For Philadelphia Punk band Froggy, the Trump administrations attacks on queer youth are personal.
“ We were posting our upcoming gigs, and Fiona made a graphic, it had a rainbow on it cause we were playing a pride fest and a couple other things during pride month. Someone was like, ‘why the rainbow gay?’ And we were like; have you not been paying attention?”
Froggy was formed in 2020 after Morgan McClain posted an Instagram story asking if anyone wanted to form a band, and Brooke Feenie and Fiona Clark were the only two to respond. They’ve been creating music together since they were both sixteen years old.
Froggy has become a well-known band in the city’s punk and DIY scene with over eleven thousand followers on Instagram, a studio album and multiple singles. After they released their song “7/11 Nachos” in 2022, 7-Eleven contacted the band and funded the filming of their music video.
Since then, their music and live performances have gained popularity in Philly and beyond. Currently, their music is featured every Friday on WMMR’s Preston and Steve Show, a popular satellite radio and livestream show. Additionally, an instrumental version of “7/11 Nachos” is used in a scene of the 2022 comedy Clerks Three.
Since Froggy was founded, Morgan, Fiona, and Brooke say that politics are at the heart of their musical project. Their songs “Stupid Rich Boy” and “Midwest Emo Scum” are both based on personal experiences dealing with misogyny and homophobia in their lives. When talking about “Stupid Rich Boy”, Brooke said it “reminds me of our current president because he’s a stupid rich boy who just thinks he can do anything he wants because he has money and it’s like, just shut the f— up, bro.”
This comes at a time when queer communities are facing increased attacks through cuts to federal funding of LGBTQ+ health services, and slashing of federal funds used for art.
Since Trump took office last year, LGBTQ+ services have been frequent. On July 17 2025, the Trump administration shut down the suicide hotline for LGBTQ+ youth.
These cuts have hit Philadelphia as well. On July 19, 2025, a proposal to allocate $1.8 million to the William Way Center in Philadelphia was shot down by the House Appropriations Committee.
Philadelphia Neighborhoods sat down with Brooke Feenie, the bassist of Froggy, to talk about what it means to make queer art in this political moment.
What led to the formation of Froggy?
“[Morgan] posted on her story one day ‘Who wants to be in a band?’ And me and Fiona were the only ones who clicked yes, and so then we made a group chat, and we started writing literally over FaceTime. We were like ‘there is so much happening politically and, in the world, and we’re queer kids trying to navigate high school.’ We had a lot to write about.”
What do you hope your audience gets from Froggy?
“I hope that if there are people in the crowd who are men who are assholes, that they feel uncomfortable.” They go on to say “we’ve written a lot about many issues that are personal to us. There is so much systemic injustice that we try to cover all our bases and people have no mistake of who we are.”
What do you hope the crowd feels when they see you play?
“Usually my favorite thing to hear from the crowd is when people are like, ‘now I want to start a band.’ I want people to feel like ‘Wait, I can do this too, and I can speak my mind and nothing bad will happen to me because I have a community and I can help other people and speak out for marginalized groups.’” … “I want people to see us and think ‘wow I want to be a good person too.’”
Would you consider yourself to be a political activist?
“I just, I think that personally, I think you can’t be in a punk band and be like, ‘oh, I don’t involve myself in politics.’ Then you should just give yourself a different genre. I think all music and art is political, whether you intend it to be or not. It’s a product of your environment and like the time that you’re making it.”
Has being so outspoken politically affected your professional relationships?
“I would say no. If anything, it has kind of connected us and given us more solid relationships with bands that we really want to work with. I can tell like the more we’ve become more outspoken, like the closer we’ve gotten to bands that are also really political that I want to work with, like Pink Shift, Pollyanna, like I am huge on them.”…”the more we were our authentic selves, the more it pointed us in the direction of the right people.”
What has this political moment meant for you as a queer band?
“We definitely feel more drive to write, and we feel very grateful for the community we have within each other and the people we surround ourselves with. We’re so fortune to be part of so many openly queer spaces and play so many shows like that.”…”while the horrors of everything are so crushing and terrible, at the end of the day we have to remind ourselves that we have this great community and that is something to be grateful for.”
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