Premiere: Heaps Good Friends do the washing in the clip for Fold Laundry Together

12 June 2020 | 10:30 pm | Hayden Davies
Originally Appeared In

From machine-fixing to laundry-folding to trying on all your clothes, it seems that washing is a big thing in the Heaps Good Friends household..

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Since causing a ruckus with a handful of singles back in 2016/2017 – including their two break-out hits, Let's Hug Longer and I Could Eat A Full Packet of Yo Yo's – Adelaide trio Heaps Good Friends have consistently been one of the country's most fun and energetic additions to our pop scene in recent memory; their work always being light-hearted and full of animation as they sing about... basically everything... and become cult-favourites in the process of doing so.

Across the last few years, the trio have consistently evolved and grown, building upon their sound without watering down the liveliness that's become synonymous to Heaps Good Friends and what the energy they bring to the world. On their debut EP Hug Me, they brought crashing breakdowns and dancing synth on songs which reference everything from hugs to shopping trolleys to lobster bibs, while their collaboration with Approachable Members of Your Local Community last year – One I Need – was like the meeting of two, wild dysfunctional families who got together to make the best art they possibly could (and it was incredible).

In 2020 – a time where everything feels fucked and the world is basically dead – Heaps Good Friends are needed more than ever; their work a constant source of escapism for those wanting to step away from the harshness of their lives and dance around to an idiot to a feel-good, high-energy song. Luckily, they're here, releasing a new single Fold Laundry Together which really showcases what Heaps Good Friends do the best: have a grand ol' time.

It's a quick-pacing, high-pitched burst of pop energy that kicks off an doesn't quite calm down until its ending three-minutes later, channeling the tongue-in-cheek charm of 80s synth-pop but brought forward into the future and combined with Heaps Good Friends' distinct flavourings. "Trying to help around the house of my brother’s big family lead to a scene of me folding my brother’s laundry with a friend of his (who I had a crush on)," says the band's vocalist Emma Fradd on the single, the first for the year thus far. "It was really nice..."

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Today, however, we're gathered to premiere the single's video clip, which really doubles down on the fun, colourful and creative energy Heaps Good Friends bring to their work. It's a video that makes you want to... fold laundry (can't believe I just said that); whether it's Emma laying about on the floor and putting in about the same amount of effort into laundry-folding that anyone else does, while the band's Nick O’Connor is a bit of a weirdly seedy tradie coming to fix the washing machine by replacing its pipes. Then there's Dan Steinert, who tries on every single shirt – including a tonne of band shirts – that he could get his hands on.

"We've been really wanting to release music for such a long time now - but it never felt like the right song or the right time and it just felt like we couldn't break through the layer of artist anxiety to actually birth a new song baby into the world. As soon as we were all in lockdown and hiding in our big warm beds, we were all finally ready and wanted to just release a song SO BAD," says Dan on the single and its video clip. "We just wanted to release SOMETHING we didn't care what happened!"

"We always wanted to make a video for this song but we were just stumped how to do it while we were all apart. In fact we had tried to make a video months ago when we WERE together for a completely different song and it just didn't work out. But somehow the distance that separated us, brought us closer together again and we created this sweet baby. Initially Emma came to the table with these beautifully laid out and aesthetically pleasing and very well filmed videos of her singing to the track and Nick and I were blown away and totally insecure that we couldn't make anything like that.

"So weeks later, Nick filmed his parts and he was fixing his washing machine and it just felt RIGHT. But for some reason I couldn't get past this bubble of anxiety and I just couldn't bring myself to film ANYTHING. An entire month had passed at this point and the song was already out in the world and I felt like I was letting the team down. My partner asked me if I filmed the video yet and she encouraged me to do it AND even filmed it (she is very sweet). So the next thing I know it's almost June and I'm trying on almost all of my clothes on. It was warm, exhausting, sweaty and actually really hard to try and put layers and layers over the top of each other.

"In the end I ended up wearing 26 T Shirts, 6 pairs of pants, 3 pairs of shorts, 2 long sleeve button ups, 3 Short sleeve button ups, 2 long sleeve t shirts AND 3 big jackets on. It was really fun and I'm glad this video is out in the open FINALLY."

It's a real good time that really highlights the fun brilliance of Heaps Good Friends, and you can take a dive into it below as it premieres on Pilerats:

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