An AAA+ group consisting of Amery Sandford, Aley Waterman, and Allison Graves, XBF is “is kind of like that party girl who actually kind of has their shit together and that your mom and dad always want to have over for dinner.”

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The trio of young professionals draw inspiration and humour from the world they inhabit, writing songs about being depressed and wanting snacks, or the tough subject of not wanting to eat brunch with the random person dragged home from a random bar at a questionable hour under questionable circumstances.

Their four song EP, I’m depressed, still managed to burrow into overworked ear drums, as Newfoundlanders and Labradorians flooded Bandcamp with RPM projects.

“It’s worth noting that none of us actually play the instruments we play in this band,” Graves said with a laugh. “Aley has her own band, Gala. Amery, I don’t think she has a musical background. I grew up playing violin and piano. I had never played the drums before,” she explained. “And I had never played bass,” Waterman added.

“Our influences are from bands that use simple but effective songwriting, like Cherry Glazerr or The Memories – I also just love bands with female vocals like Bully, Bleached, or Shannon and The Clams,” Sandford wrote from Nashville.

XBF’s humourous musical offerings were born out of a group message in which the friends contributed funny anecdotes, ridiculous thoughts and observations and “stupid song ideas, like ‘my toe looks like Mac DeMarco,’” Waterman explained.

“We were joking around, saying we were going to start a band called XBF. We joked about it for a few months before starting it. Then people started saying they were excited to hear us. As soon as we jammed a little, people wanted XBF to play shows.”

“Our very first show was in a bedroom on Military Road during a friend’s party,” Sandford recalled. “Me and Aley played our instruments kneeling on this bed and Allison and a full drum kit were stuffed into a corner in the room. “Dressed up in all pink outfits, hilarious athletic-themed outfits, or fully adorned in Dollarama Christmas decorations, XBF’s stage presence is as much fun as their tunes.

The album’s second track, ‘brunchphobia,’ is quite the banger. The song is “about hooking up with people and not wanting to have brunch with them afterwards … That fear … when you wake up and someone is like ‘so, do you wanna go for brunch?’ No, I don’t want to go for brunch. I want to go back to sleep. I don’t really want to talk to you that much.” A song for a generation, really.

Feedback for the new band has been positive, though the band admitted that praises come in an untraditional way. “People are stoked, but not necessarily in a ‘this is really good!’ way,” Waterman said with a laugh. “It’s more like, ‘lol, we love XBF.’” #same.

Check out XBF on Bandcamp at xbfxo.bandcamp.com/releases.