New Friends: Creative Detours as a Band and Their Dark & Driving New Track
“I think that was the biggest aspect to the detour was that we've always been willing to do a detour.” ~Conrad G.
Toronto’s indie-pop sensation New Friends is back with a new sound all of their own. This metamorphosis is a beautiful depiction of their story and where they’re headed as a creatively innovative band. I had the chance to chat over a Zoom call with the guys to hear all about this new path forward. Best known for their viral hit “Purple Candy”, the group have stepped into a strikingly experimental sonic era. With tinged guitar textures, dance-music sensibilities, and crooning, pop-punk like vocals, the band takes us back to a time of melodies laced in nostalgia, electronica, and experimentation.
As they call themselves, “mosh pop”, the band is creating a genre for themselves that is an adventurous pursuit in an already ever-changing landscape of the music industry. With the variety that exists in music today, this band is boldly embracing the concept of making alternative approaches to familiar sounds like that of Coldplay and Coin, making the art of discovering new bands like them in their niches an extremely fruitful and thrilling experience.
In our recent sit-down, I was struck by how they’ve rediscovered themselves, and the bonds that have tightened between the four of them. New Friends, made up of artists Stefan, Nico, Cole, and Conrad, were friends who toured together during their college days. After signing with Timbaland in 2024, the band became a musical force, being offered major record deals, and other incredible opportunities to support other big acts in the music realms.
Their new single “wait4me” is pulsing with a mysterious, martial rhythm—simultaneously commanding and hypnotic. It feels like a bold, gothic march: the drums hit with the precision of a battalion, the bass rumbles through your chest, and that trance‑like groove carries you along. On this track, their lead vocalist, Stefan, channels a fresh, powerful register—reverberating with strong, Bieber-esque melody lines one moment, and diving into ethereal, trancey passages the next. It’s invigorating. The band’s dynamic has matured—they sound seasoned, exploratory, and utterly confident.
The interview brought out this exciting energy: the members talked about writing from lived experience, savoring space to live fully before pouring it into music and really intentionally building their worlds for themselves and their fans—echoing sentiments from their DE•TOUR interview in 2022 that “you gotta live your life to get material” . They emphasized staying close-knit and the beauty of how their brains work synergistically, constantly checking in on aligning their music with their core values as artists and creatives and that the detours and time taken were necessary to build their craft and get their music to a place they whole-heartedly believe in. They discuss not holding back and immediately sharing new creations with fans live and they share other fun facts of their family dynamic. All in all, it was an inspiring, deep, and charismatic conversation that reminds me why I love the band in the first place—they’re as real as it gets.
I’m profoundly grateful to have talked with them again in this thrilling new phase and I can’t wait to see where it continues to go. They’ve grown past a soft indie-pop group and are now wielding sounds that are bold, mysterious, and intoxicating.
Our Interview:
Neelu Mohaghegh [NM]: You guys wanna go around really quickly and introduce yourselves again? Le't’s start with Cole.
Cole: Well, I'm Cole. I play guitar for the band New Friends.
Nico: What's going on? I'm Nico. I play drums.
Conrad: I'm Conrad. I play guitar and bass.
Stefan: Stephan. I'm the singer.
[NM]: It's really good to have you guys back again on detour, and I feel like maybe you guys have gone on your own kind of creative detour since the last time I spoke with you guys? Tell me a little bit about how you guys have evolved since we last spoke in 2022 and how the band has changed and how the music has changed and what should we be expecting.?
Stefan: You know, I mean, even before, we were constantly changing. Right? We’re always in a state of trying to do better and, you know, find new ways to make music and stuff. But, yeah, since the last time we spoke, we, met Timbaland. We flew out to Miami, met a bunch of other producers, and started making, you know, this new sound that we like to call “mosh pop”. And, yeah that's the biggest change for sure is the new sound.
[NM]: What's the most impactful detour that has happened for you guys creatively, whether as the band itself has evolved or as the sound has evolved? What is the thing that you think has really helped elevate you guys into this new chapter?
Conrad: Yeah. I think it's just constantly looking back on what you've done and what you want to do and then kinda checking in with yourself all the time. Right? So, I think that was the one thing that the band was really good at since the beginning was we always checked in. We're like, okay, is this what we wanna do? Is this how we wanna sound? You know? How do we facilitate all these ideas, keep at the core what the band is, and constantly evolve ourselves. Right? Not get too stuck up on something, and I think that's the fun part of being in a band is that there's four brains constantly going. I think that was the biggest aspect to the detour was that we've always been willing to do a detour. You know what I mean? We've never been ones to just go on Google Maps and whatever the way it tells us. If they say there's a similar ETA, why not try that one sometimes? You know? That was kind of always our agenda. So, I think that played mostly into the fact that it's just that we always checked up like, checked ourselves. Right? And, you know, when you don't hold things so precious, especially as a young band, that's kinda when you still never stop experimenting. I think that's kind of the goal as an artist that you still wanna challenge yourself as much as you can.
[NM]: I wanted to ask, was for this song in particular, because I do feel like this is the song that kinda represents that change—tell me more about how the song came to be—the creative process behind it. I see there's also a lot of cool marketing revolving around it all. You guys are doing a lot of great visuals for it and everything and building your world, which I love—it’s so sick.
Conrad: This one came to be from a fan who was over in LA for the first time, and we were working with the new camp of people that we've been working with from undergoats (management). The fan was in LA with them, and we were still back home (in Toronto). He was finishing up some other records that we were working on that are part of this project, and we got a phone call at about 2AM or 3AM, and one of the producers over in Poland sent over this marching drum instrumental. Nico and I were like, “damn man, we can't go to bed now”. So, we hopped on a call and basically just started going back and forth on melodies. There was never really an intent on what the song was gonna be about, but we did know was that sample “wait4me” was really special. Like, it's saying “wait for me”. It's always nice when something musically tells you what you should be going after. That was one of the ones that kind of guided us very quickly—Did a bunch of scouting melodies over top of it, and we kinda ended at this point of the idea of, “I'm going through changes”. A lot of this record and a lot of the songs that we've been making right now do reflect lyrically the amount of changes we've gone through in the past year and a half. And “wait4me” was one of those stories that I think is this perspective that made a lot of sense for us because it's coming from a place of “I'm trying to do better…I'm trying to figure myself out, but don't ever get it twisted. I don't want you to get thrown off while I'm trying to do this. So, if you could stick on and hang on, you end up getting the best version of me, and you get to see that process.” So, that was the perspective we chose, and I think it's a really important one. I think it's a special one too because it's very cathartic.
Nico: I feel like that song isn't really targeted at one one thing only. You could relate it to heartbreak if you want, but in our situation, it was that whole flip of what we did through our careers that was what we related it to, but we left the whole song very broad for you to relate it to what you wanted.
[NM]: So, this was a question that I asked in the last interview that I wanna see how has it changed for you guys. If you had one word to describe each other, what would be that one word?
Stephan: Each individual. Damn. Family. That's overall for all of us. You know? I think this whole change kinda brought us even closer than we were before. Is there a word that's more than family? Whatever is beyond that.
Conrad: I'm trying to think of what I called everyone personally.
[NM]: I was reading back again, and I thought that it was so funny. It was something about anger.
Nico: Haha. Damn.
[NM]: There is definitely some rage in there. There was definitely some attitude in another one.
Cole: Yeah. I mean, I can say, Nico, I would consider energy or energetic. Conrad, I would say, intentional. And, Stefan, I would say, spontaneous.
Conrad: Yeah. I do an “s“word for Stefan too. I call him space cadet. Nico, I agree with energy. Cole, damn, intentional is crazy because that's kinda how I'd describe Cole. Cole, I’d do determined.
Stefan: I would give Conrad driven. Nico, you have to be with energy, man. You can bring the energy. Cole, I'd have to go with, factual.
Nico: Logic for for Cole or common sense because Cole’s common sense is off the charts. Conrad, you're definitely very driven. I was also gonna say realistic, though, because I feel like he balances the line between realism and delusional, which you have to be in this industry. Conrad's got a very good balance in that, which I think we all are very appreciative of, and Stefan is just Stefan. That's the word.
Stefan: And going off of that I'll give us all a word together, “delusional.” All together, we're all delusional. Delusionists… Delusional family and the best kind of family.
[NM]: You guys were incredibly nicer to each other this time.
Conrad: We were angry back then. We weren't family back then.
[NM]: So, what should we be expecting next now that this record is out?
Cole: We have a bunch of new songs, as Conrad was talking about earlier, and then a bunch of shows coming up. So, I mean, I don't know when this is coming out, but June 12, we have a show in Toronto.
Nico: Think you got a whole lot more chaos to be to be honest with you. We got a lot of chaos, built up from the past, however long it's been, year and a half, two years, but it's all good chaos for sure. I think we're all very just, to take a word from everybody's book, we're all very “energetic” to let this music out into the world and and, I don't know, share what we've been spending all our time on with the world. We’re all very excited for sure.
Stefan: What we can promise that you won't get is time between music. So, there won't be a wait between music.
Cole:There won't be another eighteen months.
Nico: We promise that.
“Uncomfortability is growth.” ~Stefan B.
[NM]: Now, this is just kind of fun rapid fire for you guys. If you guys could collaborate with anyone, who would you wanna collab with?
Nico: Bieber.
Stefan: I'd like to collab with John Bellion.
Cole: I was gonna say that, but to be honest, the new Addison Rae record is fire. So, getting her on a song would be insane.
Conrad: I stand by all that!
[NM]: Dream festival to perform at?
Stefan: Glastonbury.
Conrad: Oh, Glastonbury. My answer is the same. I think my answer has always been that, and I think that was my answer last time you asked. I think it still stays the same. Glastonbury 100%.
Stefan: I’m just ready to play them all.
[NM]: We're gonna do all of them. Gonna have you do the North American tour because I need you guys to come through Boston. Ok, are there any new hobbies or things you guys have picked up that are outside of music that fans might not know about you guys?
Stefan: I picked up, drag racing.. hahaha. Nah, I think we're all just working away at the music. You know? Like, we're so swamped with just making music and being together all the time.
Conrad: I've been watching Severance, and then I started watching Stranger Things again, and I'm like, damn, these “movie” -TV shows got me in a choke hold right now.
Nico: Honestly, the moment our hobby turned into a job, that's the hobby and job.
“ I think it's your craft too. You gotta believe in it. And, also, if you're creative, you have the one thing that most people in this world don't have, which is freedom.” ~Nico E.
[NM]: Lastly, have you guys felt that your fans have been really excited about these new sounds, or have you felt like you guys have gained new kinds of fans as a result of that?
Cole: I think honestly, it's funny that you mentioned that because before any of these songs even came out, we did a show in Toronto for a bunch of people showcasing all these new songs. That was one thing that we were super nervous about being like, it's so completely different from these songs that we've done before—at least from what I saw from the crowd, a lot of people were loving it.
Conrad: I was just gonna say that I think that we knew that the change is going to definitely, I don't know if the word “shock” is the right word, but I think it's definitely gonna, cause a lot of kind of conversation about “oh, is this too different for me?” But it looks like a lot of people really stuck by it. And like Cole said, I think that was the main thing, as a band, the best way to find out is by having those people in the room and playing it live. And before any song dropped and actually before most of these songs were even mixed, we threw that show together for free for anyone who's in Toronto, gave them eighteen hours notice, just like, “come pull up, tell us if our record's good”. And the feedback was amazing. So, it was nice to know that people are still rocking with it. And, you know, in typical New Friends fashion, there's something for everyone. We haven't gotten rid of that. We stand by that still.
Stefan: Yeah. It was really cool to see that reaction considering nobody knew any of the songs. Like the feedback we got from it was just, I did not know what to expect, but I was not expecting that… In a good way. So that was a good, I guess not even relief, because, like, we know the music is good, but it was more of just a “hell yeah”. We did it.
“You could sit there and wonder, “oh, maybe everyone will hate this”. But on the other side, you could sit there and wonder, “maybe everyone loves this, and this is gonna be the next big thing”. ~Cole W.
[NM]: To really wrap it up, the last question, I wanted to ask you guys is for artists and creatives, when they're going through transitions and going through detours and really trying to make those decisions, a lot of people, you know, get held back because they're afraid to make those side quests and those changes… they're afraid of exactly showing the world for fear that it might not resonate with people as they think it would. But, what advice would you give them? Because you guys have certainly done it, and it's serving you guys super well.
Stefan: I have a good example for that. You just need to take that step for one. But, you know, we were in the studio and someone says a line that everyone goes, “I don't know”…then they say “no, that should probably be in it.” Just take that step, throw that in there, and do the things that make you uncomfortable because that's growth. Uncomfortability is growth.
Conrad: You gotta kind of learn how to talk to that subconscious artist part of yourself. I feel like we were not very distracted, but there was there was also a lane set in front of us that we were getting very comfortable driving down. I think that subconsciously, all of us kind of realized that the seat was reclined and that maybe we aren’t as actively looking at the road because we're so used to the path. I think that right now, music's in a place where you almost have to do more digging to find out what it is that you actually, like, believe, what it is that you say, what it is that you want to express. You can't expect the fruits of your labor to come immediately. Right? I mean, we started working on this project a year and a half ago, and just recently, we were able to put it out and start receiving some love off of it. But that was eighteen months of us in a four wall room spinning in circles trying to figure out, is this good? Is this good? Is this good? But I think that time just gave us the confidence to know that—whatever the band really truthfully feels and wants is probably gonna already make the best product in the end, right? Because it's the most honest earnest, I guess. You know?
Cole: How I feel about it is, you could sit there and wonder, “oh, maybe everyone will hate this”. But on the other side, you could sit there and wonder, “maybe everyone loves this, and this is gonna be the next big thing”. So specially with music, you truly just never know.
Nico: I think it's your craft too. You gotta believe in it. And, also, if you're creative, you have the one thing that most people in this world don't have, which is freedom. So, if you have the opportunity to take that step to create change within your life, go crazy and do it because, you're gonna pop out on the other side and you're gonna love what you created or what you're gonna do. That change is gonna come eventually, most likely, whether you like it or not. So, might as well it be under your control then in anyone else's hand.
Stefan: And I think, in the words of mister Rick Rubin himself, a lot of people don't know what they want until they got it. Right? You could be thinking, “this is ass. this sucks”. But in reality, there's a bunch of people out there that are like “this is great!”
[NM]: These are really great answers, you guys. I was so excited to be able to talk to you guys again about this new record and this journey you’ve been on because I have just been following along and have always loved the music. I always loved what you guys have been doing. I'm especially excited about all the new things to come for you guys. You have a super fan over here. So proud of you! I'm excited for you guys to tour.
Nico: Yes. We'll be in Boston in no time!