BETWEEN FRIENDS Discuss Their Influences, Creativity, and Musical Joy at Gov Ball 2022

Photo by Natalie Bakwin

Fans of pop-inspired music that’s great for dancing around with friends beware: BETWEEN FRIENDS might be up your alley. With their new project CUTiE and a fall tour coming up, the duo has a lot more on the horizon. Unpublished got the opportunity to sit down and chat with BETWEEN FRIENDS at Governors Ball to discuss these new developments along with their development as artists.

The siblings-turned-musical-duo Savannah and Brandon Hudson hailing from Los Angeles performed for the first time in New York City at Governors Ball this past weekend. On June 10, BETWEEN FRIENDS released their EP CUTiE featuring both dreamy and upbeat tracks from their bedrooms to ours. The two look ahead at the excitement to come including even more new music, performances, and putting faces to listeners.

[UNPUBLISHED:] It’s your first time playing New York––how’s it been?

[BETWEEN FRIENDS:] Yes, it’s been insane, a whirlwind. It all kind of went hand in hand with our project CUTiE coming out last night. We’re just fired up, really happy to be here.

[UNPUBLISHED:] You guys had a great set. Do you have a favorite song to perform?

[BETWEEN FRIENDS:] To perform? It’s funny because I have a favorite song to listen to of ours and I have a favorite song to perform and they’re not the same. My favorite song to listen to is “try,” and I would say my favorite song to perform is obviously “affection,” but out of the new ones, “tall.”

[UNPUBLISHED:] Now that you’ve performed do you have any post-show rituals? What are you going to do the rest of the day?

[BETWEEN FRIENDS:] I just want to meet as many people as possible, have a couple of drinks, chicken tenders (we’ve been dying for chicken tenders), and go see Lil Wayne.

[UNPUBLISHED:] Is there anyone else you’re excited to see?

[BETWEEN FRIENDS:] Playboi Carti, Kid Cudi, Jack Harlow. Oh, Benee’s tomorrow, Gus [Dapperton] is tomorrow. Our friends are playing tomorrow; we love them. Yeah, it’s a good lineup.

[UNPUBLISHED:] Yeah, it is a good lineup. You guys are siblings. How did each of you get into making music and then getting to play together?

[BETWEEN FRIENDS:] Growing up, we had similar interests, and we fell in love with music at the same time. We decided we wanted to do it together. We’ve been doing that since we were six. It’s all very natural, you know? Nothing we do is a bit. This is just who we are and we love making stuff.

[UNPUBLISHED:] So, you’ve always known that you want to pursue this fully?

[BETWEEN FRIENDS:] Oh yeah, definitely.

[UNPUBLISHED:] Your sound has evolved quite a bit. It takes a lot of influences from different genres. What do you guys think inspires your sound? Also, your visuals are so incredible, and where does that all come from?

[BETWEEN FRIENDS:] I think it just comes from loving so many different types of music and so many different types of film and TV. We just want to make the art that feels the most like our personalities. We’re always trying new things in our style, and we want that to translate with our music and our vision, as well. We just love things. We love all kinds of things and we just constantly are pulling and absorbing things, adding them to our umbrella project.

[UNPUBLISHED:] We love the mixtape nostalgia! If you were to put a few songs on the perfect mixtape for someone, what would you choose?

[BETWEEN FRIENDS:] “So Into You,” Tamia. Playboi Carti. I would put “At Your Best (You Are Love),” Aaliyah. I would put some Mariah on there, I would put Erykah Badu on there, Snoop Dogg. Maybe some Timbaland, some Pharrell, The Neptunes. It would be a lit playlist. Maybe some 90s Shoegaze, The Sundays. It’s going all over the place.

[UNPUBLISHED:] That’s perfect. You’re putting out a lot of new music now with CUTiE. Would you mind walking us through your creative pross and how you know a piece that you’re working on is truly finished?

[BETWEEN FRIENDS:] I feel like if people didn’t give us dates, we’d tinker with it forever. We make everything at home, so we are constantly editing and working and trying to tweak.

But there is compensation because we make so much music, we’re allowed to tinker with some things for so long. We have so many things going on, and it’s fun. The process changes every time. We just get together, we tap in, and we get to work. That’s it

[UNPUBLISHED:] How do you think that’s evolved from when you were just starting to release music to where you’re at now?

[BETWEEN FRIENDS:] It’s very different. We honed in on who we are as people and what kind of art we want to make as adults now. It feels very sturdy. We found something to lean on, for sure. We just know what we’re gonna do. If all else fails in our lives, we know that that’s the one thing that is always strong.

[UNPUBLISHED:] Outside of music what do you do that might help feed your creativity and musicality?

[BETWEEN FRIENDS:] We do a lot of homework. A lot of homework, all the time. We watch a lot of films, random movies, and hang out with friends. We listen to so much music, constantly digging through crates. We want to find new shit all the time. What we do is the only thing we love. Everything we do outside of actually working has to do with work, at the end of the day.

[UNPUBLISHED:] People can tell when they’re listening to somebody who’s passionate about their music and putting everything into it. So looking ahead, what are you most excited about this upcoming year?

[BETWEEN FRIENDS:] We’re excited to meet people. We’re excited to put faces to our listeners and go on tour in the fall. We’re ready and we’re so excited for September and October.

[UNPUBLISHED:] So you guys love performing?

[BETWEEN FRIENDS:] We love it. Love is an understatement.