Story: Lauren Textor
Photos: Cory Weaver
Friendly Thieves are on a mission to make Kansas City funkier.
They’ve been collecting talented, passionate individuals like some people collect Pokémon cards, and now their hard work is coming to fruition.
Electric guitarist Jamae Breeze and bassist Sam Millard didn’t set out to make a funk band. They thought that they’d stick to rock, as they had in their previous projects. But as the band grew and their sound evolved, the music became identifiable by a signature carefree groove.
“Whatever we make is whatever we make,” Breeze said. “It doesn’t have to be anything. It just has to be something that we enjoy.”
In standard budget band fashion, Friendly Thieves recorded their first album in an AirBnb, DIY style. As a tornado tore through Arkansas, they holed up in a Holiday Island rental with some friends who had pledged to help out with the filming, recording and sound engineering.
Til Death is described by the band as a “sonic who-dun-it.” Like any good femme fatale, it walks the line between threatening and caressing the listener. In “You Better Run,” vocalist and electric ukelele player Sam Wells warns that she’s “counting down the moments til I see your end.” It’s like a shot of whiskey. Once you’ve acquired the taste for funk, it goes down smooth, and even more so when it’s transferred to vinyl.
Vocalist and electric ukelele player Sam Wells described having the band’s debut album on vinyl as a “freaking honor.” Friendly Thieves needed a minimum of 40 pre-orders to start the process. Once they achieved this benchmark, they showed gratitude to their fans by creating individual packages of Polaroids, handwritten notes and special Breeze-designed tarot cards to accompany the signed albums.
“Selfishly, every band wants to have their songs on vinyl,” Wells said. “Like, even if you don’t have a record player, you want that. They [the fans] made it possible for us to be able to geek out about our own music.”
Friendly Thieves are mindful that band merch and concert tickets can get expensive, and they’re dead set on providing quality items for listeners. Woodwinds, saxophone and piano player Ben Baker also applies this to live performances.
“You don’t have to be Cirque du Soleil, but you have to craft something for the audience,” he said. “Even if you’re playing at a dive bar with no stage and no sound system, you still have to build a story, whatever that means for you.”
That being said, the band agrees that merch is what keeps them in business—sort of.
“Any money we make from playing shows goes back into the band and paying for travel,” Wells said. “Every month, each one of us puts $100 into the band to support us being able to do things. We’re pretty settled in on losing money to do this and to bring our music to new places. It’s worthwhile to get it out there and to get the experience of grinding through travel and to meet some new faces and play with new bands.”
Friendly Thieves stepped up their production in 2024 by recording their “hot summer singles” in Weights and Measures Soundlab. With a tight budget and only four days to record, they turned out a series of sensuous singles that they hope can be used as portfolio items as needed.
Their vision is slowly coming into focus, but it depends on a few other people, namely drummer Matt Chipman and Breeze’s wife, Jess. Jess Breeze manages their social media, which allows the band to pour their energy into the music rather than maximizing their algorithmic potential.
“We have people who are not only great at what they do, but they care enough to make sure that we stay present, and I think takes a lot of the burden away,” Wells said. “It’s so hard to want to make music, but now we also have to be professional content creators for six different platforms. It’s really, really special to have a team member who—without getting any, like, performance recognition. She’s not going on stage and having people clapping for her, right? To have somebody who’s willing to do all of that groundwork and that foundational work with no pay and no fame, is really, really special.”
Friendly Thieves will perform with Rudy Love and The Encore on April 17 at Lifted Spirits in Kansas City, Mo.; April 18 in Lawrence, Kan.; and April 19 in Duffy’s Tavern in Lincoln, Neb.
