February 5, 2025 • 10 mins
Funk pop duo Foley have been nominated for three Aotearoa Music Awards alongside two APRA Silver Scroll Awards.
Their new album That's Life, Baby! drops on February 28th.
Gabe Everett is a vocalist from the duo.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now that music is a little bit of a clue
because funk pop duo Foley have been in the headlines.
They were nominated for three Auta Rower Music Awards, alongside
two at PRA Silver Scroll Awards, and their songs as
you can Hear that quite catch you. Let's take a
little bit more of a listen just before we get
into it and their new album That's Life Baby drops
(00:32):
on February twenty eighth. Gabe Everett, he's a vocalist from
the duo, and he joins me, Now, good morning, good morning,
how's it going good? Thanks? Hey, Let's start from the
beginning when you and Ash both gave up full time
work and decided to put music first. In fact, was
that the beginning.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Well, I mean the beginning takes on many forms for us.
We've actually known each other for well over a decade
and we've been friends for eco as long. So the
origin story of Foley is that we both sort of
shared this love of pop music and sort of slowly
fell into songwriting together, and yeah, crafted a bunch of
(01:12):
stuff that we really liked and have slowly just started
building it out, and yeah, creating this whole sort of
universe of music, which is really really exciting and yeah,
and now we get to do it a majority of
the time of our lives, which is great.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
How old were you when you got involved in creating
music or just participating playing or singing or whatever.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
I've been doing music since I was about four. My
mom put me in recorder lessons. Then I transitioned onto
the flute and then went to the dark side and
picked up a guitar around age thirteen.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Did you stop the flute at that stage or did
you just keep it up? I look, i'd dabble, yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
But yeah, I can't do much on the flute these days.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
I guess actually, because some people learn musical instruments without
even being able to re a note, whereas you would,
I guess, read music as well as when you're writing
it as well.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yeah, exactly. I mean I actually was drawn to the
guitar because I didn't have to read music. So I
learned how to do it and thought it was a bit,
you know, a bit bogus and a bit restrictive, But
you know, music theory is so important anyway, so you
sort of learn the bits that you want to know.
And yeah, with the guitar, I just felt like I
(02:34):
had a bit more freedom, So that was the main reason.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
And so how old were you when you and Ash
started doing music together.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
We were in our early twenties or maybe maybe twenty. Yeah,
it was around the time of university for both of us.
We just finished high school, our sort of separate high
school bands had broken up, and we had decided to
write music, as I mentioned earlier, and it all just
kind of continued from there.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
So what was it a big decision to give up
full time work and just go that's that we're going
full on with the with the music. Mhmm. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I think we've had some We've had a lot of
success and support before that point, and I think creatively
you kind of need to be all in. So we
decided to give it a nudge because we had developed
like this amazing group of supporters and creative sort of
(03:37):
confidence that we felt that we could like bounce off
and work with and kind of create a full full
time job from of them. That makes sense, right, So yeah,
it is one of those things where you kind of
have to lend yourself completely to the music and parts,
but you know, we still do stuff outside of music,
(03:58):
you know, day to day We try not to put
as much financial pressure on the project as possible and
just sort of create music as purely as possible.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
You know.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
We see things in the world, we take them in,
we process them in our own creative ways, and we
put them back out again. That's kind of aggestive part.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Because some bands sometimes start with a couple of people
who work together and then they decide we better go
and get a bass player and a drama and all that,
and then they form a band. Was there a discussion
with you guys between each other about sticking as a
duo or do we need to get some other people
on board.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, well there's never been a discussion, but we always
play with the band live. So when we do our
tracks live, we have a drummer Elijah White, and Holly
Webster on bass, and we kind of recreate the songs
for a live environment. So we have sort of big
jam sessions and we'll make the parts a bit more
(04:54):
jazzy because they're both jazz trained, as is Ash, and
we try and make it sort of knife edge kind
of balance experience, you know what I mean, Like we
want the energy of life performance rather than just like
strictly what you hear in the tracks. So yeah, we
feel that that like kind of relates to the audience
a bit more.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I was actually going to ask how much how different
the studio experiences for listeners versus are going to one
of your live gigs.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
M M, Yeah, well I think I mean the songs
are still the same, You're still recognize them. Yeah, But like,
I think the joy of Folly Show is the energy
that comes from us sort of trying to be as
as trying to have as much musicianship as possible, right
and interacting with the crowd and the people that come
(05:43):
to the shows, like often meet each other at the
shows and they form their own little friend groups and
their own little communities within our fan base. So that's
kind of the main thing that we strive for, and
that's that's what's really special about the Folly Live Show.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
So, Gabe, you and Ash your working relationship, who's the boss?
Got to ask you know, you both think you're the
boss or is it one of those things where it's
you know.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yeah, well our boss is probably our manager at this point.
But creatively we try and do as many things equally
as possible. You know, we obviously have our strengths and
sort of parts that we lean on other people for.
But we try and make ideas as collaborative as possible,
and we try and bring as many collaborators on as possible.
(06:34):
With pop music, it's all about kind of processing emotion
and figuring out how to package something within a really tight,
sort of succinct song. And I think that the more
experiences you have in life, you know, throughout a group
of people, the better that song is going to be.
(06:55):
So we're always like bouncing ideas off each other, and look,
if one of us doesn't like it, we kind of
just try and find a new one because there's bound
to be a better idea that we both like.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
What comes first, is that the lyrics and the story
you want to tell, or do you have a tune
that comes to mind and let's squeeze some words into it.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Recently it's more the tune, but it changes all the time, honestly.
I mean we usually start by just having a chat
about how we're feeling and what's going on in our lives,
you know, just as friends, and you know, whoever we're
working with that day will pull up some music, some drums,
maybe a guitar line, or whatever and slowly start singing
(07:35):
gibberish to each other and then we'll get the melodies right.
And then this sounds so cliche, but the song and
the meaning kind of just falls out of the melody,
if that makes sense. You kind of hear words and
you kind of sort of expand your experience through that.
So well, that's a bit airy fairy, but it works.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
If I say one of your next singles is called gibberish,
will know whether ideas just came from that way?
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Hey, where did the name Foley come from?
Speaker 2 (08:05):
It's actually, well, do you know what foley is?
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Yeah? Yeah, sound effects and studios and people treading on
gravel and all sorts of It's fascinating old form of soundtrack,
isn't it for movies? It is?
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah, yeah, like slapping cabbages for punches and things like that.
So we had it as a sort of a placeholder
name and a sort of a word that we were into.
And that was because I Sho had been watching a
lot of Blue Planet, which is, you know, the nature
documentary where they actually record all of the foley live,
(08:38):
So it's not actually folly, it's not fake, it's real, real,
bird like flapping its wings and it's just fascinating. And
we kind of have taken it to mean, you know,
our lives are their own TV show or movie, and
our songs are the soundtrack and the sound effects for that.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
So who are your inspirations? Do you? Guys have people
that you look to for inspirational not necessarily look to,
but just find that they happen to influence you a bit. M.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yeah, I mean the biggest inspiration I have is like
eighties and seventies funk, So Prince is my number one,
Michael Jackson and George Benson and just all of those
sort of classic incredible pop stars. Ashes is more on
the Fleetwood Mac side. There's sort of neo soul and
(09:30):
like Hiatus Coyote, and then just like so many New
Zealand artists that we listened to as well, like you know,
Leisure and one of our collaborator as well, So has
just put out an amazing album that we've listened to
a bunch. Yeah, it's a real mixture, but those are
our key ones.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
How would you describe your music to people who haven't
heard it? M.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
It's like a it's it's glittery, it's silvery and kind
of energetic, joyful.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Gibberish, right that stuff. Hey, Gabe, thanks so much for
your time this morning. Good luck with all those gigs
on the new and the new release. I've been fantastic
talking to you. Thanks term Likewise, Yes, that was Gabe
from the funk pop duo Foley and Remember. If you
want to hear more from their new album, which is
called That's Life, baby drops at the end of the
(10:26):
month on February the twenty eighth. For more from the
Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to news talks. It'd be
from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
Now that music is a little bit of a clue
because funk pop duo Foley have been in the headlines.
They were nominated for three Auta Rower Music Awards, alongside
two at PRA Silver Scroll Awards, and their songs as
you can Hear that quite catch you. Let's take a
little bit more of a listen just before we get
into it and their new album That's Life Baby drops
(00:32):
on February twenty eighth. Gabe Everett, he's a vocalist from
the duo, and he joins me, Now, good morning, good morning,
how's it going good? Thanks? Hey, Let's start from the
beginning when you and Ash both gave up full time
work and decided to put music first. In fact, was
that the beginning.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Well, I mean the beginning takes on many forms for us.
We've actually known each other for well over a decade
and we've been friends for eco as long. So the
origin story of Foley is that we both sort of
shared this love of pop music and sort of slowly
fell into songwriting together, and yeah, crafted a bunch of
(01:12):
stuff that we really liked and have slowly just started
building it out, and yeah, creating this whole sort of
universe of music, which is really really exciting and yeah,
and now we get to do it a majority of
the time of our lives, which is great.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
How old were you when you got involved in creating
music or just participating playing or singing or whatever.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
I've been doing music since I was about four. My
mom put me in recorder lessons. Then I transitioned onto
the flute and then went to the dark side and
picked up a guitar around age thirteen.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Did you stop the flute at that stage or did
you just keep it up? I look, i'd dabble, yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
But yeah, I can't do much on the flute these days.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
I guess actually, because some people learn musical instruments without
even being able to re a note, whereas you would,
I guess, read music as well as when you're writing
it as well.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yeah, exactly. I mean I actually was drawn to the
guitar because I didn't have to read music. So I
learned how to do it and thought it was a bit,
you know, a bit bogus and a bit restrictive, But
you know, music theory is so important anyway, so you
sort of learn the bits that you want to know.
And yeah, with the guitar, I just felt like I
(02:34):
had a bit more freedom, So that was the main reason.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
And so how old were you when you and Ash
started doing music together.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
We were in our early twenties or maybe maybe twenty. Yeah,
it was around the time of university for both of us.
We just finished high school, our sort of separate high
school bands had broken up, and we had decided to
write music, as I mentioned earlier, and it all just
kind of continued from there.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
So what was it a big decision to give up
full time work and just go that's that we're going
full on with the with the music. Mhmm. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I think we've had some We've had a lot of
success and support before that point, and I think creatively
you kind of need to be all in. So we
decided to give it a nudge because we had developed
like this amazing group of supporters and creative sort of
(03:37):
confidence that we felt that we could like bounce off
and work with and kind of create a full full
time job from of them. That makes sense, right, So yeah,
it is one of those things where you kind of
have to lend yourself completely to the music and parts,
but you know, we still do stuff outside of music,
(03:58):
you know, day to day We try not to put
as much financial pressure on the project as possible and
just sort of create music as purely as possible.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
You know.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
We see things in the world, we take them in,
we process them in our own creative ways, and we
put them back out again. That's kind of aggestive part.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Because some bands sometimes start with a couple of people
who work together and then they decide we better go
and get a bass player and a drama and all that,
and then they form a band. Was there a discussion
with you guys between each other about sticking as a
duo or do we need to get some other people
on board.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, well there's never been a discussion, but we always
play with the band live. So when we do our
tracks live, we have a drummer Elijah White, and Holly
Webster on bass, and we kind of recreate the songs
for a live environment. So we have sort of big
jam sessions and we'll make the parts a bit more
(04:54):
jazzy because they're both jazz trained, as is Ash, and
we try and make it sort of knife edge kind
of balance experience, you know what I mean, Like we
want the energy of life performance rather than just like
strictly what you hear in the tracks. So yeah, we
feel that that like kind of relates to the audience
a bit more.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I was actually going to ask how much how different
the studio experiences for listeners versus are going to one
of your live gigs.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
M M, Yeah, well I think I mean the songs
are still the same, You're still recognize them. Yeah, But like,
I think the joy of Folly Show is the energy
that comes from us sort of trying to be as
as trying to have as much musicianship as possible, right
and interacting with the crowd and the people that come
(05:43):
to the shows, like often meet each other at the
shows and they form their own little friend groups and
their own little communities within our fan base. So that's
kind of the main thing that we strive for, and
that's that's what's really special about the Folly Live Show.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
So, Gabe, you and Ash your working relationship, who's the boss?
Got to ask you know, you both think you're the
boss or is it one of those things where it's
you know.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yeah, well our boss is probably our manager at this point.
But creatively we try and do as many things equally
as possible. You know, we obviously have our strengths and
sort of parts that we lean on other people for.
But we try and make ideas as collaborative as possible,
and we try and bring as many collaborators on as possible.
(06:34):
With pop music, it's all about kind of processing emotion
and figuring out how to package something within a really tight,
sort of succinct song. And I think that the more
experiences you have in life, you know, throughout a group
of people, the better that song is going to be.
(06:55):
So we're always like bouncing ideas off each other, and look,
if one of us doesn't like it, we kind of
just try and find a new one because there's bound
to be a better idea that we both like.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
What comes first, is that the lyrics and the story
you want to tell, or do you have a tune
that comes to mind and let's squeeze some words into it.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Recently it's more the tune, but it changes all the time, honestly.
I mean we usually start by just having a chat
about how we're feeling and what's going on in our lives,
you know, just as friends, and you know, whoever we're
working with that day will pull up some music, some drums,
maybe a guitar line, or whatever and slowly start singing
(07:35):
gibberish to each other and then we'll get the melodies right.
And then this sounds so cliche, but the song and
the meaning kind of just falls out of the melody,
if that makes sense. You kind of hear words and
you kind of sort of expand your experience through that.
So well, that's a bit airy fairy, but it works.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
If I say one of your next singles is called gibberish,
will know whether ideas just came from that way?
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Hey, where did the name Foley come from?
Speaker 2 (08:05):
It's actually, well, do you know what foley is?
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Yeah? Yeah, sound effects and studios and people treading on
gravel and all sorts of It's fascinating old form of soundtrack,
isn't it for movies? It is?
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah, yeah, like slapping cabbages for punches and things like that.
So we had it as a sort of a placeholder
name and a sort of a word that we were into.
And that was because I Sho had been watching a
lot of Blue Planet, which is, you know, the nature
documentary where they actually record all of the foley live,
(08:38):
So it's not actually folly, it's not fake, it's real, real,
bird like flapping its wings and it's just fascinating. And
we kind of have taken it to mean, you know,
our lives are their own TV show or movie, and
our songs are the soundtrack and the sound effects for that.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
So who are your inspirations? Do you? Guys have people
that you look to for inspirational not necessarily look to,
but just find that they happen to influence you a bit. M.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yeah, I mean the biggest inspiration I have is like
eighties and seventies funk, So Prince is my number one,
Michael Jackson and George Benson and just all of those
sort of classic incredible pop stars. Ashes is more on
the Fleetwood Mac side. There's sort of neo soul and
(09:30):
like Hiatus Coyote, and then just like so many New
Zealand artists that we listened to as well, like you know,
Leisure and one of our collaborator as well, So has
just put out an amazing album that we've listened to
a bunch. Yeah, it's a real mixture, but those are
our key ones.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
How would you describe your music to people who haven't
heard it? M.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
It's like a it's it's glittery, it's silvery and kind
of energetic, joyful.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Gibberish, right that stuff. Hey, Gabe, thanks so much for
your time this morning. Good luck with all those gigs
on the new and the new release. I've been fantastic
talking to you. Thanks term Likewise, Yes, that was Gabe
from the funk pop duo Foley and Remember. If you
want to hear more from their new album, which is
called That's Life, baby drops at the end of the
(10:26):
month on February the twenty eighth. For more from the
Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to news talks. It'd be
from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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