After almost a decade of zeroing in on their sound and sharpening their skills, the New Zealand-born duo of brothers Pierre and Henry Beasley have made it onto the TikTok sound recommendations and hype playlists of music enthusiasts across the globe thanks to viral hit ‘So Cold’ and a support slot on Twenty One Pilots’ latest world tour. Now based in New York City, the alt-pop newcomers recently celebrated the release of their groovy debut album ‘Portal’ at the end of August, and are preparing for their upcoming North American headline voyage, right on the way to snag the official title of the industry’s next big indie-pop superstars.
Back in the early days of Balu Brigada, when the band was still in its baby shoes, two critical questions loomed: When would younger brother Pierre be ready to join his older brother Henry and complete the band? And how would they avoid getting sued by Disney? Founded by now 31-year-old Henry back in 2016 as a musical project titled Baloo – like the beloved bear from the iconic ‘The Jungle Book’ –, its original line-up featured Henry, their eldest brother Charles, and their close friend and drummer Guy Harrison. However, it wasn’t until Pierre took on a more significant role in the band that they decided to reduce their member count, change their musical style, and ultimately adopt a new name – thus, Balu Brigada was born, as Henry fondly remembers: “Balu Brigada began when Pierre joined it. I had made a band called Baloo, just to get out some of my own writing. I was working for a bunch of different bands and playing bass. And then eventually, when Pierre was old enough to play gigs with us, about the same time that he came on, we changed it to Balu Brigada to change the vibe of it and to not get sued by Disney. And since then, Pierre and I have just been honing in on our producing and writing skills together and trying to figure out the way to do it all independently.”
Looking back, the pair agrees that it was subsequently a beat that the younger Pierre had created that marked the sonic beginning of their musical venture as a two-piece, as he recalls: “That’s probably a good example of when Balu Brigada was actually conceived. Which is, I think it must have been in 2016, when I made the beat for one of our songs called ‘Could You Not’. That was the first collaboration between him and me, creating a track for which I had made a beat. It was just a simple four-bar loop, and he turned that into a song, which is also very indicative of our roles in the band, because I’m very much the zoomed-in producer looking at the details of his very songwriting approach.”
“The best moments I have are when you find that electricity and you’re two coffees deep in a song and JUST enjoying this silly little synth idea that you made together.”
– Henry Beasley
Still based in Auckland then, and being faced with a bustling indie scene that seemingly had more and more up-and-coming groups trying to claw their way to the top ranks by the day, it took a little while for the two multi-instrumentalists to slowly but surely set their mark and get their name out there. But throughout it all, the duo kept their heads held high, always believing that they were destined for greater things. “I think you have to believe that you will make it, otherwise you would stop doing it. I often think about how long we’ve been doing this and how hungry you are in your early 20s and late teens. You’re a little bit insane to follow this dream. And we really just kept going. You have to believe that you’re going to make it. Otherwise, you’re just going to give up. You have to be a little bit insane,”, Henry exclaims, before making a point of how even now, having bagged millions of streams and a performance slot on Jimmy Fallon, they are happily staying grounded on their feet while keeping an eager eye on the dreams they have yet to reach. “I was thinking about this exact point recently. I did always dream of being on a tour bus and playing in different countries. I’d say, “That’s what I’m going to do, I’m just going to make that happen”. And along the way, you definitely start to feel like, “Oh, shit, am I entirely delusional?”. It’s nice to come back to this idea that it’s what you’ve always gunned for early on. We’re doing it now. But I don’t think either of us feels like we’ve made it. I feel like we are making it.”
Nodding his head along, Pierre agrees, thinking back to a small flash of sudden stardom that hit him last year: “It’s too dangerous to think you’ve made it because then you don’t have any drive or ambition anymore. But a micro version of when I had a bit of a ‘we’ve made it’ moment was when I was getting my hair cut in New York. It was two days before we started the ‘Clancy Tour’ with Twenty One Pilots. Once they announced us, there was this big flood of social media attention. I remember sitting in my chair at the hairdresser’s, looking in the mirror and going, “Well, this is it”. So, it doesn’t feel like we’ve made it, but that was a big new chapter for us because there’s such a massive audience that has eyes on us now that wasn’t quite there before.”
It was in 2022 and over the course of the following two years that it all happened very quickly – first came the simultaneous signing to both Warner Music Australasia and Atlantic Records, then a move to The Big Apple a year later, and once June 2024 came around with the release of their addictive single ‘So Cold’ and its breakthrough on social media plus multiple international charts, the DIY freshmen had grown into fully-fleshed chart-topping hitmakers. It was the final cherry on top when Chris Woltman, long-time manager of alt-heavyweights Twenty One Pilots, stumbled upon the breakout outfit and not only signed them to his and Pilots’ frontman Tyler Joseph’s newly launched independent label ARRO, but also secured them the coveted spot as the support act on the mega-group’s then-upcoming worldwide arena tour. “It was a surreal opportunity,”, Pierre emphasises, thinking back to the many evenings spent performing for arguably one of the most dedicated fanbases out there. “We ended up playing 72 shows with them across four continents. I still look back on that now like, “Whoa, we really did that”. A big takeaway was the way the guys perform and how much energy they put in every night, no matter how tired they were. They really put on a performance.”
With the tour coming to its end with a final show in London back in May, the Beasley brothers went straight from the globetrotter life to promo mayhem in preparation for the release of their debut record ‘Portal’, which serves as a culmination of their decade-long musical rollercoaster ride so far. Sonically adventurous, the 12-track-heavy self-produced LP features “some heavy drums and a very obvious groove in the rhythm section”, but sees the duo lean further into the world of “guitar-forward alt-rock”, as vocalist Henry describes. And while the genre-bending album doesn’t have a lyrical red thread, it’s the distinct energies of the places the songs of the record were created in – New York, Berlin and Auckland – that give each hit number its own glittering spark. For once, there is the vibey ‘Butterfly Boy’, which tells tales of green meadows from the quiet town of Kaiwaka in New Zealand, and then, as a stark contrast, the energetic ‘Golden Gate Girl’ and the speedy ‘Backseat’ bring the rush of the American city and come with the typical NYC strut. “We’ve noticed that some of the grittier and ‘in your face’ songs are written in New York. The studio we were working in is right in the heart of Times Square, so it’s very fast-paced and manic. And then some of the more introspective, slower, and more tender ones were written in New Zealand, in a very rural part of the country. It’s pretty cool that you can hear that reflected in both the writing and even the tempos and sonics. There’s a lot more sweetness and vulnerability in the New Zealand stuff. And a lot more aggression, frustration and intensity in the New York ones,”, Henry reflects on the three-year-long production.
Listening to the full-length endeavour, next to obvious fan-favourites ‘So Cold’, ‘What Do We Ever Really Know?’, and ‘Sideways’, there is one specific song that stands out amongst the buzzy collection – the serene ‘Birthday Interlude’, which features heady synth waves and only a voice note trailing along. “That is a friend of mine,”, Pierre reveals about the musical marvel. “Henry and I are quite fascinated by albums that have interludes and have little windows into someone’s personal life. Even if it doesn’t reveal all of the context, it’s just a random little portal, so to speak, into a world that you get drawn into. She sent me that note, just wishing me a happy birthday, and fast-forward to the start of this year, we were jamming on these synths and were like, “Oh, I wonder if this is going to be a thing that we could use, it sounds like an interlude”. It sat on our drop-offs for a bit, but we decided to use it. It gives the album a bit of a three-line thing. It’s a nice personal touch to it.”
“It’s not overbearing or overly personal. I think it appealed to both of us because it was a really nice sentiment,”, Henry adds. “Like Pierre said, our favourite albums do have these little brief moments that make you feel like you’re looking into someone’s diary. And it feels very vulnerable. I really like that as a middle moment of the album and a breath amongst all the madness.”
“I had a bit of a ‘we’ve made it’ moment before we started the ‘Clancy’ tour with Twenty One Pilots. I remember sitting in my chair at the hairdresser’s, looking in the mirror and going, “Well, this is it”.
– Pierre Beasley
Described by themselves as emotionally expansive, the creation of their debut also came with its own learnings for the duo, and one or other revelation, as Pierre highlights: “Sometimes you don’t realise you’re expressing a certain feeling within you, but it just comes out. And then you see it out of your creative mind, and you can objectively address it. Like it’s my subconscious trying to express something or going through the motions of some feelings. Even sonically, because I don’t do much lyric-writing in the band, sometimes we make a beat and it feels like we’re expressing a story or experience with this. It is a fun concept to think that it’s something greater within you or from outside of you, channelling through you. And then it can be very therapeutic like that, which is cool.” And even though the record may not have an underlying narrative to it, the pair has handed over certain parts of themselves with the release, as he continues: “There are some real stories on there, personal experiences that only me and Henry will entirely understand. But, at the same time, they’re not ours to keep anymore. We’re willing to share our experiences, and hopefully some people can relate in some way or maybe they can’t, but they can acknowledge it and enjoy the drama.”
Throughout it all, it’s the two brothers’ close-knit bond and the confidence and faith they have in each other that ties everything together and has helped them stay afloat amongst the tumultuous waves of global virality, worldwide tours and the pressure of having to make it in an industry that is ruled by algorithms, the monetisation of creativity and AI bands stepping to the forefront. At the end of it all, they will always have each other, as 27-year-old Pierre affirms with a smile: “We’re lucky that we’re brothers because we have a very real and spiritual bond, so whenever something’s too overwhelming, we’re able to depend on each other and lean on each other if one of us is feeling a little low. Touring around is a lot of fun, but it does put a lot of pressure on your brain and body at times, so we always say to each other, “I’m so lucky I have you, I couldn’t do this by myself”. Sometimes we’re too inside each other’s heads, but I think overall we’re very fortunate we have each other and can talk very honestly and directly with one another. We haven’t gotten into any fistfights yet, so we’re fine.”
A decade in the making, and finally having found their feet in today’s musical sphere, Balu Brigada have come to a place of comfortable ambition where they know exactly who they are and what they want and can take the time to rest on their laurels while still always continuing to step towards the goals they have set for themselves. And while the title as indie-pop’s newest knockouts has definitely given the pair endless reasons to celebrate – and already promises the brightest of futures for the New Zealanders – it’s their mutual obsession with and love for music that has held them together like golden glue. “Music means expression and exploring emotions and excitement. The best moments that I have are when you find that electricity and you’re two coffees deep in a song and just nodding away, enjoying this silly little synth idea that you made together,”, Henry illuminates, before Pierre adds, “Music is everything to me. I don’t know who I would be without it. I don’t know if I would even have a personality because I live and breathe it. It just feels like what we were born to do. And it’s also so healing, you know, without trying to sound too spiritual, but just sitting down and playing guitar can do miraculous things for me, and I don’t understand how it works, but we’re not meant to understand how it works. It’s just a beautiful gift that we humans have been given by Mother Nature.”
Written by Laura Weingrill // photography by André Figueirêdo
GEM Magazine 