Long before they'd so much as downloaded Ableton or even switched on a synthesizer, Foley's Ash Wallace and Gabe Everett had musical dreams completely unaligned with their current path of surging electronic pop.
The former found herself enamoured with jazz music and the neo-soul sound, whereas the latter shredded away in punk-rock bands. Though they were friends since high school, having competed in countless band comps together, the notion of making music together had not even occurred to them.
"We certainly wouldn't have thought about making pop music, either," says Wallace. "Neither of us had made anything like it before in our own bands, but the more we got to talking the more we realised that we were both kind of fascinated by it.
"We were really drawn to that Max Martin approach, and these really theoretical breakdowns of what pop is. It's so challenging, and we almost took it as a challenge initially. It wasn't even really conceptualised as a musical project at that point – we just thought it might be fun. I didn't expect to fall in love with pop music, but after a year of toying around it seemed like it really had some legs to it."
Everett agrees. "We really wanted to push ourselves to get really experimental, so those early demos were pretty chaotic," he recalls. "We really just wanted to throw everything at the wall, and it became about figuring it out as we went along. Now that we've written this album, it's kind of conceptualised this whole project. I think we've gotten really good at exploring within the possibilities of pop music, and the key thing along the way has been really pushing ourselves and creating something that's a real mixture and reflection of the two of us."
The album in question is 'Crowd Pleaser', set for release at the end of the month, which serves as the culmination of Wallace and Everett's story so far under the Foley moniker. A hyper-colour rush of disco grooves, chirping guitars, buzzing synths and irresistible choruses, the album seeks to not only set the scene as far as the duo are concerned but to promptly break the mould around duos within the genre.
"Basically every duo in pop history has the extroverted singer and the completely-silent producer," Wallace laughs. "It's more often than not the female singer and the male producer, too. There might not be anything wrong with that, but it's not the vibe we ever wanted to give off – when you see us, we want you to see it as 100 per cent collaborative between the two of us. Every piece of the puzzle is a reflection of both myself and Gabe."
Everett holds up a vinyl copy of 'Crowd Pleaser' to his webcam, peering through the transparent orange record with a grin on his face. "It looks so sick," he beams.
"It was funny. . . When we got the test pressing, we noticed a small pop in one of the masters. We panicked that something had gone wrong with making the vinyl. . . Until we went back and realised that it was in the digital, as well. It was the song that's been out for the longest time, too. We must have been the last two people to notice it, and we made the album!"
If you're keen to experience Foley beyond the pop and crackle of vinyl, the Auckland duo will be headed to BIGSOUND at the start of September to showcase 'Crowd Pleaser' for the first time since its release.
The duo expands to a four-piece when taking to the stage, joined by a rhythm section as to not be so reliant on pre-recorded tracks. "Ash and I have a very strong background in live music," Everett says.
"It's really important for us to put on a fun and engaging show, and to give the songs their own life when we're performing."
Wallace, for her part, describes the Foley live show as "a really different experience" to simply listening to them. "It really feels like everything is elevated when we're playing live," she says. "There's so much flair and flavour to these songs, to play them with these musicians is honestly just awesome."
Foley showcase at Blute's Bar 6 September (10.15pm) and The Wickham 7 September (11pm).
