by sara welden
photo courtesy of nettwerk
Foley is a sugary sweet pop duo that have just released their highly anticipated debut project Crowd Pleaser, Pt. 1 on February 24th. This is the first half of their debut album, and it’s interwoven with addictively catchy, heartfelt, and electrifying pop anthems. Rapidly picking up speed and drawing attention, Foley now has over 8 million streams worldwide and is a duo that is certainly on the rise. Read more about Foley and their new project, Crowd Pleaser, Pt. 1, below!
When did you both first start creating music together?
Foley: “We’d been friends for years before we started writing together. We were both songwriting in separate bands at the time and when those bands split up I remember having a conversation about how we were both getting into pop music and wanted to challenge ourselves to try and write it!”
You just released your debut project titled Crowd Pleaser, Pt. 1, which is super exciting! How are you feeling in the weeks since the release?
Foley: “We’re over the moon! It’s been a huge labor of love over the past couple of years, lots of experimentation, hard work and emotion have gone into this and we’re so happy with the results. Doing the debut album in two halves is also really fun, as it gives us a moment with each release to decontextualise what these songs mean to us and how they all fit together. So exciting!!!”
Each track brings something so unique to the project as a whole, so I’m curious, were there any songs that didn’t make the final cut?
Foley: “Yeah, so many. We really wanted to branch out from our previous work and so did a lot of writing for this album, there’s probably about 50 songs in the demo graveyard! We were so inspired to work with heaps of producers and writers we hadn’t worked with before, and so along the way we picked up so many unique sounds and techniques which have all translated into the new sound we’ve created!”
Your track “Coffee” features Tim Atlas. What was that collaborative process like?
Foley: “It was amazing — we’re such big fans of Tim!! We met very briefly in LA on a songwriting trip last year, and knew we really wanted someone else to feature on ‘Coffee,’ which we’d written a few months earlier. So we sent him the track, we both really vibed with the energy and meanings and so he laid down a couple verse options and the rest worked itself out! He’s such a legend and we’re so stoked he’s just as excited about the track as us.”
“Nothing” is a really beautiful and vulnerable song, and it’s also the first track that features Gabe on lead vocals. How did that decision come about?
Foley: “Yeah, we’ve always been trying to write tracks for Gabe’s voice. We’re both vocalists so even when we started Foley we weren’t sure who was going to be singing lead vocals! For ‘Nothing,’ the song started as a really vulnerable discussion between us about relationships ending and we both had unique perspectives and experiences on it. Nothing just felt right to express both those perspectives with each of our voices, and we both got to lend our own vulnerability and emotion to the track in a way we hadn’t done before — so it was really rewarding!”
Your music has such a spirited and vibrant feel to it, and listening to this project reminded me of the first time I ever listened to the band MUNA. While creating this project, were there any artists that you guys listened to for inspiration?
Foley: “Thank you! That’s such a compliment, MUNA are amazing. Yeah, we had a big inspiration playlist that was everyone from our contemporaries like Remi Wolf, MICHELLE, Biig Piig — to Britney Spears, Prince, Your Smith, and everything in between. A really key thing we wanted to focus our inspiration on, especially with sonics, was energy and emotion. So a lot of the tracks that we were listening to we chose because they were boundary pushing or had really unique takes on melody, harmony and subject matter. It really helped us focus on how we could push ourselves more and take way more creative risks.”
Is there a certain audience that you feel or hope that this project will resonate or connect with?
Foley: “Yeah, as always the tracks on the album are about our experiences and the challenges we’re facing at the moment. Like a little snapshot of the last few years. However this time — as opposed to some of our previous tracks — we’re not always providing an answer or resolving the problem in these songs. We’ve grown up a lot through this project and the reality is that a lot of things are just super messy and complicated, and can’t always be cleanly summed up. So we just hope that comes across to our audience and gives a bit of solace and comfort in this crazy world.”
You have toured with and supported some iconic names like Remi Wolf, Tove Lo, and Still Woozy. Is there anything in particular that you’ve learned from that run of shows, or a favorite memory that comes to mind?
Foley: “Yes! Each of those shows was a dream come true for so many different reasons. We’ve been super inspired by each of them over the years, so we really wanted to make those shows special, play our hearts out and give back to their audiences. We obviously watched all of their sets afterwards, and each one was just incredible for a variety of different reasons. Tove’s set was one of the best modern pop performances we’ve ever seen — the whole production, band, and her voice were so perfectly matched. Still Woozy had the craziest energy and was also one of NZ’s first international performances since the pandemic, so that was an electric night. And Remi is just a beautiful soul and so generous. And opens her set the most ridiculously impressive way we’ve ever seen. Chaos.”
Throughout the course of the two years you spent making this project, is there anything that you learned about yourselves as artists?
Foley: “100%. We’ve really learned to trust ourselves and break the rules when we’re writing. We’ve been super fortunate enough to have the time to dive down rabbit holes and experiment, and learned where the edges of our songwriting abilities are and how to reach past them. It’s been a super creative an rewarding process and we love to look back and see how much we’ve grown our sound over the years!”
After the highly anticipated release of Crowd Pleaser, Pt. 1, what can we expect next from Foley?
Foley: “Part 2 of course! We’re also really excited to show our fans the live versions of these tracks and get out on the road. We’ve got some really exciting ways we’re reimagining our set so that will be super exciting!!”