Friendships Just Want You To Grab A Beer And Hit The Dance Floor

Friendships are like a sonic sharehouse, filled with life and ideas, recordings and videos. You're welcome to hang out and listen to their malfunctioning-hip-hop edits with twists of dancehall and R&B, and watch their art visions unfold on a pre-loved projector screen. There's activity everywhere, and the place threatens to spill into a house party or late night bender at any moment. When you experience their live performances, it's as unpretentious as an offered can of beer, composed with all the lo-fi warmth of a shot of whisky. Ahead of their first ever tour of America – including a performance at the infamous Low End Theory in LA, a hub for all things weirdo-outsider-dance – THUMP catches up with Friendships for a drink and to premiere their latest video for "Ghost Hear".

Since meeting two years ago, Nicholas Brown (originally from rural Western Australia) and Melbourne-born Misha Grace have combined both of their artistic pursuits into one inclusive live project. Along the way they've supported internationals like Shigeto and starred in showcase gigs at strip clubs. They originally met at an artshow Misha was holding at her former studio, and Nic jokes that he asked her to make the cover art for an album that he didn't have. And so it began, Nic producing each track and Misha creating the cover art, visuals for their live shows, and accompanying videos.

Hip-Hop is in Friendships' DNA. Their tracks are stitched together with samples, loops and flickering low end, and are designed for their shared love of simply dancing. Earlier releases, though no less accomplished, feel like sketches, musical mixtapes with clever titles like last year's 'I'm an impressionist, you're dumb' and the collaborative EP with fellow duo Audego titled 'I know we've only been going out for three days but it feels like forever'. They're cut-and-paste collages of post-internet music scenes, warped samples from unexpected pop songs and remixes of other local producer's tracks. Since then they've released EPs through independent labels like Silo Arts and Sydney's Feral Media, and their sound continues to develop. Nic, who started as a guitar-playing "singer-songwriter who couldn't sing", found composing tracks digitally suited his quick-fire ideas.

"What I was first making sounded shit," he says. "When I started doing the live show it just made such a difference. With music on a big sound system you can do weird stuff that you can't get away with on headphones, you can playing around with a deep bass tone for a while. It definitely changed the way I write music."

It's an approach you can hear coming through with each new track or remix, including their recent reworking of Taxidermy Hall on new local label UNFUNK INTL. The unstable beats and blasts of bass are perfectly suited for unhinged dance floors. The Friendships live show is equally energised. Often unrehearsed, Nic composes tracks on Ableton Live while Misha combines warped visuals found from Youtube, her own art projects and even splices from TV shows. Both of them are dancing as hard as the audience. "It was Nic's idea to do little sets from the dance floor," Misha says. "Just the simple act of dropping yourself onto the same level of your audience makes it so much more fun and intimate. It gets rid of that hierarchy."

Their latest video and single "Ghost Hear" ensures the duo leave a strong impression off the dance floor too. Rats, slugs, dogs and a couple intertwine into the fabric of the hypnotic track that eerily combines faulty pop vocals and tribal field-recordings. Is it a surreal commentary on modern relationships, or the backdrop to a hallucinogenic nightmare? Friendships don't know. Either way "Ghost Hear" haunts you long after you've watched it.

This combination of art and music has allowed Friendships to bridge both scenes, and they switch easily between gallery shows and live gigs. Their online videos for 'Ghost Hear', 'SSLOWW"and "Mother" have given them a global platform and new audiences as well. As for where they'll go next, and what sounds and sights they'll make? "Everything is valid," Misha stresses. "Everything has its place and time. From booty-bouncing bangers to highly conceptual art pieces."

Keep up to date with Friendships on their Facebook and Soundcloud and get along to their last gig in Melbourne for a while at Ferdydurke Saturday 26 July with Air Max 97, Martin King and Island Universe.