What's in a Name?

Heather and I had a lot of band name ideas. These days, it's all too easy to come up with a great band name, only to google it or look on Spotify and see that it is already in use - sometimes, by several bands. We toyed with various names, that no one had taken yet, but none of them really were sticking.

One morning I woke up from a dream where we had a band called Imperial Friend Group. I immediately wrote it down, thinking it was funny and wanting to not forget the name before I could tell Heather. We agreed it kind of was a kind of cool name actually, but too wordy. We decided Imperial Friend was better, with "group" left off.

As I began googling to see if there were already bands with that name, I came across an Emily Dickinson poem with the phrase "imperial friend" in it. The poem talks about how one's soul/self can be a source of power, but also torment. The paradoxical nature of being your biggest champion, or your own worst enemy cemented the band name. I love a damn double entendre.

Emily Dickinson’s “The Soul Unto Itself” (Poem 683)

The Soul unto itself

Is an imperial friend —

Or the most agonizing Spy —

An Enemy — could send —

Secure against its own —

No treason it can fear —

Itself — its Sovereign — of itself

The Soul should stand in Awe