Weakened Friends' Great Expectations
- Josh Kitchen
- Dec 12
- 5 min read
By: Josh Kitchen / December 12, 2025
On Weakened Friends’ first album in four years, collaboration is key. After two records of lead vocals and most of the songwriting handled by Sonia Sturino, on Feels Like Hell , bandmate and wife Annie Hoffman steps fully into the songwriting fold. And like any good marriage, communication and compromise make all the difference. Feels Like Hell is a record that Sonia says is “unequivocally the best thing this band has ever done.” Reader—Sonia is correct.
On Feels Like Hell, Weakened Friends plead for solidarity in the noise, demanding accountability from those who inflict pain on the less fortunate. “Tough luck / Thought I’d need it, but I don’t, I’ve had enough / Get fucked / You’re a poison in my veins, I’ll tear ’em out,” Sonia sings on “Tough Luck (Bleed Me Out),” which opens the record. Their delivery is as vicious as it is confident and controlled—a singer leaning fully into their identity at a time when those voices are being drowned out by tyrants.
Feels Like Hell is a record for the times, and it’s a damn good one. I caught up with Sonia and Annie ahead of their stop here in Los Angeles tonight at the Wiltern, supporting Buckethead. We discussed channeling angst through the noise, covering the late-’90s classic “Torn” by Natalie Imbruglia (itself a great cover), what they’re reading, growing into their songwriting partnership, and how they got Buckethead to play on the record.
Sonically and emotionally, Feels Like Hell feels like your heaviest record yet. Like just a bunch of bricks hitting you a lot of the time, especially on something like “Smoke and Mirrors."
Sonia:
I think that makes sense. When we were initially writing for this record post-Quitter release, we were like, we’ve gotta write new music. It was interesting, because I kind of wanted to go in a more pop direction. That’s what I was really listening to at the time. I was like, maybe we can pull together some of the things I like about pop music. We put out a single in 2023 called “Awkward,” which I do love—that’s one of my favorite songs we’ve done—but it had more of that vibe. And then we couldn’t write that record.
Annie:
We had a full set of songs and were like, this just doesn’t feel like us.
Sonia:
And we couldn’t finish any of them. It didn’t really make sense in terms of the catharsis of writing music and what was really challenging my emotions and my mind at the time. I didn’t feel right in that world, and it caused kind of a writer’s block. Then we wrote “Queen of the Town,” which became the north star. That was the first one where I was like, oh—that’s moody. And then the rest followed. Last year I was just like, we’re a rock band. I want to write a good rock record and get all the shit off my chest. The floodgates just opened.
Annie:
The record gets a lot of piss and vinegar, actually.
Sonia:
It’s angsty, but very poignant.
Once you realize that direction, it feels like the floodgates open. I love how heavy it is, but then you end it with “Torn” by Natalie Imbruglia. It feels like the right coda—it completes the record thematically. Talk to me about that.
Sonia:
We put that cover together during COVID lockdown. We were doing Patreon polls—four or five songs—and people would vote. We did a ’90s category, and that one won by a landslide.
Annie:
No one voted for anything else!
Sonia:
It’s one of my favorite nostalgic anthems. It’s poppy and airy, but the lyrics are devastating. I love that dissonance. We recorded it really quickly during a period of burnout, and it felt really good—just fun. Years later, we brought it into the live set when we were opening for Slothrust. They do covers too, and we thought their fans would eat it up. And they did—people were screaming the lyrics every night. We didn’t even know if it would be on the record at first.
Annie:
We thought “Awkward” was going to be on the record.
Sonia:
But when we started building the playlist of mixes, “Awkward” stood out, and “Torn” nestled in really well. It became a bonus track, and it was a catalyst—it reminded us how good it feels when things come together easily. That ethos carried into the rest of the record.
You’ve also got Buckethead on this album, on “P.C.,” and you’re playing with him at the Wiltern in LA . On your first record you had J Mascis, now Buckethead—talk to me about getting guests like that.
Annie:
We're collecting guitar heroes.
Sonia:
I work at the State Theatre in Portland as a house manager. Buckethead was playing there, and you have to cut through the green room to get to the office. I try not to bother artists, but he stopped me—no mask, no bucket. We started talking about bookstores, comic books, music. We exchanged numbers and stayed in touch. He’s incredibly supportive and endlessly creative. When we wrote “P.C.,” I wanted a reality-shredding solo—and I knew who to call.
I love the song "Great Expectations" here. You sing “To hell with the future/I know how it's gonna be/Assumptions and miscalculations/Always made a mess of me/Expectations got the best of me.” It's very poignant and feels like a sentiment you can only really feel and sing and write about at this stage in your life. Can you talk about that?
Sonia:
It’s always been a source of anxiety, especially being socialized female in this industry. There’s pressure that you’re obsolete after 25. It’s depressing, because you should get better as you practice your craft. That pressure is rooted in vanity. But now I see artists my age or older—Mannequin Pussy, Turnstile—making the best art of their lives. I’m just going to keep making what I want to make.
Annie:
A lot of those parameters came from old label systems.
Sonia:
The pressure’s still there, but we’re a rock band trying to connect with people. If the music is genuine, people feel that. If you’re 35 writing songs about high school, then no. But if you’re growing, that’s different. Look at Hayley Williams—she’s making incredible, relevant work now.
What was the last movie you watched?
Sonia:
We watched Death Becomes Her. Classic.
What are you reading?
Sonia:
I just finished Sunburn. It’s a coming-of-age story set in ’90s Ireland—a queer awakening story. Really good.
Annie:
I usually read whatever Sonia recommends. I loved Atmosphere and the Monk and Robot books—they were very healing.
You’re still on tour—what’s the first thing you do after the last show?
Sonia:
Clean the house. Do laundry.
Annie:
I went through a huge stack of mail.
Sonia:
We’ve also been hitting record stores in every city, signing copies and buying records. Tonight I’m excited to listen to everything we picked up.
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