LOS ANGELES, CA- I’m not going to lie. I’ve been a little slow catching up to Haute & Freddy.
I’ve got plenty of pop-inclined friends who have been singing the duo’s praises for a while now, but for whatever reason, I hadn’t really taken the time to see what all the fuss was about. That changed over the weekend when I spent some time digging into their music and, in particular, their new single, “Touch Touch.”
Okay. I get it now.
There’s something pretty special happening here.
Haute & Freddy, the duo of Michelle Buzz and Lance Shipp, have built a wonderfully theatrical version of pop music, and “Touch Touch” immediately sent my mind somewhere into the past. I don’t know whether other critics have made the comparison, and I’m certainly not suggesting Haute & Freddy are trying to sound like anyone in particular, but I get flashes of Kate Bush from Michelle’s performance. There’s something about the combination of her voice, the drama of the arrangement and the slightly eccentric presentation that gives me that feeling.
And I mean that as a very good thing.
One of my favorite moments comes during the lead-up to the chorus. Michelle sings, “Oh it’s a restless night / Up ’til dawn,” with the melody climbing upward before everything spills into that wonderfully simple “Touch touch.” It’s a small musical moment, but it’s the kind of thing that sticks with me. There’s an unmistakable throwback quality to it, but the production never makes “Touch Touch” feel like some exercise in nostalgia.
Instead, it just feels good.
But spend a little more time with the lyrics and there’s something heavier underneath all of that fun.
“Give me some relief / From simply existing.”
That’s the line that unlocks the song for me.
Suddenly, all the partying, drinking, dancing, sweating and staying out until dawn feels like something more than a celebration of nightlife. There’s an exhaustion underneath it. The narrator isn’t necessarily going out because everything is wonderful. She’s going out because, for a few hours, she wants to stop thinking about everything that isn’t.
That interpretation isn’t too far removed from how Haute & Freddy themselves describe the song. The duo has said they aren’t sure whether “Touch Touch” is more about the empowerment of intimacy or about allowing community to provide some relief from the insanity of life, describing the chorus as fun and lustful while acknowledging that the verses reveal something more sensitive beneath the escapism.
That duality is all over the song.
There’s the desire to “shut the blinds and close my eyes” alongside the desire to bare your soul to the city lights. There’s the declaration that “No more talk of what breaks your heart,” followed by the decision to dance instead. There’s even that wonderful little moment about taking off a silly dress because “it isn’t me,” which is both flirtatious, but also feels like shedding a performance and allowing somebody to see what’s underneath.
Then the night keeps going.
There’s another bar open later. Let your hair down. Let your sweat drip. Can I have one more song?
Because eventually the music stops.
That might be what I like most about “Touch Touch.” Haute & Freddy package something surprisingly human inside this big, colorful, theatrical piece of pop music. Sometimes you don’t need to solve whatever is weighing on you. Sometimes you just need another person, another song and another couple of hours where simply existing doesn’t feel quite so heavy.
Haute & Freddy released “Touch Touch” as their first new music following their debut album, Big Disgrace. The duo wrote and produced the track themselves, with the initial idea reportedly emerging during a writing session in Joshua Tree as Lance worked on the bass line and Michelle began dancing in the kitchen and came up with the chorus.
The duo is also heading back on the road for the next leg of its sold-out Big Disgrace World Tour, which begins September 9 in Vancouver and includes a September 15 stop at The Fonda in Los Angeles before continuing through North America, Brazil, Europe, the U.K. and Mexico.
So, yes, I’m late.
My pop friends were right.
I get it now.
Follow Haute & Freddy on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram.
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HAUTE & FREDDY’S BIG DISGRACE WORLD TOUR
NORTH AMERICAN DATES:
09/09 – Hollywood Theater – Vancouver, BC
09/10 – Neumos – Seattle, WA
09/12 – Wonder Ballroom – Portland, OR
09/14 – The Castro – San Francisco, CA
09/15 – The Fonda – Los Angeles, CA
09/19 – The Heights – Houston, TX
09/20 – Scoot Inn – Austin, TX
09/22 – The Blue Room at Third Man Records – Nashville, TN
09/23 – Revival – Asheville, NC
09/25 – 9:30 Club – Washington, DC
09/26 – All Things Go Festival – Columbia, MD**
09/27 – Brooklyn Bowl Philly – Philadelphia, PA
09/30 – The Magic Bag – Detroit, MI
10/02 – The Majestic Theater – Madison, WI
10/03 – Varsity Theater – Minneapolis, MN
**Festival Appearance
BRAZIL:
10/09 – ZIG Festival – Rio de Janeiro, BR**
10/10 – ZIG Festival – Sao Paulo, BR**
**Festival Appearance
UK & EUROPEAN DATES:
11/04 – Huxleys – Berlin, DE
11/06 – Botanique The Rotonde – Brussels, BE
11/07 – Stonewall Festival – Den Haag, NL
11/08 – Bitterzoet – Amsterdam, NL
11/10 – Burgerhaus Stollwerck – Cologne, DE
11/12 – Alhambra – Paris, FR
11/15 – King Tut’s – Glasgow, UK
11/17 – Band on the Wall – Manchester, UK
11/18 – Heaven – London, UK
11/19 – Heaven – London, UK
11/21 – Roisin Dubh – Galway, IE
11/22 – The Button Factory – Dublin, IE
MEXICO:
12/09 – Foro Indie Rocks – Mexico City, MX
