Interviews (242)

• November 7, 2025
• Colleen Johnson
• 115
• 0

As we careen into the days of sunsets before five pm, and slide into the era in New England that tends to harken in a wee bit of seasonal depression, heading out to see a live show is easily some of the best medicine one can ask for. And for those in the Cambridge/Boston area, I would strongly recommend heading out to The Sinclair in Cambridge to see Portland act, Weakened Friends, when they make their long-awaited return in just under two weeks. The show’s going down on November 20th, with Nova One and fellow New Englanders PINKLIDS in tow. Weakened Friends dropped their third record, Feels Like Hell, less than a month ago, and it’s a record that screams to be played live. The band has deep roots in Boston, with all three members having played shows for years with their previous acts. As well as tons of gigs over the years for Weakened Friends!

From being personally selected to open for Jack White when he hit Roadrunner earlier this year, to the popularity of their take on the iconic “Torn,” the band has built up major anticipation for this latest record and a return to town. I chatted with Annie Hoffman and Sonia Sturino from the band recently, just before they were set to begin this run, and we talked at length about the creative process behind their latest album, tour preparation, and much more. You can find our chat below, and be sure to pick up a ticket to the band’s upcoming show in town, which can be found here!

The band will continue on this leg of the tour until December 5th, ending with a hometown show in Portland, Maine, and then will pick things back up in the new year with a West Coast run kicking off January 21st in Phoenix! All announced dates can be found on their website here!

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New England Sounds: So maybe to get right into it, but you’re fresh off this album release. How are you feeling this first week? 

Annie Hoffman: I’m ecstatic. I’m so happy to have it out. 

Sonia Sturino: It feels really good to have it out. And we’re leaving for the tour in a couple of days. Which, for me, I think will make it real. Because I feel like you release the record and it’s exciting. Here it is, and it feels weird to just be at home and be, like, alright, now I‘m going to take the trash out, and go for a run. I’ll grab my groceries.  So I think tour is where it becomes real. 

Annie: I mean, we did a couple in-stores this week. 

Sonia: That was helpful. 

Annie: We played a couple of stripped-down tunes and stuff. And people were already singing the non-single songs. I was like, you’ve had twenty-four hours to learn them. Like, bless your heart. 

Sonia: Kudos to them. 

NES: That must feel good then, going into the run.  Then I believe it’s your first-ever full-length US headliner. 

Sonia: Yeah, and especially because the announced part that we’re leaving for in a couple of days, that’s our first big headliner in a while.  But we’re also announcing part two in a couple of weeks on the West Coast. So, definitely the most extensive headlining we’ve done.  Because our first record, we didn’t get to tour much. We just did Northeast and Europe. 

Annie: Weirdly. 

Sonia: We did a bunch of support tours after our last record, because Covid made headline touring weird when that record came out. 

NES: Then, considering it has been four years since Quitter came out, and now Feels Like Hell. But you’ve been touring non-stop. When did you kind of start really focusing on this record? When did you start putting these songs together? 

Sonia: Well, more recently than you’d expect.  It might have just been a combination of, like, the heavy amount of touring we did right after Quitter, the world kind of opening back up.  I got kind of into a big slump, like a writer’s block, and it was really hard. We had pretty much an EP’s worth of songs that we had put together that just didn’t make much sense. I mean, “Awkward,” the single, back in 2023, that came out of that world, and like those songs were more in that vein. Here, they were kind of poppier and happier. 

Annie: They weren’t bad, but they didn’t feel like us. 

Sonia: Maybe they’d be an EP, maybe we’ll reuse them, but it didn’t feel like what I needed to be writing. And then this record, honestly, other than a couple of songs, it was all written in the latter half of last year.  So, around this time last year, we had just gotten back from a tour and we had just put our heels in. 

Annie: Some of it was written after we had already started the record as well. “Tough Luck” was a really last-minute moment. The record was really underway, and it was like, “Where the hell did this one come from?”

Sonia: It was fun to be writing this record, as we were recording it, because in the past, we’ve always been like, “These are the songs, we’re ready to go.” Now we’re going to go into the studio. Whereas with this, it’s like we were in the studio already tracking things and just writing. Coming home between studio days and writing and then going back. 

Annie: Yeah, it was a fully immersive music experience. 

Sonia: Yeah, it was great. 

NES: Maybe, how was that, considering that was the lead-off single? 

Annie: No, yeah, we had “Nosebleed” already, and we had decided “Nosebleed” would be the first single, and “Tough Luck” comes along, and we were like, oh man, this might be a stronger contender. So, that’s why “Nosebleed” has like the fanciest video because we were like, well, this is going to be the leading single, so we’re going to put all the video budget into “Nosebleed”. And then along comes “Tough Luck,” and it kind of threw a wrench in the plan. But I think it all worked out. 

Sonia: It all worked out. They’re all here now; they all made it out. 

Annie: We had the conversation, like, should we change the song for that?  We had the “Nosebleed” video planned out, and we were like, we can change the song, but it doesn’t really work with the aesthetic of the music video. 

Sonia: Yeah! And the “Tough Luck” video is great too. Jim Gilbert (of The Sheila Divine) crushed it. 

Annie: Yeah, Jim of The Sheila Divine was like, “Let’s do this.” Fuck yeah, a video wall. Let’s go!

NES: How was that, because I know you’ve worked with Jim Gilbert before. How was that to kind of reconnect with him? 

Sonia: He hit us up.  We were like in the studio. I don’t know if he even knew we were releasing a record or what we were doing. I think he was just at a point in his life where he was about to move to LA, and he really wanted to immerse himself in more video projects. He just randomly called us while we were in the studio, being like, “I have this crazy idea, I want to get a video wall, I want to do analog visual components that are going on, on the video walls, while you guys are performing in front of it.  It’s kind of just like this performance video, but there are these video components. Analog images that react to the sound of music, and would you want to do that?” And I’m just like, yeah, that sounds great, Jim. He was very high-energy about it. It was like, hell yeah, dude, let’s go. 

Annie: That’s Jim. 

Sonia: So, yeah. He hit us up about it, which was great after all these years to work with him. 

Annie: Yeah, it was really nice to collaborate with him, because we did our first music video ever, the “Main Bitch,” video with Jim. So it was a fun, full-circle moment. 

NES: That’s so fun. And the fact that he reached out to you, being like, “Can we do this?” 

Sonia: And we were like, we need to do this, so let’s go. 

NES: Then we talked about it a little bit, but you start this tour in two days. This is to preview when you come to The Sinclair, I think it’s right near the end. How have you been planning these sets and curating these sets when it comes to Feels Like Hell? Because you’re obviously going to have fans come out who know those first two records? 

Sonia: So, the whole record, luckily enough for us, I can’t write a song longer than four minutes, like I said, we’re the anti-jam band. So, all of our songs are short. So, we’re going to play the whole record in the set. But there’s plenty of our old tracks, like the hits. Also, just some ones we haven’t played in a while. We have this little punk section of just a bunch of old stuff that’s just high energy and stuff; it should be fun. 

Annie: Yeah, there will be something for everyone, but I’m not worried about the crowds.  After the in-stores, people are-

Sonia: Here for it. 

Annie: They’re immersing themselves in it. 

Sonia: And it’s a good feeling, because we’ve been the opener in the last however many tours we’ve done, the year of the opener.  Which is great, support tours are awesome. It’s how a lot of people have found us or heard of us, but it feels really good to come into a headlining tour and looking at ticket sales and looking ahead, being like okay these are going to be our people. So you’re going in with less of like I got to win you over and more of like, now that you’re here, let’s party. So it’s exciting. 

Annie: It’s a good feeling. 

NES: Perfect, then maybe a little soft one to round it out. You’ve been doing this band for so long together; you started it almost ten years ago. But maybe three things you’ve realized, we’re not in our thirties anymore, that you need to have on tour? 

Sonia: I feel, wow, there’s way more than three. Well, I need my running shoes.  Because, unlike ten years ago, I wake up and go to the gym and run every morning on tour.  It’s like a little me-time.  Or I’ll go run outside if we’re staying at a friend’s house or something. So number one, I need the workout stuff. 

Annie: We need our supplements because we don’t want to get sick on tour. 

Sonia: You need your supplements. I just take a multi-vitamin. 

Annie: Zinc is the big one. Zinc and Vitamin C.  What else? I like to bring my slippers. 

Sonia: Because you don’t want to be in a hotel barefoot. 

Annie: Or nasty hallways.  I love to bring my L.L. Bean slippers. 

Sonia: So that’s yours. My three are definitely my workout stuff. Honestly, my AirPods like having noise-canceling anything.  Just so when I’m in the van, I don’t have to listen to anybody else, or anything else. Tour can be like a major sensory overload for me.  Like, I’m definitely a little agoraphobic, which is interesting, considering I’ve made a career out of being around people.  So I just need to find that me-time or quiet time wherever I can, and the noise cancellation helps with that.  Where I can go into a corner of the green room or sit in the back bench of the van and be immersed in my own little thing.  So, that’s two. 

Annie: A neck pillow. 

Sonia: Yeah, a neck pillow in the van is nice, but I don’t know if it’s a must. I mean, I have a pillow in the van, but I had that in my twenties, too. So I’m trying to think of what’s new. My skin-care routine, I have a lot of skin-care products.  Like, I need to bring a second toiletry bag for my skin and hair care stuff.  I feel like I don’t even know if I moisturized ten years ago. 

Annie: Just the hotel lotion. 

Sonia: Yeah, like this will be fine. I’m like, looks great. But yeah, definitely my skin-care stuff, which I know is lame, but it’s true.  But whoever tells you their skin just looks like that, because they drink water, we were just talking about this, it’s bullshit. If your skin looks good, it’s probably because you’re trying to make your skin look good. 

Annie: I think the overall thread of our answers is creature comforts.  Because when you’re in your twenties, it’s like, yeah, we’ll sleep on the floor, yeah, we’ll sleep in the litter box. 

Sonia: I’ve slept in a bathtub, I’ve slept on kitchen tiles. 

Annie: We don’t need nutrition, we don’t need sleep, we don’t need anything. 

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11/20: Weakened Friends with support from Nova One and PINKLIDS 

The Sinclair, limited tickets can still be picked up here. Doors at 7 pm, music at 8 pm