About Us

“The feelings [his songs] evoke are easy to relate to, especially if you have gone through times of friendships or love lost, coping with the death of someone you know, getting mixed up with the wrong crowd that led you down a path you didn’t like or your experiences with drinking and drugs and how it shaped you as a person during those formidable years… This is a person who cares about the kind of music he puts out into the world and wants to reach people in positive ways. I admire that.” - Audio Disclosure, on Friends for Sale

Influenced by Jimmy Eat World, Death Cab for Cutie and Bright Eyes, Kentucky native Baker Legate, the founder and vocalist of Friends for Sale, set out to make music that was both raw and deeply personal. He achieves just that - the melodic, story-telling guitar perfectly complementing the melancholic tones of his voice, strain and emotion ever-present in his vocals and intricately-woven arrangements.

The story behind Friends for Sale’s 2015 debut LP, “Welcome to the Accident”, is a collection of many. Though having written the lyrics for many of the tracks while he was still in high school, the lyrics are still relevant, touching on topics such as losing friendships to drugs and alcohol in what Baker describes as “the horrible early years of school that quickly became a defining chapter in [his] life.” The deeply personal nature of the record helped them further a special connection and relatability with listeners and laid the groundwork for Legate to burst onto the Athens, Ohio scene in 2018 with his bombastic secondary project, The All-New Insane - promotion, led by the irresistibly catchy and high-energy single “Time-Bomb”.

After gathering together bandmates in Athens, Friends for Sale began integrating material from The All-New Insane into their live sets, including their breakout performance at ACRN’s Battle of the Bands 2019. This worked to influence the soundscape and general direction of their new album, entitled “Cheers!” - an ambitious alt-indie rock project for which Legate took inspiration from the likes of Angels and Airwaves, My Chemical Romance and Modest Mouse.

A considerable departure from the largely acoustic core of his debut, Legate manages to retain his lyrical intimacy and ups the ante all around for this exciting and electrifying sophomore effort, - Friends for Sale’s first as a full band - exhibiting a definite camaraderie in the performance between band members and interweaving radiating certain nostalgia at the heart of his material. Denver violinist Mia Asano, who has worked with notable acts such as Lindsey Stirling and Jack Russel’s Great White, features on album track “Angel To Me”, elevating the recording to new heights.

Despite the overtly dark side to much of his music, there’s an underlying positivity that holds the listener’s attention. In his own words, “I make music to help myself, as well as anyone else out there going through a hard time. There are people out there who are in the dark, and just knowing there’s someone else out there that understands really makes a world of difference.”

To support the album, Friends for Sale are in the planning stages of a mini tour throughout Ohio and the surrounding area throughout the spring of 2021.