{"id":43551,"date":"2019-02-20T05:34:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-20T14:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/the-family-that-shreds-together-slays-together\/"},"modified":"2019-02-20T10:40:17","modified_gmt":"2019-02-20T19:40:17","slug":"the-family-that-shreds-together-slays-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/the-family-that-shreds-together-slays-together\/","title":{"rendered":"The family that shreds together, slays together"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t

Don’t call them the Osmonds.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

The Fridays’ family band is far removed from the cutesy trappings that can come with making music with relatives.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“We’ve been called the Partridge Family or the Jackson 5,” said Darren Friday, who plays bass for the band led by his children, in an interview with the Capital City Weekly. “We don’t feel we’ve been taken as seriously as we could.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Which is through no fault of the band.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Lead guitarist-vocalist David Friday, 22, drummer Caleb Friday, 16, and singer-rhythm guitarist Daizy Floyd (aka Keilani Friday), 19, and Darren Friday don’t play bubblegum pop, wear matching outfits or call themselves something cheesy like “Casual Fridays.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

The Juneau rockers often seen playing at the Viking opt for black band T-shirts or flannel, play a chugging brand of metal-infused music and are called Garden of <\/a>Agony<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Garden<\/a>

Garden of Agony plays in the Friday family’s living room on Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2019. (Ben Hohenenstatt | Capital City Weekly)<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t

The band’s moniker is a family name in a roundabout way.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

It was the name for a band Darren Friday had with his brothers that now continues with a younger generation, and it comes from the Bible.<\/a> It references Jesus’ internal torment in between the Last Supper and his arrest.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“It also means, to me, that we won’t candy coat the things we go through in life, what other people go through, it’s a beautiful name and an intense one for sure, and I think we will be able to help people and relate with them,” David Friday said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

[Students swap art with New York City artist<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

The biblical allusion fits with the band’s history.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Members of Garden of Agony cut their teeth playing at the Salvation Army church, which also runs in the family.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“There were former generations before these guys that used to play in the former Salvation Army Brass Band,” Darren Friday said. “They couldn’t speak any English, but they could read that music. They were so good they even played for (Franklin) Roosevelt. Grandparents and uncles and stuff played in that group all the way back in the 1900s.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“We kind of did it as a tradition type thing just to keep that tradition going,” he added.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Playing for the church wasn’t that much different from what the band does now, band members said, and it did provide experience playing live music.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“When we played in church, I was still doing what I do in the bars, just solo-ing,” David Friday said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t