Lori Friday – An Xperience Interview

Lori Friday – An Xperience Interview – by Liam Sweeny.

We caught up with bassist Lori Friday of Super 400. Here’s what we talked about.

RRX: Your newest album is called “Live from Troy, NY.” When I saw you last, I grabbed a different album, “Blast the Message,” by accident. I’m going to go out on a limb and say the new one is live. Was it all one show, or cuts from different shows? And what challenges did you face doing a live album that you wouldn’t face doing a studio album?

LF: Your instincts are right on. “Live from Troy, NY” is a live recording from January 19, 2024, at the Hangar on the Hudson (get it at bandcamp.com!). We didn’t record the show with any plan to cultivate an album release. We were just looking to grab some audio clips for the videographer we hired that evening. We’ve been making an effort to populate our Instagram and Facebook lately, even though the three of us take to social media like a duck to a desert!

The front-of-house engineer at the Hangar, Troy Pohl, suggested we ditch the plan to use our little recording setup and offered to make a multitrack of the show. We sat on the recording for a while, because for us, putting some distance between the performance and the listen gives us a chance to dissolve our memories of it. When we finally hit play, we all agreed that we wanted to release it to our fans. We had been slowly working on a full-length studio album, but this live set was in our hands and only needed to be mixed and mastered.

I had a health scare the week before and had a biopsy performed.  My doctor said I would not get the results until January 22 (the show was the 19th).  I have a history of health issues, so the band was on edge leading up to this show. Lots of tension. Five minutes before we went on stage, I got a notification saying my results were in (modern technology…). I looked at Kenny, who said “You gotta check it!” Results were negative. The rest of the night was fueled by an almost uncontrollable amount of endorphins and adrenaline. When I listen to this recording, I hear it. We’re at the top of our powers.

RRX: The bio on your website is great. I love it when bands care about that. Good stuff, because now I know that when you came into the band in 1996, you had just gotten a degree in vertebrate paleontology. What was the mental, or maybe “life,” transition between the world of fossilized rock to the world of butt-shaking rock?

LF: Superfriend and longtime fan Jim Meaney wrote that bio! Shoutout to Jim! I came from a family of academics, and it was expected that I would complete college-level education. I knew I would make my livelihood in music or art, so I decided to have fun in college and study something interesting. I dug up dinosaurs in the black hills of North Dakota.

I planned to continue for post-grad, but I walked into Pauly’s Hotel one night and saw Kenny and Joe playing onstage with some friends. That was it for me; fate allowed me entry into their world, and the transition was very natural. Not so much for my family, though. It took them about 10 years to accept it and gain confidence that I had a secure future.

RRX: Cacaphone Records, in helping put together your debut album, maxed out their credit cards. Island Records signed you to a five-record deal after just hearing you; no quarterly projects, no ledger sheets, just believing. It must have been a lot to live up to. Was it?

LF: We didn’t truly appreciate the expectation of being a major label artist. Maybe that was a good thing. We only knew how to be us. We recorded a completely honest record. Geoff Travis and Chris Blackwell believed in us because we had a sincere sound, and they wanted us to help bring rock music back to the masses. In 1998, our record had barely come out when Seagram Company purchased Polygram. We parted ways. Then people wanted us to sound like whatever was popular at the time, in order to continue on the major league level. That didn’t interest us, so we went our own way and have stayed largely independent since.

RRX: So when I saw you, I didn’t know which album was your current, so I ended up with “Blast the Message,” your sophomore album. Wildly popular. Can you tell us a little bit about it, and how you feel you’ve transitioned from that album, which is now going back decades?

LF: “Blast the Message” was an album we made after several huge life changes. The major label deal ended, our manager quit, and we were told our new demo wasn’t mainstream enough to be picked up by another label.

It could have been a soul-crushing ordeal, but it never occurred to us that we needed to change anything. We had an incredible lawyer who had written a play-or-pay clause into our Island contract, so we had enough money to pay our bills while we regrouped to write the “Blast the Message” album.

From then ‘til now is a long time – we’ve lived a few lifetimes and picked up several emotional and physical bruises and gifts. No different than anyone else who lives a span of 20 years. Marriage, a daughter, love, loss, unbelievable adventures.

RRX: Interestingly, you got booted from a Hell’s Kitchen show, and your fans got out the pitchforks, getting you back on the bill. This show of support isn’t exactly the starter kit for any band. You get that for more than just playing, more than just being good. Can you tell us more about your fans?

LF: We were originally slated to open for an incredible NYC all-star group, Peaceful Knievel. These guys are the cream of the crop. Mike Farris on vocals, Andy Hess on bass, Audley Freed on guitar, George Laks on keys, and Charlie Drayton on the drums. Every one of these guys is a legend and the very best in the business. Not just NYC royalty, but truly world-class players. And yes, we were bumped from the bill – something about the door guy’s band wanting to open the show, I think.

This was in the days of message boards. For those who don’t know, fans of a band would congregate in a chat room of sorts, sharing their thoughts, ideas, photos, etc.  Super 400 fans had a strong presence on a Black Crowes message board. A big crew of them found out about the lineup situation and called the club to ask for their money back. Next thing I knew, the owner of the club – a tough biker sort – called us on the phone and said we were back on the bill, but we’d “better be good, or I’ll kick your ass personally.”

So, as you imagine, our drive to NYC was uneasy and we didn’t have much to say during load-in and soundcheck. The night’s outcome was yet to be determined and it could make or break us in that part of the city. Well, our fans turned up to support us and we had a great set. Afterward, the Peaceful Knievel guys embraced us fully and we hung backstage well into the night, trading stories and laughs.

Our fans have always been like family. When we regularly toured the states, some would travel to several shows, which was a morale boost and great fun. We were touring Spain and the same thing would happen – some fans appeared in several different cities, and their dedication profoundly touched us.

We aren’t rock stars; we have never put on any airs, and our fans know it. We play our music for each other, every time, but a big piece of our heart is with the fans when we perform. It’s like playing for a big extended family. They become part of the lifeblood of the band.

RRX: You and Kenny (Hohman) were married in 2011, and you had your daughter Ellie in 2013. Now, you and Kenny had already been in a band relationship for over a decade, so maybe not much changed. But did you have to carve out the “music relationship” from the “married relationship?”

LF: When I joined the band in 1996, there was an agreement that no one would get romantically involved. The three of us became very fast friends and shared everything, all aspects of our lives. Kenny and I had a natural attraction that grew to a point where it became uncomfortable to hide it. Joe gave his blessing. We knew we were risking the life of the band by taking a chance on one another. We had spent several years sharing band life: planes, trains, and automobiles; cheap hotels, bad food, unsavory situations, etc. We were friends before we were a couple, so we never put on an act. And we still truly liked one another. I will like him when he is 95.

Musically, we are continuing the same conversation we started at our first jam session all those years ago. Every day is a thrill.

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