HIPS is a collaboration between Drew Denny and Christina Gaillard.
The multi-instrumentalists played in a handful of bands together throughout the 2010s and formed HIPS as an all-female vehicle with an emphasis on innovative dance beats, heavy bass and lush vocal harmonies. Gaillard produces all tracks, with Denny writing lyrics and melodies. The duo recorded their self-titled album, HIPS, at Gaillard’s studios in Mexico City and Los Angeles. The February 2020 release was mixed and mastered by Jake Viator at Stones Throw studio in Los Angeles as well as Carlos de la Garza at Music Friends Studio in Los Angeles.
Denny is also a writer and director whose film MOMSTER premiered at Tribeca Film festival in 2019 and whose podcast Asking For It will be released by CBC Podcasts with producer Kaitlin Prest of Mermaid Palace. Gaillard has scored a variety of film and television projects and produced numerous albums and comes from a rich musical pedigree — she’s the granddaughter of eccentric jazz icon Slim Gaillard and the niece of Marvin Gaye.
The band’s debut single “Get Up” premiered in The Guardian. OUT Magazine praised the video for “Get Up” as a “protest in the form of pleasure.” HIPS performed in and scored the 2020 CBC podcast Asking For It.