“All My Friends Keep Dying From Drugs” by Cami Petyn

Cami Petyn is a product of the heavy metal shows and old school jazz that she consumed voraciously as a teenager – so, naturally, she’s emerged as a fascinating bundle of influences with little interest in the conventional rules of genre.

 

Her quickly-growing fanbase is founded upon her hard-hitting, no nonsense status as a queer artist who speaks her own truth, and forms a connection with her listeners by revealing hard-won emotional truths in her music. That’s an aspect that’s clearly on display in her hugely impactful new tune, “All My Friends Keep Dying From Drugs.”

 

The new track takes the listener through a raw and heartbreaking journey of addiction inspired by Petyn’s own experiences. The haunting tone of Petyn’s lyrics are interspersed with sudden bursts of angry guitar, showing the surging emotions of grief and loss caused by the pain of addiction, before building into a cathartic expression at the song’s very end.

 

On the track, Petyn says, “I wrote this song the day after I found out another one of my high school friends died due to an overdose. I’ve unfortunately lost several friends to the disease of addiction, but that day it really broke me. I came into my session and just blatantly said “fuck, all my friends keep dying from drugs”. So Phil (the producer) and I decided not to sugar-coat the subject and say exactly that. It was a heavy song to write and an even heavier song to record, but it was unexpectedly therapeutic. I hope, if anything, the song inspires listeners to continue the conversation about addiction. We need to talk about it more.”