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Hiatus Kaiyote jammed on their now Grammy-nominated song ‘ Nakamarra’ – which Nai had just penned about a friend devoting herself to working outback with Indigenous Australians. "Once we were all in the same room playing, it was just like, This is what it's supposed to be like!," Nai enthuses. It needed emotional connection to the music – but with creativity." She retreated into her beloved desert… Hiatus Kaiyote eventually crystallized after the quiet Pez joined, along with his curious roomie Simon. Says Nai, "I was ready to give up on the whole band idea, because the musicians were amazing – like, really gifted musicians – but it needed more than that. Bender, who'd made it his "mission" to seek out complementary players, found that challenging. In fact, the fantastically named Hiatus Kaiyote came together over time, its members encountering one another fatefully in various bands, cafés, and share houses. Straight away I was like, Oh, man, I gotta do a band with this girl." He business-carded her post-gig but Nai, having no formal musical background, was initially unsure about collaborating, worried her songs were "a bit weird". I'd never really heard that combination of elements before. She just started playing and singing and I was like, Whoa, what is this? This is crazy! I was instantly blown away by the voice and the complexity of the tunes. It was like this child's pink shit little nylon guitar. "She started the set explaining that her guitar was locked in someone's house and she couldn't get it, so she had to borrow this one. "I didn't know what she was gonna do because she was there with this really whack pink guitar," Bender remembers drolly. Bender, as everybody calls him, was hanging out at Gertrude's Brown Couch in Melbourne's groovy inner-suburb of Fitzroy when the striking Nai performed solo. Hiatus Kaiyote's story begins with a girl toting a novelty guitar. In a short time, this quartet has embarked on an odyssey that began in bohemian Melbourne and has taken them to the Grammy Awards and beyond. (Those should get you started.The members of Australian future soul band Hiatus Kaiyote have unveiled Choose Your Weapon (Flying Buddha/Sony Music Masterworks), their most opulent, expansive and ambitious project yet.
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There's so much depth in their catalogue I hope I eventually get around to covering many more standouts: Shaolin Monk Motherfunk, Breathing Underwater, The World It Softly Lulls, and Molasses just to name a few. So this week I bring you a cover of just one of Hiatus' many great songs: By Fire. Like, despite her many intimidating tattoos, Nail Palm (not her real name) would be nice to you if you ran into her at Quizno's. And you get the sense they'd be cool to hang out with. Their music is deep but joyful and unpretentious.
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But I can see why the world's falling in love with Hiatus. There are bands with a "devil may care" attitude, then their music sucks. There are artists with deep music who are hopelessly pretentious. I was intrigued, and each subsequent listening revealed more layers. Like most of the deepest stuff, Hiatus didn't hook me from the get-go, then get boring fast. And I'll be honest: I didn't get it at first. (The Lido cover, etc.) On a lark, I decided to check out this spacey band from Australia with the weird name and a lead singer with a penchant for welterweight headgear. Serendipity found me when I needed some new music to listen to while working at a coffee shop.
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What did I care what the hipsters were up to? There gospel.um.idioms to be learned, I was a busy guy. "Hmmm - lotta drum covers of these guys."īut I couldn't be bothered. For about the past year I've seen glimpses of this new band called Hiatus Kaiyote in my social media feeds.