Born on February 21, 2004 and raised in Melbourne, Australia, Friday Santana is an emerging artist in the R&B space, building his identity around the darker corners of alternative R&B.
Building An Identity Through Mystery
Initially, Friday built an identity by removing his identity. Throughout the early days of his career, he refused to appear in interviews and rarely revealed information about himself, allowing fans to focus on the art.
After dropping out of school at age 14, Friday turned to his artistic side and started pursuing music. He began recording music in his bedroom where he made his popular single “Trouble” and uploaded it to streaming platforms. The track later went on to amass over 1 million streams on Spotify.
“I realised pretty early that school wasn’t for me,” Friday says. “I didn’t know exactly where I was going yet, but I knew I couldn’t spend my life pretending I wanted the same things everybody else wanted.”
Finding His Influences
As the music developed, so did the identity surrounding it. Friday became fascinated by artists who understood that an artist could create an entire world around their work.
Artists like Michael Jackson, The Weeknd and The Smiths were a major reference point in that discovery, particularly the early years, when mystery was as powerful as the music itself. Friday was drawn to the idea that an artist could reveal very little about themselves and still make people feel like they knew them. The influence of these artists can be felt in the atmosphere of his work, but Friday Santana is ultimately built from his own experiences and imagination.
“My life is like a movie but in a musical form,” Friday says. “Instead of the world seeing it as it is, they can hear about it and imagine it in their own way.”
The World of 12 Days Before Eviction
That cinematic approach is displayed most clearly in his project, “12 Days Before Eviction.”
A much more polished and refined release, the project unfolds like a film, with songs like “God Speed” and “Kiss of Death” feeling like scenes from a movie. The project leaves room for listeners to return to the beginning and interpret the story from a different perspective.
Perhaps that’s his intention. The less you know, the more you’ll listen.