For DEBBY FRIDAY all of life is art

Decades down the family tree of Audre Lorde’s thinking on the transformative power of our erotic nature, which triggered an awakening that still resonates strongly today, FRIDAY’s multidisciplinary work is centred on the idea of the erotic and togetherness. “[Those two things] are very linked in the way that I understand music, and the way that I communicate through music,” she says. “I think music is metaphysical because it's both tangible and intangible. You’re dealing with stuff that is unseen, but at the same time it’s felt in the body.”

It’s a theory that she has talked about at length, and one that guides her expression through a multitude of avenues like filmmaking, writing, directing, music-making and her study of philosophy, psychology and mysticism. Armed with acid-laced drum pads and subaquatic basslines, FRIDAY plunges into the depths of herself, allowing her inner turmoil to be a source of information that prompts unfiltered creativity.

She takes her cues from the works of philosopher Carl Jung and his concept of the ‘shadow self’, using electronic punk as a tool to illuminate every aspect of herself. “I am a very firm believer in the Jungian theory that states that what is not let in through the front door will come in through the backdoor, every time,” she says. “If you don’t face your shadow – the ugly and disgusting parts of yourself, the parts that you’re ashamed of – then you’re going to have a lot of issues in life.”

FRIDAY’s artistry transcends genre and exists as a style she describes as “both a hybrid of feeling and emotion.” It’s inspired by a collection of her experiences, from warehouse raves to her early exposure to the internet and pop culture as a young child. She recalls hours spent downloading music through LimeWire, feeling as though she had everything at her fingertips while discovering genres old and new.

The music of Nigerian juju musician King Sunny Ade and Afrobeat originator Fela Kuti floated in the background of her childhood, along with folk gospel music. The electronic genre crept into her realm during high school, but her connection to it gradually bloomed when she began rave-hopping through Montreal’s nightlife circuit at age 15.

It was during her time in university that she surrendered to the experience and immersed herself in this space that was also largely informed by the underground Soundcloud culture of the time. Friday soon found DJ’ing, which was influential in establishing a foundation for her own production style. Although she only did it “for a little under a year,” the experience allowed her to travel around North America and over to Europe, bringing her into contact with “all these different communities of artists who were making the most strange and interesting kinds of music.”

Quitting the nightlife scene, unhappy with how it affected her mental wellbeing, FRIDAY moved from Montreal to Vancouver, where she taught herself how to produce her own music, gathering resources from YouTube and other online platforms. “Essentially, I just went after the sounds that I liked,” she says. “I didn’t really have an understanding of how to create a track or how to make music, but I knew what I liked.”

Inspired by other creatives who freely borrow from and splice household-name genres to invent something new, FRIDAY’s artistic practice is driven by innovation – original thinking on existing ideas, mixed with something completely her own. “This is why I always say that my music is a hybrid, because it has this lineage of musical genres that have existed over time,” she explains. “You can hear hints of rock ‘n’ roll, hardcore, hip hop. You hear experimental stuff, even a little bit of ambient, a little bit of hyperpop – pretty much everything.”

Crafted with complete trust in her feelings as a creative guide, her 2018 debut EP BITCHPUNK oozed with high-octane energy, experimental touches, and impassioned screeches of self-affirmation, fuelled by an inviting aggression that was as cathartic for many of those who heard it as it was for FRIDAY herself.

The following year’s DEATH DRIVE EP continued her provocative examination of the human condition. Unafraid of transforming grotesque themes into mind-expanding music relating to survival, destruction and our innate desire for pleasure, FRIDAY went deeper into uncharted territory, homing in on the irregular industrial-pop style that suited her so well.

With her debut album GOOD LUCK on the horizon, we talk about her artistic evolution in the four years since DEATH DRIVE. The title is pointed: something she bids the listener as they strap in for another whip through her world of decadence and experimentation, where the barriers between the conscious and unconscious mind no longer prevail. But there’s a kind of sensitivity that permeates the album too. Letting some part of her guard down, FRIDAY taps into her more vulnerable self, working with brighter textures that reflect another side to her personality.

“These are parts of me that I’m learning to express more fully, and I feel like this helps me to be more truthful, in a way,” she says. “The difference between this record and BITCHPUNK is that on the EP I was only comfortable in one mode of expression, which was a certain kind of feminine aggression and volatility. That EP is super intense. It's harsh, it’s industrial, it’s in your face, whereas in GOOD LUCK I have opened up a lot more of myself.”

Co-produced with Graham Walsh of Toronto heroes Holy Fuck, the album is the most compelling evidence yet that FRIDAY considers all of life to be art. Once again flexing her credentials as an experimentalist, she tows the line between abstract and reality as she explores the full spectrum of the human experience cloaked in futuristic sounds. “I love engaging with new mediums, disciplines and ideas, so my expression has always been very multi-pronged,” she adds, pointing towards the short film that accompanies that album.

Based on her own script, which she describes as a “pseudo-autobiographical tale”, FRIDAY not only supplies the music but also stars in and co-directs the film, which at 17 minutes is her biggest visual project to date. Together with filmmaker Nathan de Paz Habib, she allows the story to unfold in “hypnagogic sequences that blur the line between dreams and reality,” describing it in a press release as “a surrealist reflection on the tumultuous whirlwind that is the end of adolescence and the emotionality of youth.”

The film has yet to drop, but if you haven’t already arrived at the conclusion that DEBBY FRIDAY is a creative superforce, her YouTube channel contains all the evidence you need. Earlier this year, as part of her thesis project, she released an audiovisual play split into three parts, titled ‘Link Sick’, ‘Vow’ and ‘V For Virtual’. Plucking from her fascination with sci-fi and speculative futures, it’s set in a hallucinogenic, post-apocalyptic world where citizens upload their consciousness into a system called Virtual.

“A lot of what I read is psychology so there are concepts in there like shadows and ego, super-ego and collective consciousness,” she explains. “I’m a big fan of Jung and his work, and I incorporate all of that into these types of projects. It's the same across all of my creative escapades, just taking whatever I have inside of this brain and putting it into whatever’s in front of me right now.”

Using her extensive education in art as a springboard, FRIDAY continuously engages every layer of her creative self to deliver full-bodied experiences. “I see everything essentially as practice,” she says. “When you’re an artist, all the work that you make is practice because it teaches you something and you take that with you into the next project. I love this kind of feeling of never-ending-ness – this idea that there’s no destination you need to reach with your creativity. You just have to keep going for as long as you want. And for me, I want to go for the rest of my life.”