On Tyranny: Weakened Friends’ Secret to Battling MAGA? Community Involvement
“As someone who is a queer individual, my safety came from a lot of people dying and protesting and fighting for my rights to feel safe. … I’m willing to have a boot on my neck for the people that I love and care about. I’m here for the fight.”
–Sonia Sturino
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Only about 69,500 people live in Portland, Maine, which is one of the least-populous states in the U.S. (and is the only one in the Lower 48 to share a border with just one other state). But let’s drop the Cliff Clavin act and get to the most salient fact of interest to you, dear reader of The Bad Penny: Portland is home to one of the most red-hot indie-rock bands in the Northeast: Weakened Friends.
Led by impossible-not-to-love married multi-instrumentalists Sonia Sturino (who has a green card) and Annie Hoffman, this year marks the 10th anniversary since Weakened Friends cranked out their first release: The crunchy, power-chord song “Won Yet,” which proved from the git-go that the group had the sharpest of ears for melody, harmony and chorus. In a mere 12 days, the sumptuous songsmiths will unveil Feels Like Hell on the inimitable Don Giovanni records.
When The Bad Penny caught wind of the topics that Weakened Friends address on their third record – resisting the temptation to succumb to “deep nihilism in the face of global capitalism” and instead refuse self-censorship and embrace the freedom to speak out, we quickly invited them to participate in our ongoing On Tyranny series – and both Sturino and Hoffman merrily obliged.
We staged a video chat with them about three weeks ago, as we all hunkered down in our kitchens (theirs is far more decorative than mine) to share our thoughts and feelings about the state of the U.S., and the impact Authoritarian American is having on musicians.
Living so close to Canada, do you hop over the border much? Is it as easy or more difficult now than it was in the past?
Sturino: The last time I crossed the border to visit family was over the Christmas break, so I haven’t been over the border yet with this new and very unfortunate administration. I’m a little worried because I’m a green-card holder. I’m not a citizen of the United States, so in the wake of everything, I’ve been stressing out. We have a Toronto date at the beginning of our tour, and I just sent my Canadian passport out to get renewed. Waiting on it [to arrive] in the mail, I’m a little stressed.
I’m hopeful that we’ll find a way, we’ll find a way out of this. When this election happened, people were, like, “Well, you could always go back to Canada.” I’ve definitely thought about it. But what if I stay here and fight for things? ‘Cause I don’t want to just prove [MAGA] right. I have a small platform because I’m in a small band, but it still is a platform. I have a pedestal to speak from.
I have the ability to organize and gather people in a community. And if the shit really does hit the fan, I would stay and fight like hell, because there’s people who can’t leave that I love and that have to live here and in these conditions. I’m willing to have a boot on my neck for the people that I love and care about. I’m here for the fight.
I might go to a planning board meeting tonight, because they’re attempting to open a 3,000-capacity Live Nation music venue in the heart of Portland, despite the fact that venues of that size that are locally owned and operated already exist. We had a big city council meeting about a month ago. There was so much public comment, it ran until midnight. There’s tons of opposition to this thing.
That’s exactly the type of community service people can do to affect change on the local level and feel a sense of empowerment. So, how top of mind is it like being a green-card holder and like You know, it’s something that you think about all the time or just when it comes time to tour?
Sturino: I don’t like to think about it too much, but obviously a lot of things in the news [alarm me]. The other day, I ran past the spot where there was just an ICE arrest. Seeing a picture on social media of that happening, in a spot where I physically run past every single day, you’re like, “Oh shit.” Obviously, this administration’s rampantly racist in so many ways, so I guess I’m not really “the target” [as of yet]. I’m not a male, and I’m not black or brown So I feel privileged. I feel like it’s probably not even my place to be as scared.
Some things are the worst they’ve ever been. But the fact that I can go for a walk with Annie and hold hands, and I’m not getting arrested or raped or brutalized by not only [citizens] but law enforcement, frankly, that’s a gift.
But in general, I think everyone’s scared. I’m a queer person. When I renewed my Canadian passport, I was gonna select the non-binary option, but frankly, I didn’t. I was scared. I’m scared to travel the United States with that marker on my passport. So I just went with my assigned gender or sex. I do worry that going to visit my family is gonna become weird, especially because there [Trump has] also [directed] attacks toward Canada.
How are they doing?
My family? They’re fine, they’re the same ol’. My sister’s got a couple kids. They’re busy being grandparents and living their lives out there in Canada.
[Hoffman enters the conversation after returning from running errands.]
Sturino: This was the first time I applied for a passport where I saw a non-binary gender marker is free to choose. That’s awesome, and I went to go select it, then I was like, “You know what? I don’t want to get in trouble.” And that sucks to see progress somewhere [in the] right [direction] and then have to be like, “I’m still not gonna go for it, because I’m afraid.” I think that stifles progress, because a lot of people are probably in my shoes: You feel happy to see inclusivity, but it becomes scary to access that because you know there’s now repercussions being put forth.
I think a lot of people still are kind of holding out, like, “Oh, this time will pass.” I appreciate that mentality. I think it’s healthy and a good self-care technique and meditative practice. But at the same time, so much time is gonna pass before things change, and there’s so much happening so quickly, people are gonna hold out resisting as fascism becomes more normalized.
Sturino: I understand when people have that feeling, because we’re all just humans trying to live our own life. That comes from a position of safety. But then I often remind myself, as someone who is a queer individual, my safety came from a lot of people dying and protesting and fighting for my rights to feel safe and fighting for a space where I am safe, whether it be at work or in my home or in my marriage.
I think as much as you want to be like, “Oh, this will pass, I’m ready to fight, I’m ready to put in the work,” and I think that’s important as well. I don’t want to go back to feeling unsafe. I see people, especially the trans community, completely under attack, and it’s so sickening and upsetting. On the one hand, you have probably the most inclusivity ever in representation in America as a society. [But] on the other hand, you have this deep-seated hatred. Progress is always met with pushback, and sometimes that pushback can seem louder because the way our brains are wired to love this negative edge.
Hoffman: On social media, when you post about a flat tire, it gets thousands of likes, and then we post, “Hey, we put on a new song,” [it gets] half the amount of likes. People just love tragedy. We’re all tragedy whores. It’s important to remember that it’s on the backs of other people’s tragedy where I’ve gained my safety. I try to never forget that.
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“I’ve definitely thought about [moving to Canada]. But what if I stay here and fight for things?”
–Sonia Sturino
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A challenge of being an artist right now, and what you’ve achieved with Feels Like Hell is to find some hope. Was that a challenge to assert or did it just come naturally because of the joy that you found in creating these songs?
Sturino: Being a nihilist is a privilege, and I don’t have that privilege. I love the world too much, and I have really fought for the stability and comfort in my life. I love everything so much that I think to be passively nihilistic or be like, “Whatever this all sucks. Let’s just give up and call it good.” That’s just not where I’m at. When you really love something, you have to be hopeful. And being hopeful [requires] taking action and trying to make a difference in your community and to see a world that preserves and protects that love.
I know we named the record Feels Like Hell, but in my own little bubble, I’m a pretty happy person. I’m doing what I love and am gonna be an artist and not gonna ever get a full-time, nine-to-five job. I’m just gonna be queer artist making music, touring. I think that [in and of itself is] an act of protest. We live in a world where pursuing your joy and your passion is an act of protest. Until we can get to a point where we are better as human beings, where we’re not racist, homophobic, bigots or have all these biases, we need to build better humans before we can build robots. Let’s start with us. Let’s fix our fucking shit first.
It’s pretty incredible how guarded we are as a society about government intrusion — vaccines are an example — but when it comes to technology, it’s like, who’s watching out for it? The government can’t let industries run wild with no oversight. The other day, the media or the White House released video of Bill Gates, Zuckerberg and Tim Cook in a room with Trump, all smiling. It was on TV, and they were making no bones about the fascist activities of government and corporations colluding, and the corruption that naturally comes along with it.
Hoffman: Yeah, it’s like with the Epstein stuff.
They blew a boat out of the Venezuelan waters over the weekend without any investigation into what it was. They just said, “Oh, it’s probably a bunch of drug dealers, so we’ll just blow it up.” The world’s paying attention to our actions and human-rights abuses.
Hoffman: It’s unbelievable to see the bar continuing to be set lower and lower to the point that, yeah, it can all happen right in front of us. And we’re just like, “That’s just another day at the fucking circus.” And that’s actually like an insult to the circus. Those people are actually very talented and do cool-ass shit that I cannot do with my body. [We all laugh.] So, another day in hell. It really, truly is.
Stay tuned for more coverage of Weakened Friends around the time their new album, Feels Like Hell (which features a guest spot by none other than Buckethead!), comes out October 10 on Don Giovanni Records.
Check out Weakened Friends’ Bandcamp page for more info about the band, and to buy their music and merch.
Go here for The Bad Penny‘s On Tyranny hub.
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