Haute & Freddy made their festival main stage debut at Portola this past September. We caught up with them after their rather triumphant set and ahead of their Tiny Grand Tour to talk about beginnings, futures, and what we’re going to eat in between.
ListenSD: Our introduction to the world of Haute and Freddy came earlier this year, when we were exposed to Scantily Clad and Anti Superstar and our desire to hear more led us to Buzz but soon we’d heard everything out there and were left with too few clues about this unique sound we had just encountered. We knew we needed to know more about its genesis, from whence it came, and how soon could we partake in it live. The latter happened for us here at Portola where we’ve just witnessed our first performance to the Royal Court and now start from the beginning, when did Haute and Freddy first hit the airwaves?
Haute: We started posting in August last year, so I think this is a little anniversary moment, because I think Scantily Clad came out almost around this time last year.
Freddy: That gets me sentimental.
Haute: It’s very crazy, it’s really wild. We were writing for the project, probably even two years prior, but we didn’t know it was going to be Haute and Freddy yet. We were just kind of playing around…
Freddy: Playing around, making songs, making sounds, just figuring out what this thing was going to be and then we kind of funneled it into one sound and then shared it and we kind of went for it.
LSD: You experimented with lots of sounds, then, and how did you distill it down?
Haute: It was a period of a lot of frustration, honestly, and friction between what we really wanted to do and what we found ourselves doing to try to make money in the music industry, and what we really wanted to do was make really fun music that felt original to us and special to us.
Freddy: Whatever sound we envisioned happening: happens.
Haute: Right, without too much input. We just wanted to go wild, but for a really long time we were making music for other artists that was more in the box or for different things that felt more limited.
Freddy: Restricted.
Haute: Some of it was just mental, and it was just a journey to get to a place where we were realizing, Wow!, this free place is all sounding the same, and it’s painting a picture, and I have a color palette in my mind, and I have a font for it in my mind.
Freddy: Oh the font! The font was a big thing!
Haute: It was! When we were thinking about the band name, we started to play around with this font I’m obsessed with it, to see how it works and feels like, it could be a circus act, it could be…
Freddy: She designed all of our shirts, most all of the visual stuff , she’s like a savant, a font savant!
LSD: So you both came to L.A. as part of the songwriting business. How was that experience and did it give you any good lessons to take away?
Haute: I don’t think I’d take anything back or do anything different. It taught me a lot of hard lessons. It taught me most about myself and how if I’m chasing something that is not true to my heart, it is not gonna lead to where I want, I wanted to be accepted for a long time and letting that go was everything.
LSD: Letting that go within the realm of the business?
Haute: Or what people might think of as success? You’re imagining what your peers think is cool, imagining what everybody thinks might be cool, and you want to feel like you made it, and to let all that go and just say “music feeds my soul”. I’ve been writing songs since I was five. How do I just let music be a gift to myself again?
LSD: The Haute and Freddy fans, the Royal Court, really embrace your theatricality on stage, and often go to great lengths to emulate it out on the on the dance floor. Did that start spontaneously or did you encourage or hint at it?
Haute: I mean, I think we kind of planned this.
Freddy: I think we introduced the language a little, but then the language took on a world of its own and just spread and became the thing that it is now.
LSD: Obviously, you’re on stage, dressed to the nines, other people are gonna want to play along, too.
Freddy: Well we’re dressed to the, I don’t know…
LSD: Seven and a halves?
Freddy: Seven point three. Yeah, a little room for improvement in 2026!
LSD: Speaking of the future, the narrative of Haute and Freddie has briefly set the stage for what we’ve come to expect at a show, but where are we in that narrative? Where are we in the adventures of Haute and Freddy?
Freddy: In the book of Haute and Freddy?
LSD: Exactly.
Haute: Well, we’re fresh off of escaping the circus…
Freddy: Dare I say prologue?
Haute: In a way it seems like our first chapter, because we’ve just started upsetting the kingdom, the queen has turned her nose all the way up to us: “How dare they want to be scantily clad women and men and show some tushy and shake their buns in my opera!”
Freddy: Yeah, exactly, how dare they!
Haute: So we’re fresh off of that, and every song is adding another layer of rebelling against this very hoity-toity area of town, and I picture that the Royal Court is slowly coming around to our side, and we’re marching through town like Lady Godiva!
LSD: We saw shows pop up here and there, with a notable LA show in February, a recent show in New York, what’s next?
Freddy: So we’re going on a tour!
Haute: Last stop was New York, and then today, up next: tour!
LSD: You have a couple of festival stops on this upcoming tour at Austin City Limits and Corona Capital, what sort of differences will there be for those sets versus headlining shows?
Freddy: We actually have an hour at ACL and Corona Capital, so we don’t have to tone it down, we’re turning it all the way up!
Haute: Yeah, more, everything!
LSD: We got one new song debut today, thank you for that, always love a good debut.
Haute: It really was!
Freddy: So much fun to play live! And some people knew it; we teased it on socials. And I saw people in the audience singing along to the part that we teased, and I was, like, aww, I wanted to cry.
LSD: You’ve talked about expanding the world of Haute and Freddy beyond music. What sort of media or presentations do you envision?
Freddy: I mean, we would love to…
Haute: I mean…
Freddy: We’re kind of trying to get our wavelength together…
Haute: Oh, I know what you’re gonna say, our dream is to start the show with a play, not with us at all, and then you get the music. But also, from the start, we talked about doing our own circus, where every dancer has their own area doing their own special thing, fun, interactive booths, a whole fairground of activities and then: they sound the trumpets and the audience marches in!
Freddy: Ba Ba Da Booo!
Haute: What were you gonna say?
Freddy: We got on the same wave, the troughs and the peaks lined up.
LSD: Your trip to Mexico City for Corona Capital will be your first? It’s a huge festival for a huge city!
Freddy: Make me less nervous! Tell us about the food!
LSD: Whoever shows you around, make sure they take you to get tacos al pastor, they were born in the city, and you can’t quite get them like that anywhere else in the world.
LSD: Look for the trompo, the spit, all loaded with marinated pork, rotating and roasting. And watch them serve it, slicing it off the trompo, then flipping down a small slice of the pineapple from on top.
LSD: If you didn’t take your touring artist to have tacos al pastor, you’re wasting their time! But we’re super excited for your experience in the city and Corona Capital! And for our experience seeing you play here today! When we heard your voice and your music in that very first track, we thought everything fit together so perfectly and was just very impressive.
Freddy: This is a hug! We’re hugging now!
Haute: Group hug! Thank you for saying that.
LSD: We definitely hope to see you guys play in San Diego on or after this next tour, especially if we can’t get up to LA for your homecoming.
Freddy: We had some good sushi in San Diego.
Haute: My favorite bar is in San Diego.
Freddy: What’s it called?
Haute: Polite Provisions, in Normal Heights.
LSD: What else do you like in San Diego and your favorite restaurant?
Haute: I went to this one little brunch spot that had fried hushpuppy mashed potato? It was so good, an elevated comfort food. But also I had really good Chile Colorado in San Diego.
LSD: Cali-Mex is good in San Diego, but we’ve had some of the best, authentic Mexican food in LA.
Haute: Okay, where’s the best spot in LA?
LSD: One time, we went to LA before a tattoo appointment and there was this authentic Oaxacan restaurant, and it was the best Oaxacan food ever, just fantastic, the tlayuda was amazing.
Freddy: Tlayudas!
Haute: With the chorizo!
Freddy: what’s the one we go to?
Haute: It’s Tlayuda LA, and it’s on…
LSD: Closer to Gold Diggers? That one is really good. This other one is better! We’ll have to meet you there next time we’re there
Haute: Oh my gosh!
LSD: Next time we go to LA we’ll meet you there! Thanks for chatting with us and have a wonderful tour!
Haute & Freddy’s Tiny Grand Tour starts in earnest this weekend, don’t miss ’em if they’re playing near you! Scroll down to check out our videos from their Portola appearance (especially if you need convincing)!
