Future Sound: Both Hands
Our column celebrating new music to watch continues with Edinburgh’s Both Hands. Hailey Beavis and Brian Pokora chat to Fiona Shepherd about encroaching on each other’s territory, unlikely inspiration and bringing surprise elements to their live shows
Edinburgh synth duo Both Hands came together in early 2023 as a result of some conscious matchmaking from Hailey Beavis. Noting that synth whizz Brian Pokora was singerless following the split of his previous duo Slim Wrist, she nominated herself as his new partner in performance, liberated from her solo singer/songwriter status to throw shapes and wear impractical costumes. It was a role Beavis had been in training for since childhood.
‘Way back I was showing signs of being quite a precocious child and doing lots of singing and dancing,’ she says. ‘We had Tina Turner concerts on VHS. I thought “okay, so that’s how you perform”. I was in teenage high school bands with dreadful names but it would reach a point and then die, these volatile relationships in your teens and twenties.’
Pokora, meanwhile, grew up with little choice but to join the family tradition of Springsteen fanaticism. He also ditched his high school bands and opted for self-reliance but was open to finding his match in Beavis. An initial non-audition at his studio in Leith led to early demos and a flow of material which Beavis describes as ‘a pin in a map’.
‘I’m a natural lyricist and you are good on the machines,’ she says to her bandmate, ‘but we chip away at the roles.’ Pokora agrees: ‘We became more comfortable encroaching on each other’s sides.’
Their debut album Be Like a Mountain In A Moonlit Way was written and recorded against a backdrop of personal challenges with mental and physical health, as well as Beavis’ pregnancy. ‘The album arc is resilience and friendship and the building blocks that keep us up and running,’ she says. ‘I think that’s woven through all the songs; positivity amid all the chaos.’
‘Musically it is a loop,’ adds Pokora. ‘The first song relates back to the last song. I was really keen to have a wide variety of tones and energies on the album so there’s peaks throughout and then toned-down sections.’
Lyrically, Beavis found inspiration in unlikely places. Forget Bowie and his use of cut-up passages from the works of William Burroughs; Beavis used the same technique on a Mills & Boon paperback she found on a bus. ‘His Miracle Baby in large print,’ she confirms. ‘I’ve never read it but I’ve cut so much out of it that I know every bit of it. Some important emotional poetry has come from this ridiculous book.’
The duo also bring some randomness to their gigs. ‘I like finding new sounds that are surprising for Hailey in the same way she surprises me with her theatrics,’ says Pokora. For her part, Beavis admits ‘sometimes I try to bring elements that I can get in the door without Brian seeing so that I can surprise him. I want our shows to be dynamic, getting in and about people and getting silly.’
Be Like a Mountain In A Moonlit Way is released by Lost Map on Friday 18 September and launched at Fruitmarket, Edinburgh, on Sunday 25 October.