From New Zealand To The World: Balu Brigada Tapped By Twenty One Pilots, Plot Headline Debut

Balu Brigada spent years working towards a U.S. tour. The band’s early days found them criss-crossing their native New Zealand, sticking largely to dives in their hometown, Auckland. The duo, brothers Henry Beasley (27, co-lead vocals/guitar) and Pierre Beasley ( 31, co-lead vocals and bass), dreamed of one day playing bigger venues overseas. That dream started to come true in 2022, when they first signed with Warner Australia/Atlantic and fully materialized in 2024 when Twenty One Pilots’ label ARRO decided to take them under their wing. Suddenly, they found themselves on stage at Denver’s Ball Arena helping kick off the “Clancy World Tour.”

“The biggest show we had played before that was in New Zealand to about 1,200 people,” Pierre Beasley tells Pollstar, “and the first show of the Twenty One Pilots tour was 20,000 people. It was a big jump. I remember, right before we played our first show, I nearly fainted because I was so nervous.” 

Twenty One Pilots manager Chris Woltman discovered the band when his phone started buzzing incessantly. First, Paul Meany, who co-produced with Twenty One Pilots, sent along a song of theirs asking if he’d heard of them. Then, Caio Jacob, vice president of global touring and festivals 30e in Brazil, also sent along their song “So Cold,” and Woltman was hooked.

“They don’t know each other, and I’m wrapping my head around how that could be happening,” Woltman says. “They both have impeccable taste in music, so I go back and listen again. This song feels like it should be all over alternative radio. There should be a buzz on the band.”

Balu Brigada already had their I Should Be Home (released in 2022) and Find a Way (2023) EPs under their belt, and Woltman knew they were a band of substance. The indie band sounded like a cross between Tame Impala and MGMT, and Woltman knew they could make it big. He raised the band to Tyler Joseph of Twenty One Pilots and suggested starting a record label, ARRO, to help launch the band. They started a deal with Atlantic Records to sign Balu Brigada, and brought them out as support on the “Clancy World Tour.” Now, Balu Brigada is preparing for their own headline tour, “Portal,” supporting their ARRO/Atlantic debut album of the same name scheduled to be released on Aug. 29. 

The 30-date run kicks off in Mexico City on Oct. 3 at the 1,100-cap Foro Puebla and features dates at clubs across North America. They’ll take the stage at Fonda in Los Angeles (1,200-cap), Webster Hall in New York City (1,500-cap), 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. (1,200-cap) and more before wrapping at Austin’s 900-cap Mohawk on Nov. 15. 

It wasn’t until 2023 that Balu Brigada started exploring countries outside of their native New Zealand. It took a while for them to get an artist visa to the United States, but the ball was rolling once they signed to Warner Australia (with Atlantic representing the band in the U.S.), in 2022. They started off with a couple of showcases in New York City and Los Angeles, and supported Arden Jones on a mini tour of the east coast. But their big break came with Twenty One Pilots on “The Clancy World Tour.” 

Their first headline tour in 2025, before their shows with Twenty One Pilots in Europe, with the “Can’t Be Your Dog Tour” included smaller club dates at The Echo in Los Angeles (350-cap), Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco (400-cap) and Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn, New York (280-cap) in February and March. 

The band has an affinity for outdoor venues, with Pierre Beasley commenting how, “all of the South American shows were outdoors, whereas the rest of the world were arenas, so that really stood out.” They recall a fondness for Curitiba in Brazil, an outdoor stadium overlooking a forest and what Pierre Beasley describes as a “almost a waterfall.” 

Ahead of their shows, Balu Brigada said they would gather for a pre-show ritual chant, which, Henry Beasley says, “tends to be a really obscure sir Paul McCartney quote, and it kind of changes from tour to tour.” For the “Clancy World Tour,” it came from a video of McCartney’s son performing for a morning talk show. “He sends a message to his son and it says, ‘Hey Jamesy. Rock it, man. I know you will do do do.’ And then he blows a kiss. So that’s what we did before 37 shows in America. It was great fun.” 

On the road with them was their manager, Amy Goldsmith of Goldie management, who joined every date on the “Clancy World Tour” as Balu Brigada’s tour manager. She and the band first met back in 2016 in New Zealand, Goldsmith remaining in Auckland as the band moved to the United States for their career in 2023. Over the years, she’s witnessed their variety of changes, which included an early iteration involving a third brother, Charles Beasley. 

“We restructured to a two piece because it was Pierre and Henry leading everything,” Goldsmith says. “It was nice to see them make that call and really own that this is what they wanted to do. It was also 2020 when COVID lockdown happened that they really started to produce themselves… That was a huge moment, when they knuckled in and learned how to produce themselves so that they could take full creative vision. When they got their first record deal and packed their bags and moved to New York for a bit, that was another moment. And in the last year, obviously, they’ve had crazy growth with the release of ‘So Cold’ and the Twenty One Pilots opportunity.”

Balu Brigada’s first dates on the “Clancy World Tour” were a bit of a long shot. The band themselves were used to performing for smaller crowds, admitting they have a fondness for dive bars (particularly the Whammy Bar in their hometown of Auckland, New Zealand, a place Henry describes as, “a low-ceiling, concrete dive bar. Pretty gross but in all the right ways. Just a good sweaty mess in a little dungeon.”) and their own headline shows were typically in clubs of just a couple hundred people. Suddenly, they were standing on stage at an arena. 

“We had never seen them live,” Woltman, who is also CEO of Element1 and the principal of ARRO, admits. “We took a leap of faith somewhat protected by that standpoint – we knew they were making great music, and there’s no way you can make that kind of great music across a series of releases over the last couple years and not have something super talented.”

Tyler Joseph (lead singer of Twenty One Pilots) and Woltman brought in their own production team, lending them to Balu Brigada for the tour. 

“The first night they played was 14,000 people in Denver,” Woltman says. “The Twenty One Pilots fanbase is pretty much a show-up early fanbase. So it was a packed house. The production team on our end really embraced them.”

By that first show, Woltman and Twenty One Pilots were blown away and reassured that they made the right decision by taking a chance. 

“When we prepared for the Twenty One Pilots stuff, it’s not our show, so we had to figure out how to work within their constraints,” Henry Beasley says. “That’s their stage. It’s their time slot, and because they’re giving us the slot, we need to be quick and snappy. We needed to make shorter versions of our songs so we managed to get the set done in time, because you don’t want to be the opener then cut into the slot of the main band.”

The band’s upcoming trek isn’t a tour deal and agent Adam Ogushwitz at UTA worked with a variety of local promoters across the country to book it..

“Our goal is to always help bands tell a story through strategic touring,” Ogushwitz says. “We knew we had an amazing opportunity in supporting Twenty One Pilots around the world, but we also wanted to make sure the follow up to the tour could demonstrate the band’s ability to stand on their own.”

When Ogushwitz started plotting out the “Portal” tour, he took note of their single “So Cold” starting to take off on alternative radio stations. They looked at what radio markets the song was particularly doing well in, and made sure to hit stops in those places. 

“There’s always these rooms where you see bands on their way up, and you’re in a special moment for the band,” Oguswitz says. “We really look to find these venues that we were sure we would sell out, but also have these storied histories, whether it’s the Fonda or Webster Hall.”

The Beasley brothers are plotting out how they’re going to showcase their new music for their headline shows. They’ll have more space this time around and know that tackling their upcoming trek is an entirely different beast from “Clancy.” 

“When we play our headlines, Pierre and I are going to feel more comfortable to let things breathe a bit more,” Henry Beasley says. “Maybe we’ll have some banter in between this or that song. They’re both good skills and arguably it’s sometimes harder to do the looser version of it because it’s nice to just play the songs. It’s fun when you get to have more of a rapport with the audience, which you have more of a chance to do in a headline.” 

The band has already sold out the 1,100-cap Foro Puebla in Mexico City which kicks off their headline run on Oct. 3, and Ogushwitz has high hopes for the rest of their tour. With the release of the band’s latest single, “Backseat,” on May 29, they had another bump in ticket sales. 

The band will pile into a bus for their upcoming run, expanding their crew of seven from their last tour (four band members including the Beasleys plus Harper Finn on keyboards and Jackob Stockman on drums, a tech, front of house and Goldsmith). For the “Portal Tour,” the band will be hiring on another tour manager, as Goldsmith notes it can be intense continuing her regular management duties on top of tour managing. Someone for lighting and merch will also be joining the crew this time around, bringing the road’s total tally to around nine. The crew is still in the early stages of plotting out what the “Portal Tour” will exactly look like, but they’re deep in considerations.

“We’re throwing around a bunch of ideas that are portal themed, whether that be lighting, stage props, physical presence on the stage,” Goldsmith says.

While the band went on a short run in the winter with just four dates on their recent club tour “Portal” marks their first full-blown headline tour. 

“It’s very different when you go on tour as a support band and are opening for someone else,” Goldsmith notes. “It’s also being able to convert some people into the fan base if they’re willing to be converted. I think your own headline tour, people are there to see you, you are there to connect with them. They enjoy your music already. I’m excited for them to have that moment in such an extensive tour plan.” 

Over the summer, Balu Brigada will perform at festivals in Europe including Lollapalooza Paris, Sziget Festival and Reeding and Leeds.

“We only played our first international festival three weeks ago,” Pierre Beasley admits. “Before that, we’d only played a few in New Zealand, but honestly we’ve never played that many festivals. They’re always a vibe because it’s outdoors, and there’s a lot of people stumbling across and you can try to win them over, which is fun.”

While the Beasley brothers are still plotting out what they want their “Portal” dates to look like, they feel they have free rein over their vision.

“You have a chance to do your own thing as opposed to when you’re opening for another band and sticking to their constraints.”