After a busy summer filled with shows in different capacities across the country, established New Zealand pop duo Foley have kicked off autumn in the right way with their brand new sophomore EP Vacation, released last Friday. It’s a crisp and upbeat, breath-of-fresh-air antidote to the year that was, and it is packed to the brim with Foley’s signature fusion of pop-funk-R&B goodness.

Following off the back of 2020’s debut EP On My Conscience, which charted at number 10 on the NZ album charts, it sees the duo grounding themselves even more deeply in their unique sound and exploring such themes as navigating new relationships in “Better Than Love” and the latest single “Anything Before You”, and learning to be in the moment in “Keep Me on My Toes”.

The Foley duo consists of good friends Ash Wallace and Gabriel Everett, and the dynamic between the pair is a special one that gives both the space to bring their own stories and flavours to the songwriting table without being afraid to be themselves. As they say, “we can be completely honest with each other and that really shapes the music. We only go for ideas we both love and would fight for, and we can be completely open when it comes to subject matter because we’ve probably already talked about it in our friendship anyway.”

This freedom shows in the diversity of the EP’s five tracks: Vacation is a killer collection of slickly-produced songs exploding with creativity and fun that still manages to convey a particular vulnerability and honesty through Ash’s clever lyrics. In “Better Than Love”, she sings “we could just tread some water”, and this neatly sums up what a good vacation can do: it is a chance to hit ‘pause’ and to experience a temporary form of escape, but also, as they say, “It’s about that perfect getaway spot, the person you want to spend time with or who you can be your best around. Vacation is us aspiring to be our best creatively, as friends and towards our own friends & family!”

Catch Foley performing their own headline show at Auckland’s Tuning Fork on March 25th (tickets here), or at Wellington’s Peachy Keen Festival on April 3rd (tickets here).

Read our interview with Foley below, and discover their especially-curated Spotify playlist beneath!

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KATIE: WELL, IT’S BEEN A BIT OF A YEAR SINCE THE RELEASE OF YOUR FIRST EP ‘ON MY CONSCIENCE’! HOW ARE YOU BOTH DOING?

Foley: We are so great!! It’s been a bit of a whirlwind obviously with us coming in and out of lockdown and the world being in turmoil BUT we have kind of just kept on pushing and kept having a blast writing music, so nothing really changed there!! Its been a real year of reflection on who we want to be as artists, and we’ve spent loads of time hanging out as friends again which is SUPERB because sometimes our Foley life can take over, and we get less time just to hang out as Ash and Gabe.

THERE ARE FIVE SUPER SOLID TRACKS ON VACATION: I KNOW THAT SONGS BECOME A LITTLE LIKE YOUR CHILDREN AND EACH CAN MEAN DIFFERENT THINGS TO YOU, BUT IS THERE ONE IN PARTICULAR FOR EACH OF YOU THAT HAS A SPECIAL SIGNIFICANCE?

Ash: for me Better Than Love is always going to be the closest to my heart. That song was so therapeutic for me to write but also really confronting to look back and have it captured in that song how afraid I was at the time. I was so self-sabotage-y and down, so reflecting back on that time only a year or so ago is pretty wild. It all had a happy ending though!!!!

Gabe: Yeah I love all of them! But I have a soft spot for Anything Before You - we wrote that with some beautiful people who are incredibly accomplished writers, who challenged us to work incredibly hard on every little detail of that song. I’m really proud that we were able to do that and it was a big challenge creatively.

WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR THE EP: HOW DID IT BECOME THE COLLECTION OF SONGS THAT IT IS?

As a whole, all the songs on Vacation are a bit more confident than our first EP and I think the more we wrote, the more confident we got in our songwriting and the more we really honed in on what we were trying to say. We’re always writing so it was natural to have a lot of material after our first EP, but this time each track is super diverse and we were really loving experimenting with our creativity. Together, I think all the tracks are really confident and fun!

In the literal sense, a vacation is an escape - but for us it’s more aspirational. It’s about that perfect getaway spot, the person you want to spend time with or who you can be your best around. Vacation is us aspiring to be our best creatively, as friends and towards our own friends & family!

YOU’RE GOOD FRIENDS AS WELL AS BEING AN INCREDIBLE MUSICAL DUO: DO YOU THINK YOUR FRIENDSHIP MAKES WRITING MUSIC TOGETHER EASIER OR MORE DIFFICULT?

It definitely makes for a better outcome- we can be completely honest with each other and that really shapes the music. We only go for ideas we both love and would fight for, and we can be completely open when it comes to subject matter because we’ve probably already talked about it in our friendship anyway! It’s definitely hard sometimes too though, because we spend so much time together doing Foley things that you forget to spend quality time together as friends. I couldn’t dream of doing this with anybody else !! It would be a disaster!!

HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT CRAFTING SONGS TOGETHER – WHAT DO YOU EACH BRING TO THE SONGWRITING TABLE?

It honestly changes every time! Most of the time early on we would write everything completely acoustically first before taking it to a producer, just to really hone in on the melodies and lyrics - but more recently we’ve started writing from scratch while in the room with a producer or other co-writers. I think we’re both more confident in our abilities and what our sound will be, so can guide songwriting sessions a bit better. We’re both instrumentalists, vocalists and semi-good producers in our own right, and obviously we each have our particular strengths, but with this EP in particular it’s been really fun to change things up a bit and each do things that we’re not too comfortable with, just to experiment!

ARE YOU EVER SURPRISED BY WHICH SONGS REALLY FIRE?

Always! We love to think that we know which songs will pop off but at the end of the day the music industry is CRAZY and you never know what people are going to connect with! I kind of love that energy though – it means you can create completely freely because even if you try to write what you think people will like, you could easily be wrong. May as well write what you believe in instead!

(interview continued below video)

YOU’VE HAD A BUSY SUMMER, PERFORMING AT THE LIKES OF RHYTHM AND VINES AND SOLD-OUT O-WEEK SHOWS, AND OPENING FOR SIX60. WHAT’S THE BEST THING ABOUT PERFORMING LIVE?

Playing live is incredible and every show is completely different so it honestly changes each time, but it’s so rewarding to see how different crowds in different cities react to the same music. Sometimes it’s surprising which tracks work or pop-off at some shows and it can be completely different to others, which is just all part of the fun! Keeps us on our toes for sure!

DO YOU HAVE ANY SPECIAL PRE-PERFORMANCE RITUAL TO CONQUER THE NERVES AND AMP YOU UP?

Ash: I definitely have a Gin and Tonic or two…

Gabe: To be honest, I haven’t nailed the ritual and I’m always stressing about something! I try have Coke or La Croix and then I usually just pace endlessly. Once I’m on stage I’m completely fine though!

PEACHY KEEN FESTIVAL IS COMING UP SOON, AND YOU’RE ON THE BILL ALONGSIDE SOME PRETTY SPECIAL ACTS: WHAT ASPECT OF THE FESTIVAL ARE YOU MOST EXCITED ABOUT?

We’re really really excited about Peachy Keen! It’s so good to see an event that’s really pushing the conversation forward about non-male representation. The lineup is absolutely insane though, and everyone could be a headliner in their own right, which just goes to show the wealth of talent that we have here in New Zealand. Bring it onnnn

VACATION TIME! YOU’RE ON A SUMMER ROAD TRIP FROM WELLINGTON TO AUCKLAND. WHO’S DRIVING, WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO, AND WHERE ARE YOU STOPPING/STAYING?

Ash: I have a perfect road trip car so I am definitely driving ahhaha theres enough cup holders to suss every person with at least 2 beverages! Listening to Fleetwood Mac greatest hits, and heading to the Coromandel or Raglan. Ideal!!

Gabe: Gotta agree on Ash, she’s driving except the windy bits where I’ll get way too carsick - I’m a sensitive boy. We’ve gotta have a couple random podcasts in there though, that’s a long drive and what better way to break it up than with pointless facts.

WHAT UP-AND-COMING NEW ZEALAND ACTS SHOULD WE BE KEEPING AN EYE ON?

Ash: We are big fans of Wells* who is a long time friend and collaborator of ours- he’s so so so talented and we are massive fans of his work. I also feel super pumped about There’s A Tuesday, Muroki, Tom Verberne, Levyne, Navvy, SO MANY

Gabe: I love Levyne, MCK and am really getting into Aidan Fine, Adam Snow & Spaces!

WHAT SHOULD WE LOOK OUT FOR FROM YOU NEXT?

Our EP is out on March 12!!!!! And we are smashing through shows at the Tuning Fork in Auckland on 25th March (Ash’s bday) and Peachy Keen in Wellington over Easter. CHEHOOOOOO

Find Foley on Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Soundcloud | Twitter

Foley’s Playlist for The May Magazine

A selection of Foley’s favourites and inspirations surrounding the Vacation EP