Music
It started with a short email.
“Can we get on the phone? We’d love for you to open for this band.”
Haute & Freddy were going on tour. Colescott and AJ Rubin, who perform together as the Rubin Brothers, thought they had been scouted for a few local shows. Their native Boston was, after all, included on the tour schedule.
But Haute & Freddy, the rising pop duo made of Michelle Buzz and Lance Shipp whose image and style look as though they’ve been pulled from an 18th-century carnival, didn’t want the brothers for a show or two. They wanted them to open for the entire “Big Disgrace” tour.
As entertainers and circus musicians, it’s the perfect fit.
“It turned out that Haute & Freddy had been following us since before they got big,” Colescott says. “They said that our accounts were some of the first they followed when they first grew their account in order to get some musical circus inspiration.”
Like Haute & Freddy, the Rubin Brothers exist somewhere between musicians and performers.
“When we’re around musicians, we stand out as the circus people, and when we’re around the circus people, we stand out as musicians,” Colescott says.
The brothers perform original music — or compose it on the spot with the audience — while incorporating circus acts into their show. That includes unicycling, juggling, acrobatics and balancing on each other.
Colescott, the oldest brother, started to play music when he was four. His parents made him take violin lessons, which he says he hated. Circus performing came later. AJ’s story is the other way around: he started to learn unicycling and juggling around the age of 10. Music came next.
“We both learned each other’s domains after the fact,” AJ says.
Audiences on the tour can expect songs like “I Love Cheese (But Cheese Don't Love Me Back),” AJ’s song about being lactose intolerant, and “My Peanut Butter Baby,” which Colescott performed alongside AJ on American Idol in 2024.
The brothers are currently designing new props for their show, all of which are original designs. AJ builds most of them.
A future trick will include “a table that attaches to my brother’s upright bass that I then do a handstand and unicycle on top of, on top of the bass,” AJ says.
Not to make it too easy, Colescott adds: “AJ can also unicycle blindfolded. So eventually we’ll put that in there.”
AJ says unicycling blindfolded while playing trumpet is currently one of the hardest tricks to perform. For Colescott, it’s playing tuba with one hand while wearing it, while playing bass with the other hand, while wearing it, all while unicycling — an impressive feat that he hopes to bring to the fall leg of the tour.
A challenging duo trick involves AJ juggling clubs while balancing on Colescott’s shoulders while Colescott plays bass.
“The great thing about being circus artists,” AJ says, “is that as soon as you feel like you are comfortable with one trick, you are seeking out the next one that’s more difficult.”
Performing runs deep in the Rubin family.
Their brother Charlie, a visual artist, designed the Rubin Brothers’ album artwork. Don’t worry — Charlie is a circus artist, too. So is their brother Avi Rubin. Avi is also an astrophysicist, educator and researcher at the Institute for Astronomy.
“Eventually, we’re going to have our kids show that combines all of our music and circus stuff that we’re doing with Haute & Freddy with educational songs,” Colescott says. The concept is described as a crossover between Cosmos, Bill Nye and Sesame Street.
For now, the focus is on the road.
Colescott and AJ say they have one goal for their shows: to connect with the audience.
AJ says they want the show to “feel like a continuous story that also builds up the energy as much as possible to set the stage for Haute & Freddy.”
Colescott adds on: “We have our own world that we create in our shows, but then [Haute & Freddy] have their own world, and we have the honor of getting to warm up the audience, not just energy-wise, but introducing them into the immersive experience of being in Haute & Freddy’s world.”
Haute & Freddy are bringing their world across the country throughout October before heading to South America and Europe.
“We’re so honored that we were asked to be a part of this journey on their North America tour, and hopefully to be friends with them long-term,” Colescott says.
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