New Practices comes from Arizona’s Friends In Real Life, a project active since early 2025 and built around home recording. Its palette runs from acoustic guitar, horns and piano to beats, synth, organ, bass and noise, with the songs moving between folk and pop instincts and the rougher edges of punk and noise pop. The use of sampled kicks, tram and traffic ambience, needle drops and other small found sounds gives the production a handmade electronic streak rather than a polished studio finish.
Patrick Schneeweis handles most of the instruments, vocals, design and layout, joined by Michael Schneeweis on guitar and vocals and Charlie Schneeweis on horns and vocals. Julio IV adds vocals and co-writing to “Make it to Tomorrow”, while Ruth Garbus does the same on “Vain”. “What Winning Means” has bass, mixing and mastering from Riley Deacon. The ten-song set has a curious, mixed-media feel on paper, with titles such as “Ronstadt Center Sunrise”, “Esperanto” and “Electrolyte Love Song” sitting alongside more direct pop phrasing. Anyone drawn to home-recorded folk-pop with electronic clutter and punk energy should find plenty to investigate, especially with the songs being released for free as they arrive and the complete paid edition offered on digital and physical formats.
