*****Please be advised this interview contains discussion on suicide, depression, and racism*****
*****If you feel you need help, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or reach the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741-741.*****
Editors Note: When we first scheduled the interview, the band was doing it in a public location because they were on the road and had to get out of their hotel room earlier than expected. The background noise was unfortunately loud, so we rescheduled. The second time, I unexpectedly had to cover a tour so I wasn’t available. And now when we had our third schedule, my webcam was completely taking me in and out of focus! It hadn’t done this with any of the other interviews I’ve done. But, we decided to move forward so my apologies for some poor video feed on my end.
During these series of interviews, I’ve gotten to hear a variety of stories. Some were funny and uplifting, others were shocking, and some were sad. When I first started the interview with this band, I was jaw dropped from the start. The stories the majority of the members told me were heartbreaking. But, if it wasn’t for the struggles they endured, they as a band wouldn’t be together today. I would like to introduce everyone to the band Friends In Hell.
Friends In Hell is a metal band from Arizona and consists of Noah Dwaileebe (vocals), Cody Arbizo (guitars), Toni Holguin (guitars), PJ Lester (bass), and Berkie Allen (drums). The band formed together in 2019 between Noah, Cody, and their former vocalist. All of them were going through some pretty tough times when the band got together. Cody‘s struggles started when he was 15 losing his Dad. The struggles were so bad he nearly took his own life. He had decided to pick up his guitar one last time to play it before he took his life. But that last time turned himself around to continue on. But those hard times also contributed to forming the band, “I had been struggling with my depression,” Cody began, “It had been coming back a lot. I’d just gotten kicked out of my apartment and lost two of my best friends because they became bad people and had to move in with my fiancee’s Mom.” Cody and Noah and the former vocalist had just started out writing music as a way to cope with the hardships they were all going through. When their former vocalist decided to leave, Cody and Noah decided they wanted to continue and get their music to the stage. “When we were thinking of the name, we were thinking of a good way, and we were just friends at the time so we kind of got the name by we were all going through our own hell and so we were just Friends In Hell.”
The other band members who joined on later, except for Berkie (who also goes by Berk), had similar stories to tell. PJ said he used to be severely overweight at around 300lbs. Over the past few years he was dealing with severe stomach issues throwing up on a daily basis. Sometimes it was so bad that he had to be hospitalized multiple times and had to go through surgeries. He focused to get himself to a healthier state and dropped all the weight to where he should be for his height and is feeling much healthier with no further issues.His parents were both aircraft mechanics who traveled a lot due to their jobs. He never got to spend as much time with them as he would have liked. He has three older sisters who all in turn took care of him, as he bounced from home to home. He ended up turning to music in 5th grade playing saxophone before his picked up playing bass and then meeting Cody to join the band. Toni had a similar story. Throughout his childhood he had a speech impediment where he would stutter. He was taking speech classes to help him get through it. Unfortunately, he was bullied a lot from not only his speech, but for his weight at a young age. Kids would start fights with him and make fun of him frequently. And due to his speech impediment, a lot of kids labeled him a dumb kid. He discovered music through Guitar Hero and because of his interest his grandmother bought him guitar lessons, which he took to right away. Toni and Berk were friends and Berk was already trying out for the band. The band had seen Toni‘s work on Instagram and Berk put in a good word and they offered him an invite to join. The first time the band played in public was during a Black Lives Matter gathering protesting the death of George Floyd. The band decided to perform Rage Against the Machine songs as part of the protest.
Friends In Hell may be young, but their music and performances are solid. It surprised me for a band so young to sound so polished. PJ said, “Our professionalism really stems from Noah and Cody. Ever since I joined the band they were already on it.” Noah added, “All of us getting along so good I think we all hold each other to high expectations and we don’t want to let each other down.” He also said that Toni and Berk practice constantly so they’re always at the top of their game. He, Cody, and PJ don’t want to let down anyone else, so they put in the extra time and work hard at their craft. “We take this as a career,” Cody said, “Most people take this as ‘OK it’s a side thing. If I make it I make it. If I don’t I’m fine just doing what I am.’ We strive for this. We want this to be our career. Going to Blue Ridge [Rock Festival] I almost lost my job going because I chose to go to Blue Ridge over my job. We take it as a career, we take it serious, we have schedules, deadlines we meet, and we make sure we separate the friendship from the business part.” Noah added in with regards to Cody’s job, “He told them straight up if it comes down to this job or my tour, I’m going to pick my tour without having to think twice.” PJ put in his two week notice so he could take the month of August to focus on practicing and be ready for the tour and Blue Ridge Rock Festival.
Like a few of the other bands I’ve interviewed, Friends In Hell saw a post that Blue Ridge Rock Festival was looking for artists to add to the lineup. Noah reached out to the festival and introduced themselves and they wanted them on board. Cody didn’t believe it at first thinking they were getting scammed by someone. Once he saw the contract he believed. Noah said the hardest part was keeping it from everyone because they obviously couldn’t say anything until the artist announcement was released.
The band has two videos posted on their YouTube channel worth checking out. The first single is called “Waste of Life”. The song writing started around the same time after they performed for the Black Lives Matter gathering. Cody said, “I still don’t feel like we’ve done enough…so let’s write a song about racism. And that’s where “Waste of Life” stared to come. We wanted to make it heavy and we had hip hop influence and we knew that was one of the best ways to get that message across.” Cody and PJ are huge hip hop fans and wanted to include that influence and style within the song. Cody does producing for hip hop artists. PJ has been doing hip hop since high school and always had this flair for play on words.
I asked the band about their own experiences with racism. As Toni said during the interview he was picked on frequently as a child and even referred to himself as “a chubby brown kid”. He responded, “I realized it’s a legit thing actually happening in my area and it’s becoming more common, and more common, and more common.” Cody added that he drives a shuttle for work near, Oro Valley. The city is known for wealthy elder people. And he constantly hears racist speech on the shuttle daily. It bothers him that he has to tell customers that type of speech is not tolerated on the shuttle. He also mention in Tuscon there is a high amount of racism towards Hispanics.
The second single “Time Bomb” is seriously heavy and absolutely mosh pit worthy. Noah explained, “It about working with someone or associating with people where every day you feel like you’re being pushed more and more to the edge. When interacting with them you’re ticking like you’re going to explode. I think we’ve all been there with people or situations where just interacting you just want to explode eventually like a ticking time bomb.” Cody added the when the song was being written a person they were working with on it wasn’t holding up to their responsibilities and deadlines and causing a lot of problems. Secretly, that person was recording vocals for a song that was about their relationship with them!
Friends In Hell isn’t afraid to speak out against things that are wrong and write songs about them too. They have a song called “Amber” that is about sex trafficking. Noah says sex trafficking is extremely high in Arizona since they’re so close to the Mexican border and they wanted to write a song to call attention to it. Cody added, “We like to write about stuff that stand up for the things that actually matter and are right….what matters is taking action against these terrible things.”
The band is an independent artist. They have an EP coming out called Nothings Promised. The title is to call out living for the moment because you never know what the next day will bring. The EP will have 4 tracks and during the time of the interview was hoping to have it released by September 9th, but recently announced the EP will be available on October 1st.
As for their hobbies outside of music, the trend continues were a good number of them are/were video gamers. Though, Berk says gaming is harder to find time to do since he dedicates so much more of his time into the band. Though he used to play Skyrim and Fallout. Cody said the same since they put about 30 to 40 hours into the band per week. When he used to play he’d play Devil May Cry and Uncharted. PJ said he used to be a video game addict dedicating so much of his time into gaming. When he has time he loves Apex and Warframe. Toni loves Black Ops 2 as his all time favorite game, but even he dedicates more time into the band and writing other music. He does find time to play Grand Theft Auto V. Noah used to like Call of Duty but turned more to PC gaming like Warcraft III and Hearthstone.
Outside of that Cody loves to spend time with his fiancee and produce music videos. Noah runs two business outside of the band and loves to go to the movies and catch up with friends over dinner. PJ loves to do Pokemon Go and likes to buy and re-sell vintage clothing. Berk likes to practice, practice, and watching movies and TV. Toni also practices a lot and likes to watch TV.
Friends In Hell plays Blue Ridge Rock Festival on Thursday, September 9th so don’t miss their set! And please remember to support our Rising Talent by purchasing their music and merchandise as that is how they continue to do what they love. You can find their social links below along with the full video interview!
Friends In Hell Social Links
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