Eighty Ninety are an indie-pop duo that you do not want to miss out on.

Consisting of brother Harper and Abner James, Eighty Ninety debuted in 2016 with the release of their first single “Three Thirty.” Self dubbing their genre “808s and telecasters,” the duo released their debut EP Elizabeth later that same year and continued practicing their writing and honing in on a signature sound to create a unique yet intriguing style that would captivate fans at first listen.

Now, four years, several songs and a few accolades (including a coveted spot on a playlist curated by Taylor Swift) later, the brothers are ready to make their next steps forward in their career.

With three new singles under their belt over the course of the past nine months, including today’s emotional end-of-relationship anthem “Better As Friends,” the band have been rapidly building their portfolio as well as their fan base.

With their earlier singles “Happier” and “Know Me” gaining nearly 200,000 plays on Spotify alone, Eighty Ninety have consistently proved to be making music that moves listeners in a way unlike similar artists.

We were fortunate enough to be able to chat with the band earlier this week about their new single, the band’s history, and what they believe when it comes to “making it” as a musician.

You can read our full interview below and be sure to stream “Better As Friends” out now.

Second Society Report: First, how have the two of you been throughout this year? I know we’re all a bit thrown off from our regular plans and lives so I think it’s important to start off by just taking a second to check in and see how everyone is doing?

Eighty Ninety: Thanks so much. We’re doing well! We’ve been healthy and able to work on new music remotely, so feeling very grateful. We hope you’re doing OK too.

SSR: Obviously you two are brothers, and I know you launched Eighty Ninety in 2016. Did you grow up making music together or with plans to one day form a band together or was that something that only became an idea in recent years?

Eighty Ninety: We played music together a lot as kids. There was an informal idea for a while that solidified when we were in high school — we would move to New York and start a band. In retrospect, it’s kind of amazing to us both that neither of us ever second guessed that plan.

SSR: What is the hardest part about working together as siblings? Would you say that being brothers is a benefit or a detriment?

Eighty Ninety: Everyone knows family can be tricky. There’s so much shared history. But that is also a great thing. We have a shared language, shorthand and even taste that make decisions in the studio much more efficient. We’re pretty much always on the same page.

SSR: How did you choose the band name Eighty Ninety?

Eighty Ninety: We like all the guesses we hear, so don’t want to get in the way of those with our version haha. We’ve heard speed limits, eras, liquor proofs, interstate highways, radio stations, decades…

SSR: You are about to release your new single “Better As Friends,” which ponders the ability for people to truly be friends after they’ve experienced a romantic connection. Can you tell us a bit about the backstory behind the track?

Eighty Ninety: Sometimes, I’m sure, people discover that they truly are better as friends. This isn’t about that feeling, haha. This is about the feeling you have when someone you’re in love with says “we’re better as friends” and you’re devastated. And you can’t imagine what they even mean. The song is about processing that.

SSR: “Better As Friends” follows “Happier” and “Know Me,” as the third single to be released this year. Is there an upcoming EP or album we can look forward to?

Eighty Ninety: Yes! We made an EP with one of our closest friends who also happens to be an extraordinarily talented writer/producer named Gian Stone, who has worked with artists like Justin Bieber, Halsey and Maroon 5. Both “Happier” and “Better as Friends” are from that EP, which will be released soon! With the pandemic it’s hard to know exactly the timing, but the music will keep coming!

SSR: You’ve described your musical sound as “808s and telecasters.” What has drawn you to create this electro-pop fusion? 

Eighty Ninety: That comes from our attempt to describe our very first song, “Three Thirty”. On the one hand it was a pretty straightforward, singer-songwriter (almost country) song. But the production was inspired by the more contemporary, experimental stuff happening in pop. So we thought that “808s and telecasters” was a way of describing not only the literal sounds off the record, but also our mentality – that we’ll use whatever sounds we need to in the production to get the best out of the song.

SSR: Are there any artists that inspire you, or that you aspire to sound like either lyrically or sonically?

Eighty Ninety: So many! The 1975 and Phoebe Bridgers create such beautiful pop songs and have such interesting careers, seemingly entirely on their own terms. That’s so inspiring.

SSR: This is something that varies artist to artist and even sometimes song to song, but in general do you prefer writing about your own lives or do you prefer to base your tracks in fiction?

Eighty Ninety: That’s a great question that we think about a lot. I think the best answer we can give is that the feelings, themes, and emotional experiences in our songs are all very much drawn from our own lives. Those are very real in the important sense. As far as the literal scenes and characters in each song, we don’t want to talk about that too much because we feel like it’s important for people to be able to connect with the meaning of the songs in their own way.

SSR: Do you subscribe to the idea of “making it”? If yes, do you think that you have made it? What would have to happen for you to consider yourselves having “made it”

Eighty Ninety: That’s another really good question that we think about a lot. I think, ultimately, the idea of “making it” for us means that music is at the center of our lives. As long as we’re able to make records we’ll be “making it”.

SSR: What do you hope listeners take away from your music?

Eighty Ninety: Music is a source of comfort, hope, and joy for us. If listeners can take any of that from our music we consider it a profound success.

SSR: Is there anything that we haven’t asked that you’d like to share?

Eighty Ninety: “Better as Friends” is one of our favorite songs we’ve released. We really can’t wait for you to hear it.

You can stream “Better as Friends” out now, wherever you stream music, and be sure to follow along Eighty Ninety’s journey by following them on social media via the links below.

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