Haute & Freddy, the Pop Duo With a Runaway-Circus Backstory, Play Brisbane in March

Haute & Freddy come with a backstory. In singer Michelle Buzz's telling, the characters Haute and Freddy were circus performers, long ago, until they fell out with the ringmaster and went on the run. It shaped everything from the frayed velvet of their costumes to their audience, she told NPR: only "extravagant weirdos" were ever going to be their people.

The real origin is a Los Angeles one. Buzz and her bandmate Lance Shipp each spent years writing for other artists, among them Katy Perry, Britney Spears and Calvin Harris, and each grew tired of it. Shipp called the work "soul sucking". Buzz said she had considered walking away from music altogether.

What pulled her back was an obsession. She began collecting antiques and 17th-century clothes, and Shipp remembers her arriving back from a Vegas trip with a unicycle and a houseful of porcelain clowns. He says the clothes and objects gradually built a world, and that she then wanted to give it a soundtrack.

You can see it on stage, in ruffled shirts, wigs and tricorne hats. Even the name plays along: it nods to haute couture, and the pair deliberately mispronounce it. Their debut album, Big Disgrace, came out in March, and they have since sold out dates across North America. Their fans call themselves The Royal Court.

Their new single, "Film Noir", is a Halloween offering: a love song staged as a mystery, with desire and danger blurring into each other. The duo wanted it to feel "as though the phantom himself created it". Its B-side, a cover of Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes", and another new track, "Do You Remember The Lilacs", both feature in Prime Video's horror series Carrie, adapted from Stephen King's debut novel.

Brisbane can see the spectacle for itself on Friday 5 March 2027, when the duo play the Princess Theatre on their first Australian tour. General sale opened on Monday. They play Sydney's Metro Theatre three days earlier, on Tuesday 2 March.

The details

• What: Haute & Freddy, debut Australian tour
• When: Friday 5 March 2027
• Where: Princess Theatre, Brisbane
• Tickets: on sale now via hauteandfreddy.com/tour
• Also: Metro Theatre, Sydney, Tuesday 2 March 2027