I love raw, unprocessed music. Real Friends’ oldish performance of “Skeleton” acoustic is chilling. I just came upon it on their YouTube and I’ve watched it countless times now. It’s just two guys walking down the street and the purity of guitar and vocals is perfect. “Way back then, there were monsters in my closet, now there’s skeletons hiding in there.”
Dan, the vocalist, has such a clear and smooth tone to his voice that is perfect for the genre. It packs the classic poppunk punch along with a hint of that teenage angst innocence that is so hard to find in songs that are mixed and autotuned and manipulated. The way he sings the line, “I remember when love was just a word and not a fight all i had to worry about were broken bones and being left alone” is perfect.
When he sings, “Oh, the summer we were staring at the sun,” the guitar bit takes up a bit of a peppier sound but doesn’t detract from the seriousness of the words. It’s somber and reflective, but the hint of positivity is really what drives it home. “The clock is ticking away, the leaves are still falling every day, the sunburn on my shoulders kept warm back then like the heat from the blacktop again and again.” The way it just ends on those words makes it haunting and leaves you wanting more.
Real Friends have slowly progressed into becoming my favourite pop punk band in a really long time. They’re definitely worth checking out.
