“At the very start of 2012… we were like, ‘Guys, where are we going to live?’ L.A. It sounds a bit un-musician-like and not very artistic at all, but we did a lot of work here,” Powers explains.
“We worked very hard in America, it’s our biggest market. The move to California was about the band collectively deciding to spread their wings. I think I’m a calmer person! At the same time, music making for me has been the same as it’s always been.” “I don’t quite feel the same as when we were making the first record. “It’s very hard to compare the two things – we’re just thinking a bit differently now… because two years can change you quite a lot as a person,” he replies. The band members have been through a lot of adjustments since ‘Passive Me Aggressive You’ was released, acclaim for one, and I threw things open by asking Thom Powers what changes had resulted in the band’s outlook. In July we got to hear Hearts Like Ours, first single from their sophomore album ‘In Rolling Waves’ which has by now seen international release on Republic Records (UMG), home to a literal A-Z of acts including Drake, Florence & The Machine, Crystal Castles, Nicki Minaj and Lorde. Shifting flat to Los Angeles in 2012, The Naked And Famous focused on their international profile, earlier this year releasing a ‘B-sides and Remixes’ album. They topped off a huge 2011 with the APRA Silver Scroll Award for Young Blood, eight Tui awards and a finalist nomination for the Taite Music Prize. The band toured it for two years, performing 250 shows in 24 countries, playing at Glastonbury, Reading, SXSW and Fuji Rock Festivals, not to mention the 2011 BDO. Second single Young Blood was especially significant, with platinum sales in Australasia and 20 million video views on YouTube. Recorded at their home studio and The Lab, ‘Passive Me Aggressive You’ proved a stonking hit, debuting at # 1 in the NZ album charts, and receiving 4-star reviews in UK gatekeeper press such as Mojo and Uncut. A $50,000 NZ On Air grant was awarded to record an album debut (in the same round as Aaradhna, Motocade and Black River Drive), via CRS Management. New band members, bassist David Beadle and drummer Jesse Wood replaced Knapp and Clark, and engineer Aaron Short was now part of the band. While the live performances were not then a strength, their potential was apparent, even beyond the local industry.īy 2010 they had generated a lot of interest and had their own label, Somewhat Damaged. Initially signed to Auckland indie label Round Trip Mars, they released two EPs in 2008 – ‘This Machine’ and ‘No Light’, gaining NZ On Air video funding and student radio support along the way, recruiting bassist Ben Knapp and drummer Jordan Clark for live shows. Vocalists Alisa Xayalith and Thom Powers met at MAINZ in Auckland, forming a duo named from a line in a Tricky song. The origins of The Naked And Famous are by now well known to fans worldwide. Main man Thom Powers talked with Amanda Mills. Their international profile rose (and rose) through the licensing of all those songs in advertising, games, television and film soundtracks, leading them to find a new home in L.A., and much anticipation for ‘In Rolling Waves’, their newly released sophomore album. The Naked And Famous’ career trajectory has been stratospheric since the release of their critically acclaimed and commercially successful debut album ‘Passive Me Aggressive You’ in 2010.
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