NME’s latest stars of The Cover, Haute & Freddy, have created an exclusive playlist to accompany the story’s launch – check it out below.
The rising pop duo are on this week’s (July 6) edition of The Cover, a manifestation of NME’s commitment to supporting emerging talent across the globe on a weekly basis. Every week, a rising artist will feature on The Cover – you can read Haute & Freddy’s profile here, written by Nick Levine and featuring photography by Kristen Jan Wong.
Alongside their The Cover story, Haute & Freddy have curated an exclusive playlist, titled ‘Juggling Practice’. The selection includes three of their own songs, ‘Dance The Pain Away’, ‘Freaks’ and ‘Shy Girl’, alongside songs from ’80s icons Kate Bush and Depeche Mode, as well as tracks by drag queens Devine and Violet Chachki. Listen to the full playlist on Spotify below and on Apple Music.
As jobbing songwriters in a highly competitive scene, Haute & Freddy had been orbiting each other for years – they even hung out at the same clubs. But it wasn’t until the pandemic, when every creative in the city was making a pivot, that vocalist Michelle “Haute” Buzz and drummer-percussionist Lance “Freddy” Shipp revealed their true hand: the songs they wrote in private, away from high-pressure sessions for other artists. “It was like, ‘Wait a minute, we literally gravitate towards the same things!’” Shipp recalls.
Finding a like-minded partner-in-crime proved invigorating for the duo. “We were just so tired of having to be in a box when we were writing songs,” Shipp says. “So we basically said: ‘Let’s make music without really having a goal. Let’s just play.’ And that gave us the freedom to make whatever we wanted.” As they let their musical imaginations run wild, they also invented the characters of Haute & Freddy and concocted an outlandish backstory. The seed was an old-timey font they were drawn to – “it was very circus flier,” Buzz says – but the idea grew roots when they dropped their debut single, ‘Scantily Clad’, at the end of 2024.
“With that song, the music kind of led us to the circus lore,” Buzz recalls. “The lyrics gave us this whole narrative of us upsetting the queen and the nobles. So then it was like, ‘Who are we exactly, and why are we upsetting her?’ And then we started talking in the comments [section] with fans, and they really picked up on all the court language we were using.” As Haute & Freddy, they’ve committed to the bit ever since.
Read Haute & Freddy’s full Cover story here and find out who else has been on The Cover here.
Every year, NME produces 50 Cover stories, showcasing the future of music via in-depth profiles and exclusive photoshoots. Check out our coffee table book NME The Cover 2024-2025, which features the likes of Kneecap, Lola Young, Amaarae, LE SSERAFIM, Oklou and many more.
English (US) · 