Nameless Friends think big. Big music. Big sound. Big ideas. Go big or go home. Which is why the ferocious band from London, Ontario, wrote their debut, original album Blasphemy (2023) about some of the biggest problems facing the modern world: right-wing bigotry, gendered violence, climate change, and economic inequality.
Fun times, right? But Nameless Friends is not a dour band. Far from it. This is also the band who put out a live record of Queen covers, recorded in front of a sold-out crowd at Toronto’s Horseshoe Tavern—because they’re the kind of band that can actually pull off a Queen cover set, with all the musical chops and sense of camp that requires.
This balance of grandeur and frankness has the female-fronted, diverse, queer band striking powerful chords with their original tunes. They’re likely the only commercial rock band in the world to write a song about reproductive and menstrual rights (“7 Years of Blood”), and have amassed hundreds of thousands of views online for an epic “feud” with Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe over the rights of transgender children.
“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” says the lead singer, producer, and founding member known only to the outside world as Number One. “We have been described as modern glam, prog punk, metal-adjacent, hysterical pussy shit, and your new favourite band.”
Nameless Friends' first EP, 2018's Mezzanine, received glowing reviews in Canada and Serbia, and single "The Flood" was featured on the City of Kingston's #YGKMusic Municipal playlist in 2022. Their self-produced debut album, Blasphemy, released in May 2023, was mixed by Andrew McLeod (Sunnsetter, Paper Bag Records) and mastered by Darcy Proper (Porcupine Tree, The Eagles). Blasphemy and its singles have amassed hundreds of thousands of views on Tiktok and Instagram, and garnered PR attention for the band’s politically active “knack for turning spite into rocket fuel” (Next Wave Magazine). The official music video for single “Sympathy for Lilith” was also an Official Selection at the 2023 Forest City Film Festival.
Nameless Friends has performed regularly across Canada since 2018, including Indie Week 2019 in Toronto, ON; the 2019 #JunosWeekend in London, ON; and showcases for the City of Markham and Western University. They opened for the The Flatliners at the Horseshoe Tavern's sold-out Stranded Fest in 2019, which is available online in audio/video as "Nameless Friends, Live At Stranded Fest". They were recently featured on the main stage at both Deep River Summerfest 2022 (3,000+ people) and London's UNESCO Music City NYE 2022 (15,000+ people), showcased at Bitchfest Toronto in March 2024 and Regina Pride in June 2024, and completed four successful legs of the “Blasphemy Release Tour”: central Canada in summer 2023, western Canada in fall 2023, eastern Canada in spring 2024, and the UK and Ireland in summer 2024. Nameless Friends next gets back on the road for the fifth leg of the BRT (fall 2024, TBA) and a showcase at VENUExVENUE 2024. They are delighted to share the stage on these tours, almost exclusively, with femme/queer-inclusive local bands.Nameless Friends think big. Big music. Big sound. Big ideas. Go big or go home. Which is why the ferocious band from London, Ontario, wrote their debut, original album Blasphemy (2023) about some of the biggest problems facing the modern world: right-wing bigotry, gendered violence, climate change, and economic inequality.
Fun times, right? But Nameless Friends is not a dour band. Far from it. This is also the band who put out a live record of Queen covers, recorded in front of a sold-out crowd at Toronto’s Horseshoe Tavern—because they’re the kind of band that can actually pull off a Queen cover set, with all the musical chops and sense of camp that requires.
This balance of grandeur and frankness has the female-fronted, diverse, queer band striking powerful chords with their original tunes. They’re likely the only commercial rock band in the world to write a song about reproductive and menstrual rights (“7 Years of Blood”), and have amassed hundreds of thousands of views online for an epic “feud” with Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe over the rights of transgender children.
“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” says the lead singer, producer, and founding member known only to the outside world as Number One. “We have been described as modern glam, prog punk, metal-adjacent, hysterical pussy shit, and your new favourite band.”
Nameless Friends' first EP, 2018's Mezzanine, received glowing reviews in Canada and Serbia, and single "The Flood" was featured on the City of Kingston's #YGKMusic Municipal playlist in 2022. Their self-produced debut album, Blasphemy, released in May 2023, was mixed by Andrew McLeod (Sunnsetter, Paper Bag Records) and mastered by Darcy Proper (Porcupine Tree, The Eagles). Blasphemy and its singles have amassed hundreds of thousands of views on Tiktok and Instagram, and garnered PR attention for the band’s politically active “knack for turning spite into rocket fuel” (Next Wave Magazine). The official music video for single “Sympathy for Lilith” was also an Official Selection at the 2023 Forest City Film Festival.
Nameless Friends has performed regularly across Canada since 2018, including Indie Week 2019 in Toronto, ON; the 2019 #JunosWeekend in London, ON; and showcases for the City of Markham and Western University. They opened for the The Flatliners at the Horseshoe Tavern's sold-out Stranded Fest in 2019, which is available online in audio/video as "Nameless Friends, Live At Stranded Fest". They were recently featured on the main stage at both Deep River Summerfest 2022 (3,000+ people) and London's UNESCO Music City NYE 2022 (15,000+ people), showcased at Bitchfest Toronto in March 2024 and Regina Pride in June 2024, and completed four successful legs of the “Blasphemy Release Tour”: central Canada in summer 2023, western Canada in fall 2023, eastern Canada in spring 2024, and the UK and Ireland in summer 2024. Nameless Friends next gets back on the road for the fifth leg of the BRT (fall 2024, TBA) and a showcase at VENUExVENUE 2024. They are delighted to share the stage on these tours, almost exclusively, with femme/queer-inclusive local bands.