it was something we felt made sense for us. We’re very DIY at our core. Even when we’re on labels, we’re still involved with what’s going on. No record labels were ever telling us how to write songs or anything. We always gave records to them, the labels, when they were done. It honestly wasn’t that big of a difference. There’s something rewarding about doing it on our own. We literally shipped out every single vinyl. We put in handwritten lyrics. It felt so personal. I feel it’s where we’re supposed to be at the moment. We talk about it a lot. I want people to know: one of my goals is always to enlighten fans and make them realize how big a part of this they are. I feel like they don’t realize it. So many fans don’t get it, but these fans are the reason why it all happens. You have probably heard us say that before, whether it be online or on stage. but I wouldn’t be sitting here talking with you about music if it wasn’t for the fans. I think that correlates with the unsigned thing. These albums are because of you.
Cody: It’s funny how when you support a band it’s like, “You got signed!” Everyone is stoked, saying “Congratulations!” Then you leave a record label and do something independently and it’s like, “Congratulations,” all over again [Laughs].
It’s always a win-win!
Cody: It’s not even that we’re this anti-label, hardcore punk band or anything like that. We just felt like this was an appropriate time to release this record independently. We believe in our fans and we wanted to take a shot. The whole feeling of Blue Hour and the world we tried to create seems very fitting to have it independent. Our next record might be on a label! Right now, this is what is right for Real Friends.
Real Friends has defined multiple generations. In 2014, you were all over Tumblr with the aesthetic of the house furniture, now in 2024, 10 years later, I’m seeing The Blue Hour aesthetic everywhere. Tell us about the scene of pop punk and you guys.
Kyle: I think it’s been really cool! I’ll be the first to say we’re very grateful to be able to do that. I was just talking today about bands I loved growing up. There were certain bands that had a two-three year window – they were in and out. To be able to do this for as long as we have has been really rewarding. I think with our class of pop punk/emo bands, everyone can probably guess who they are, but there are like 10-12 who we came up with, and I think there’s a longevity to a lot of those bands. I think it’s because we’ve all gone into different lanes. We’re not all exactly the same. That’s something that’s cool about our corner of the pop punk/emo world: everyone went off into their own avenues; whether that be more pop, more rock, or just heavier. I’m just really grateful to somewhat reinvent Real Friends this far in and make the record heavier leaning.
Cody: I had a fan come up to me at our last show and was being very nice. One thing I took away from it was, they said, “Blue Hour was exactly what I want to hear in this scene right now and something I think is missing.” To me, that was a very nice compliment because I think that is a big goal that I know I had. I’m pretty sure I speak for everybody when I say we really wanted this record to be timeless. We wanted something that didn’t sound like 2013 Real Friends or 2024 pop punk. I think there are different sounds in different generations. I don’t think you can say Blue Hour sounds like these other records, I think it really is its own thing. I do believe this record is a little different than a lot of what’s happening in our genre right now.
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