Exclusive Premiere of Between Friends' Music Video for '1234567'

Cosmopolitan

18 hours ago

The ever-evolving world of alt-pop allows artists to reach fans where they are by marketing themselves directly from their bedrooms. Every other week, a new artist emerges who feels like an online bestie. But few acts have managed to build a universe as distinct and genre defiant as BETWEEN FRIENDS. The sibling duo—Savannah and Brandon Hudson—make a striking return with '1234567,' a frenetic and infectious single that offers yet another glimpse into their forthcoming album, WOW!, slated for release this summer. And Cosmopolitan is lucky enough to debut the video along with some BTS they captured on set. (Party anthem, incoming!)
Following the razor-sharp satire of 'American Bitch' and the pulsing energy of 'DJ,' this new track plunges deeper into the duo's kaleidoscopic vision. '1234567' is a swirling, glitch-drenched odyssey through late-night anxieties and adolescent reveries. With its warped hooks and hypnotic beats, the song captures the signature tension BETWEEN FRIENDS is known for: equal parts chaos and control, nostalgia and novelty.
Savannah and Brandon's musical partnership is more than just a family affair—it's a lifelong experiment in genre-blurring innovation. Raised in a digital age but shaped by analog influences, the Los Angeles–based duo is described by their label as an act that draws as much inspiration from the atmospheric charm of Laurel Canyon as they do from the glowing hues of computer screens. That description is felt the moment you press play on their Spotify page. Their sound—eclectic, unpredictable, emotionally raw—feels tailor-made for a generation raised on internet rabbit holes and emotional transparency.
BETWEEN FRIENDS first made waves in 2018 with breakout EP we just need some time together, a bedroom pop gem that introduced their unique blend of vulnerability and sonic daring. Their single 'affection' became a viral anthem, racking up over 600 million streams and cementing the pair as quiet icons of Gen Z introspection.
When the pandemic cut live performances short, the duo didn't retreat—They adapted. In 2021, they dropped i like when you shine!, a love letter to the mixtape format, steeped in lo-fi textures and emotional candor. The following year brought CUTiE, a shapeshifting EP that melded future R&B, glitch-pop, and surreal visuals into an immersive digital dreamscape. A sold-out tour and a triumphant set at Governors Ball in 2022 solidified their transition from streaming darlings to full-blown performers. Then came 2023's i love my girl, she's my boy—a debut album that was as bold as it was beautiful, exploring identity, love, and transformation with unfiltered honesty.
Now, with WOW! on the horizon, '1234567' signals not just a new chapter but a creative leap. BETWEEN FRIENDS aren't just pushing boundaries—they're redrawing them entirely. If this latest track is any indication, the album promises a wild, emotionally charged ride through the restless heart of a band that refuses to sit still. Cosmo caught up with the siblings ahead of this debut, and here's what they had to say.
Savannah: I think each project is very different. Something that really carried through with WOW! for us was just trusting our gut.
Brandon: We brought the music on the road with us.
Savannah: Yeah, and listened to what the fans thought in real time. We experimented with different vibes for each single because an album can encompass so many feelings and so many vibes.
Brandon: Last fall, we did our first tour of Europe, and we played our first show at Berghain in Berlin, then we played in Amsterdam for the first time and spent some time in London. And during that time, we were working on this album in the green rooms and dressing rooms in between sound check and the show. Just finalizing things. And it was really cool being able to sort of test out the demos in these new places in front of new people. It reminded me a lot of how we started with our first EP, where we would just put our music on at college parties and not tell anyone it was our music. We would just let people react to it. This album has a very full-circle feeling to it, the way we tested the music out.
Savannah: We tried a lot of different things on this project, so we really wanted to show that variety with the singles. They each have a unique theme and different elements to them. It's been fun, but the rollout is a bit spontaneous. We've just been kind of dropping them and seeing how it feels.
Brandon: So you totally get it! That makes me happy.
Brandon: Oh 100 percent! Bridging the aesthetic with the sonic is our favorite way of creating. I mean, it's like I said, it's how we started.
Savannah: We were Tumblr kids too. We spent so much time online creating and learning. We are very much children of the internet. So yes, the Tumblr era influence is very much present in this music.
Brandon: Such a wide variety!
Savannah: Crystal Castles and Sky Ferreira were top for me. They were literally everything.
Brandon: Remember when you could customize your Tumblr with music and moving graphics?
Savannah: Damn, jealous.
Brandon: I wish kids had that still. Instead of being force-fed everything, we used to be so intentional with our curation and be very tasteful, so everything looked right.
Savannah: I literally learned how to code at 10 years old just to have a cool Tumblr!
Brandon: But back to the music question *laughs*, our household was very musical, even though our parents weren't musicians.
Savannah: Like, they were very into music; they just weren't musical people.
Brandon: Yeah, so we grew up with music always on in the background. That included everything from Sade's Love Deluxe and Daft Punk's Discovery to Rumours by Fleetwood Mac. The list goes on and on. But as you can see from those three records, there was no shortage of variety. And we grew up in Florida so Miami dance music was also a huge part of our childhood. Our parents were really into the beats they would hear out at places like Club Space or the Delano, so we were exposed to a wide range of influences that have definitely shaped the way we make the music we make.
Savannah: It's so funny, because this is probably our most asked question. But we don't know any different. We've been buddies since we were really, really small. It's a strange thing when two people who share the same creative vision are put on this earth. It really feels like this sort of twin flame thing. It's incredible, but we do recognize that it's not the norm.
Brandon: We do bump heads though. Just like anyone else would. *laughs* When making WOW!, we felt a lot of growth as humans, which shaped this record into something that feels exceptionally personal to the both of us. It's like a time capsule of this time period in our lives. We're growing up together and becoming the adults and creatives that we've always wanted to be.
Savannah: Our parents are the best. We're a very close family. We also have two other siblings who aren't part of this music project, but they're awesome and supportive. We're a very lucky family.
Savannah: Yeah. Mom only has to check one of our locations. *laughs*
Savannah: The week before we shot the video, I was in New York for literally less than 24 hours for a job. I was shooting with Sandy Liang, a brand that I love. Their whole campaign was this sort of paparazzi style vibe with a lot of walking around, so I was able to see parts of the city that I hadn't really discovered before. When we ended the shoot, I ordered two martinis alone at a bar in Dimes Square with some steak frites and FaceTimed Brandon and I was like, 'This place feels so on fire right now.' And we had been talking about shooting a video for '1234567' and the whole concept of that song is about romanticizing the mundane. Just wanting to get through the days before it's the weekend. Take a load off, essentially. And it just feels like New York is so about that. It feels like New York really gets the whole work-life balance thing. You work so that you can play. And I told Brandon, 'I think you should come here. I think we should do it in New York.' So we did. We both flew in again on my birthday, on May 6, and shot the video the next day. We started in Times Square then made our way downtown then onto a ferry to Brooklyn. It was beautiful.
Savannah: Yeah! A lot of this song comes from the working relationship we have as siblings. We learned a lot about each other and grew so much as friends. Writing this song came out of a poem I wrote in a therapy crash-out session. My therapist told me to write a poem and then throw it away, just to get it on paper. But then the next day, we were having a studio session with our friend Tove out of Stockholm, and she started playing these insane sounds and as soon as I heard them, I knew that the poem had to be this song. The lyric is all about wanting to dream and escape but instead loving a moment even if it might be kind of bitter.
Brandon: Exactly! I think there's a special contradiction between our choruses and verses. They sometimes feel heavier than they're meant to be. But sometimes that's just life.
Savannah: Oh my god, one of my friends called me to say how she couldn't believe we rhymed 'image' with the word 'damage' and I didn't really think much about it. But it's fun to see how people are picking out different lyrics that stick out to them
Brandon: We also don't want to stamp any official meanings. It's cool to see what people are pulling from these songs and how they're interpreting them.
Brandon: To be completely honest with you…
Savannah: I think it's me. *laughs*
Brandon: Yeah, *laughs* but we talk about everything before we do it.
Savannah: We get random visions in real time and then force the other to take it. And New York really brought that out.
Brandon: And that was the best thing about shooting this in New York! Anything we wanted to shoot or source was like a block away.
Savannah: We got bit by the New York bug real bad after shooting this. After leaving, we were like, 'What are we doing?'
Brandon: Asking ourselves like, 'Maybe we should time-share a place.'
Savannah: I was looking at apartments! My L.A. friends are going to think I'm crazy.
Brandon: There's a magic to the city and we really tried to capture that through our own lens. We've never done a video or project in New York, but it's been on our list so hopefully we were able to pay some homage.
Brandon: There's been so much growth.
Savannah: We were just talking about this the other day! We're bedroom pop kids. We were at the forefront of that whole wave right before COVID, and then we were trying to connect with all these people over the internet that we weren't able to see in real life. And that isolation had a profound effect on our perspectives and our minds. But we always find ourselves coming back to that initial whimsical world.
Brandon: As artists, you never want to do the same thing twice. With us, we're always trying to impress one another and push each other to create something super authentic in any given moment. And WOW! kind of feels like the project we wanted to make at the beginning. We didn't know how to then, but I'm glad we've found it in ourselves now.