Pretending, a Portland-based post-hardcore trio formed in 2019, return with a new single titled “Friendships Fading like Sunworn Prints Hanging on your Grandparents’ Wall,” ahead of their full-length record due in fall 2025. The track, produced by Jack Shirley at Atomic Garden Studios in Oakland, marks a continuation of the band’s approach to emotional intensity through layered instrumentation and dizzying, shifting dynamics.
Following a run of releases including their debut It’s Fine (2021), the EP Some Things Never Change, and a split in 2022, Pretending have built their identity through a mix of 90s screamo, punk, and metal influences.
Their live shows—featuring three-way vocals, dense guitars, and rhythmic complexity—have reached 35 U.S. states and parts of Canada, and have seen them share stages with bands like Loma Prieta and Escuela Grind.
The new track aims to feel deceptive at first, as the band describes. “Our new single is a mouthful by design. ‘Friendships Fading Like Sunworn Prints on Your Grandparents’ Wall’ is a warning. Life is made to change. Everything is constantly changing,” they state.
The band breaks the song into symbolic halves: one meant to feel like a warm field of summer flowers, the other a violent descent. “Then the ground splits, life peaks with nowhere left but down. Then the gaping tectonic maw of hell opens wide and consumes, and the music falls. Until the bottom hits.”
The lyrics reflect on comfort, loss, and deterioration. “At some point in most of our lives we are able to have what we truly want. Once we have it for a while, we begin to get used to it. Life is evolutionary. We adapt to our comforts and become set in our ways and beliefs. The rest of the world changes around what stays comfortable.”
The track starts off calm, almost peaceful, but it doesn’t stay there long—it slowly cracks apart, sliding into chaos and distortion like something beautiful rotting from the inside.
The final takeaway is blunt: “Overcoming attachment never works. The best we can ever do is to keep it at bay. Save those painful memories like a semi-annual cigarette. It’s nice, but kills another small piece of you.”
Pretending’s current lineup features Tom Wyka on guitar and vocals, Jesse Wallis on bass and vocals, and Liam Welsch on drums and vocals.
Jack Shirley was behind the board for recording, mixing, and mastering—so yeah, it sounds exactly how it’s supposed to: raw, sharp, and just unhinged enough to hit like their live sets do.
