Young Friend

Canadian artist Drew Tarves has created a solo project, Young Friend, that oozes nostalgia. Young Friend is an indie pop project, but really the focus is on making nostalgia feel like the genre rather than making music that falls neatly into an already established project. 

Tarves has made every listener, presumably, feel a sense of nostalgia for something they have personally never experienced. If they do have a shared experience with Tarves, then the music will pull at their emotions even harder. An experience of this possibly shared experience is the feeling conveyed in "Fake". A single reflecting on the past year of his life and loosing friends who ended up not being as genuine as he had initially believed. 

Young Friend has created this pure feeling of nostalgia once again with his new single "ARIZONA". The single was created with Ella Jane. The collaboration came about when Tarves heard Ella Jane's voice on a Spotify playlist that his song "Lover Boy" was added to. When he heard Ella Jane's voice he instantly knew he wanted to work with her.

About three years ago Tarves became jealous of his friends who all seemed to be incredibly musically talented. Instead of letting that jealous feeling stick around Tarves decided to do something about it. So he learned to play music. Eventually he got to a point where all he wanted to do was create music, so he dropped out of college to put all his energy into Young Friend. 

Young Friend is hoping to tour next year. Tarves' goal of touring this year was derailed by the pandemic, but he has not lost sight of his goals. Beyond touring and sharing his music in a live setting he hopes Young Friend will inspire a kid to pick up an instrument in the way his friends and idols have inspired him to play. Tarves looks to folk artists like Bon Ivar and Phoebe Bridgers who seem to have harnessed that nostalgia invoking sound. 

Young Friend is a solo project in the sense that Tarnes writes all the music, but it is a team effort in the live and recording aspects. Tarves' reaches out to friends who record bass and guitar on his tracks and help bring nostalgia to crowds from stages.