A Philadelphia group specializing in an ambling, conversational type of indie rock often colored by pedal steel and Rhodes piano as well as keyboards or synths, Friendship shares multiple members with contrasting indie pop outfit 2nd Grade. Led by singer and main songwriter Dan Wriggins, they debuted in 2015 with You're Going to Have to Trust Me, then added synthesizers for the first time two years later on the follow-up EP, F/V Hope. Their fourth long-player and Merge Records debut, 2022's Love the Stranger, was their first to be written together as a band.

Although they had moved into an apartment together in Philly by the time they released their first album, Friendship has its roots in Yarmouth, Maine, where Dan Wriggins (voice, guitar), Peter Gill (pedal steel, guitar), and Mike Cormier-O'Leary (drums) grew up. They named the band after Friendship, Maine, a town about an hour up the coast. Co-produced by the band and Peter Tramo, and featuring Chalmers Hall on bass, You're Going to Have to Trust Me arrived on Maine-based Burst Bloom Records in October of 2015. Friendship's next release, the EP F/V Hope, was issued on Philadelphia’s Sleeper Records in the middle of 2017. With Jon Samuels added to the lineup in place of Hall, it was produced with Evan M. Marré and also added synthesizer, piano, and vibraphone to their sound palette.

The group signed with Owen Ashworth-founded Orindal Records for their second full-length, the self-produced Shock Out of Season. When it appeared later in 2017, it had Samuels helping Cormier-O'Leary on percussion and drum machine, with Andrés Rodriguez guesting on bass and Evangeline Krajewski providing synthesizer. Around this time, Gill recruited Samuels for a concurrent project, 2nd Grade, which also included Remember Sports' Catherine Dwyer and Jack Washburn, along with drummer Will Kennedy.

Friendship remained with Orindal for the release of their third album, 2019's Dreamin'. It featured the core four-piece (Wriggins, Gill, Samuels back on bass, and Cormier-O'Leary), with Krajewski returning to help out on synths. A year later, 2nd Grade put out their acclaimed debut, Hit to Hit.

With Friendship continuing to rise through the ranks of indie labels, they were signed to Merge Records in 2022 for that July's Love the Stranger. Produced by the band and Bradford Krieger (Horse Jumper of Love, Nova One), it was their first album to have songwriting credited to all four members (except for two songs written by subsets of the band). Employing transitional instrumentals, it also found each member covering multiple instruments. ~ Marcy Donelson, Rovi