Viral alt-pop duo Between Friends to bring their ‘headspace of sweetness’ to Brooklyn

By Marisa Kalil-Barrino

Chances are, you may have listened to the “Lorem” or “Bedroom Pop” Spotify playlists (if you haven’t, we’ll wait). If you have, the dream pop of Between Friends has likely caught your ear.

With over 200 million streams, the Los Angeles-based brother-and-sister duo is going on their first tour, with Brooklyn on the roster for two nights, September 9 and 10.

Siblings Brandon and Savannah Hudson have had a passion for music since they were kids. They actually made their national debut in 2013, on “America’s Got Talent” — making it to the quarterfinals when they were 13 and 15. From there, they formed a five-person band called Heirs.

Not long after that, though, the Hudsons thought it would better suit their sound to keep things in the family. In 2017, Brandon and Savannah released their first song as Between Friends, “suburban wonderland.” The follow-up EP “we just need some time together” came out in 2018.

As Between Friends brings their West Coast sound out east, they’ll be supporting their new nine-song EP “CUTiE.” The EP begins with “hiiii” — a song that clocks in at under a minute and is still infused with nostalgia over glitchy video game blips. The duo has released a video for “hiiii,” their fifth from the new album, all of which they are framing as episodes on the station they call, “CUTiE TV.”

Although this is not the Hudsons’ first time in Brooklyn, September will mark their first time here as Between Friends. New band, new music, new art, and new fans.

Brooklyn Magazine caught up with the Hudsons ahead of their tour. This interview has been edited for readability and concision.

For people who don’t know, what’s the story with Between Friends?
Brandon: We started Between Friends a couple of years ago for fun, really. We were working in the music industry on different music projects, we were in different bands, and we were doing a bunch of different things. We wanted to make something that could kind of be an umbrella to facilitate all of our creative ideas.
Savannah: We just had so many ideas and creative thoughts towards so many different things. Music being the number-one thought, we wanted to create a space for ourselves where we could make the music that we’d always dreamt of and make the videos that we’d always dreamt of making. We wanted no limits, no filter, no box.

What can we expect when you come to Brooklyn?
Savannah: Obviously, the two LA shows really feel like a homecoming — finally in our city playing music. The second place that feels just like that is New York. It’s been this long-waiting anticipation of the experience to share our music and art with new people and also people who live here.

Talk about “CUTiE.”
Brandon: We started working on “CUTiE” last year. It sort of took on a personality which is what I like a lot about it. “CUTiE” sort of became this alter-ego or this sort of confidence that we created. We were trying new things in the studio. We were playing around with different sounds, trying different genres, and writing from different perspectives. Everything was always really personal and everything was about exactly what’s going on with us right now — and I think with ‘CUTiE,’ we were able to sort of step out of ourselves for a bit and to try and try something different.

And just last week, you put out a video for “hiiii.” What’s the idea there?
Savannah: Originally we had had it seamlessly with these video game sounds and that was going to be the intro. One night Brandon was playing the sample of a song that I found an attachment to and he chopped it up. I wrote this little bit over it and I called him while he was out and I was like “this has to be the intro to the record.” I think this is a special introduction of “hey, this is where I’m at right now and this is my headspace of sweetness.”

Is there anyone you want to work with in particular?
Brandon: Gus Dapperton is one of our friends and we’d love to work with him. There’s a rapper out of Brooklyn named 454 — we love his wave and what he’s doing.

What happens once the tour is over?
Savannah: We’ve kind of been in the studio day and night since we released “CUTiE” — working on something new and trying to one-up ourselves in a different creative space. The music is new, it’s coming soon, and the opportunities are endless as far as creating goes. We’re just excited to keep that ball rolling.