“… understanding that feeling of what it’s like to come out and live your truth openly, after you felt like you had to hide it for a long time… it’s liberating and wonderful to see and hear (PUF) be able to do that.” – Amythyst Kiah (of Our Native Daughters) via Americana Music Association
Public Universal Friend (PUF) is an Indianapolis-based art rock band fronted by the queer goth americana matriarch you’ve been waiting for, Jody Galadriel Friend. After a decade-plus solo career, PUF’s 2021 debut PERENNIALS served as a coming out record for Friend, disclosing her gay trans womanhood by way of its release. The full-length earthy alt rock opus brought Friend’s warm alto and infectious songwriting to the fore, colored by sonic roots of post-punk, 90s emo, and echoes of Friend’s native Appalachian folk and hymnary.
PUF’s most anticipated sophomore release CHRYSALIS is laced with the bold romance and profound grief of southern gothic deconstruction, wherein Friend’s poetic incantations carry pointed lyricism: a vindictive queering of Friend’s homegrown southern sound. Since its live debut, the first single ‘JESUS PT. 1’ (with accompanying music video) has become a local queer evangelical anthem, written for those ostracized by certain southern church cultures having dogmatically cast trans folks as “an abomination” to which Friend leans in and nearly whispers, “then I guess I’ll see you all in hell.” Though it is written from Friend’s own experience, this isn’t a new story. The hope is that Chrysalis and ‘Jesus Pt. 1’ have the potential to create a platform for the conversation to reach a broader audience and provide a place of solidarity and healing for listeners: queer and allies alike.
‘Jesus Pt. 1’ was soon followed by the devastating lo-fi bop ‘HORRORSCOPE’ (with accompanying music video), in collaboration with Madeleine Jurkiewicz of Lily + Madeleine as well as the markedly Brandi Carlile-esque BRAVE (with accompanying music video) This look into the process of coming out, Friend’s subsequent divorce, embarks on the embrace of womanhood and navigating a new life and body, while leaving the past behind, all through a specifically trans lesbian lens.
Looking forward, PUF is releasing more music video content, forming relationships with booking agents and label candidates, creating an aesthetic legacy of merchandise and accompanying artwork, and is continuing to blend the beauty of the extensive community within Indianapolis music and queer scenes. PUF is touring as much as possible in 2023, uniting a solid, supportive, and spirited audience spreading throughout the Midwest and South, challenging the notions of what a trans woman can represent in the world of indie rock.
‘JESUS PT. 1’, ‘BRAVE‘, and ‘HORRORSCOPE’ can now be heard anywhere music is streamed, and the rest of the album CHRYSALISis slated to release in March 17, 2023.
Since their debut in 2020, Public Universal Friend’s record Perennials has signified Friend’s progression of an earthy brand of indie rock songwriting, whose sonic roots cite post-punk and 90s emo with echoes of Appalachian roots and spiritual music. Friend’s lyrical themes have historically gravitated toward the value of emotive honesty and speaking truth in power, embodied through a profoundly unique perspective of identity, faith, and gender expansive existence. These poetic incantations foster an inclusive live environment of authentic engagement, all for the sake of exploring the overarching theme of finding out who we really are and the beauty of living within it.
Since the beginning, the intent has been steadied on embracing the narrative of collective identity as one of diversity, through the language of chords, rhythm, and poetry. From the meditative to the ferocious, the Friend disarms audiences with a humanization unique to the nature of personal storytelling.
The hope is that the music might provide a platform of catharsis and advocacy, integral to embracing the beauty in all of us.
The solo work began in 2008 when Jody began writing, recording, producing, and releasing her first eight albums and EPs, captured with an 8-track recorder and a couple of microphones in a variety of unconventional locations and atmospheric spaces. These early recordings were accompanied by a revolving door of fellow musicians, only entering an established studio with their ninth release in 2016. With an uncompromisingly independent DIY production sensibility, the Friend communicates a sonic quality that is tangible, rooted, and as present as possible.
The live sound has ceaselessly grown and adapted with time, all while preserving the heart behind older material and fearlessly venturing into new sonic territory. All the while the enduring themes of hope and grace stand alongside, delivering explicit poetic excerpts in vulnerability and understated potency. The integrity of the Friend’s music is like a bouquet of lively liminal flavor, dictating the timelessness of their discography, whose flavors of natural earthliness and the occasionally extraterrestrial connect us back fearlessly to our human nature and its potential for beauty and vastness.
The 2017 release “Lower, Permission” encapsulates the narrative of first challenging the basis of dichotomized gendered culture, the importance of critical thinking, and the addressing of those constructs and their relationship to faith. Through such means we receive a raw vulnerbility, leading the wild dance into recognizing the gift of our collective uniqueness and dignity. Gender non-conformity has long been a subject in Jody’s life and the upcoming release “Perennials” gives voice to those intimate details expressing what it looks like to be decisively more public about elements of identity. You might think of it as a coming out record, the “now what?” answer to Lower, Permission.
With a vitality and youth in this new season of performance, we as listeners now experience the sounds and energies being exclaimed in a space full with the dignity and worth of each beautiful existence we bring to the table. With a voice so long in the making, the newest material is forever surprising, uplifting, and meeting us where we are, speaking truth in power over every space the music may occupy.
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