To be composed is to be in a state of calm and in control of oneself. Naming their new record ‘Composure,’ pop-punk upstarts Real Friends are ironically as unstable as a chocolate-deprived child in a candy shop as they talk the talk just hours before they kick off the final run of America’s godlike touring festival, Warped Tour.
“If you’d have told me when I was fifteen that I’d be in a band that gets to play Warped Tour on four different years, I’d slap you in the face and call you a poser,” exclaims frontman Dan Lambton. “To me, that wouldn’t have come true, but here we are, and it’s fucking awesome.”
Being asked to aid in bowing out one of the biggest alternative extravaganzas the States have been lapping up for years is just cause for lack of composure, but the excitement dies down when the record itself comes calling, a sea of calm washing over the waves that is Dan’s face.
It’s no hidden secret that Real Friends have been through the wars and back in the two years since the release of their second effort, ‘The Home Inside My Head’. Dan was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and soon found himself caught up in a carousel of prescription pills, hallucinogenic drugs, and alcohol, and it slowly began to rip into the fabric of Real Friends.
“I feel like there were a lot of reckless things that I did that made the rest of the band question whether they wanted to do Real Friends anymore, simply because of how unpredictable and off the wall I was,” reflects Dan sombrely.
