Hiatus Kaiyote
Hiatus Kaiyote is a future soul quartet formed in Melbourne in 2011. The members are Naomi "Nai Palm" Saalfield, Paul Bender, Simon Mavin and Perrin Moss.
In 2013, they were nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance for their song "Nakamarra", performed with Q-Tip. The song appears on their debut album Tawk Tomahawk.
The band released their second album, Choose Your Weapon, on 1 May 2015. The review aggregator Metacritic has given the album a normalised rating of 88 out of 100, based on 6 reviews. On 9 May 2015, Choose Your Weapon debuted at number 22 on the Australian albums chart.
The song "Breathing Underwater" from Choose Your Weapon was nominated for Best R&B Performance at the 58th Grammy Awards.
History
2012–14: Debut
The four band members met in their native Melbourne, Australia. Singer songwriter Nai Palm stated she had a vision for Hiatus Kaiyote's brand of future soul. "I always knew I wanted to be in a band, but I never knew it could be my own conversation." Following a performance by Palm, bass player Paul Bender decided to seek her out; one year later, the two began to collaborate on compositions that felt intuitive. Bender brought multi-instrumentalists Perrin Moss and keyboardist Simon Mavin into the equation, which led toHiatus Kaiyote playing their first gig at the Bohemian Masquerade Ball among sword swallowers, fire twirlers and gypsy death core bands. Gilles Peterson named them the Breakthrough Artist of 2013.
The band released their debut album Tawk Tomahawk independently in 2012, which was noticed by numerous musicians including Q-Tip, Animal Collective, Dirty Projectors, and Erykah Badu. Shortly after, the band was noticed by Salaam Remi. Remi had been working in A&R for Sony, who had given him the opportunity to start up his own label, titled Flying Buddha.
The band signed to Remi's label shortly after, who distributed their debut album worldwide. Remi later introduced the band to Q-Tip, which led to him featuring on a remix of "Nakamarra" which was included on the re-release of their debut. Following the release of "Nakamarra" the band received public endorsements from both Prince and Questlove via Twitter who urged their followers to listen to the song.
In 2013, they were nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance for their song "Nakamarra", performed with Q-Tip, but lost out to Snarky Puppy and Lalah Hathaway's recording "Something". In 2014, the band joined forces with hip hop artist Remi, the multi-faceted Kirkis, producer Silent Jay and vocalist Jace XL to embark on an Australia-wide tour titled "The Sonic Architects National Conference". Three additional backing vocalists, Jace Excell, Loreli, and Alejandro Jay Abapo were added for this tour.
During the tour Hiatus Kaiyote met Taylor McFerrin, whom they credit with bringing them further international attention after seeing them perform in January 2014.
2015: ''Choose Your Weapon''
The band released their second album, Choose Your Weapon, on 1 May 2015. Nai Palm described the album as an "extension" of their debut, and stated she and the band had no intention to make a one genre body of work. Many of the songs on the album derived from Palm's original ideas that were later flavored by the other band members. During the recording the band wanted to pay tribute to the format of a mixtape, so they incorporated interludes. The review aggregator Metacritic has given the album a normalised rating of 88 out of 100, based on 6 reviews, indicating 'universal acclaim'. On 9 May 2015, Choose Your Weapon debuted at number 22 on the Australian albums chart. The album also became the band's first release, to chart in the US, reaching #127 on the US Billboard 200, and #11 on the US Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.The song "Breathing Underwater" from Choose Your Weapon was nominated for Best R&B Performance at the 58th Grammy Awards, but lost out to The Weeknd's recording of "Earned It ".
2017: ''Needle Paw''
In 2017, Nai Palm released her debut solo album Needle Paw and toured in support of it. She said that Swooping Duck would release a mixtape in 2018, and Hiatus Kaiyote would record a new album in 2018. Nai Palm discovered Chilean artist Jowy Maasdamme on Instagram, and reached out to her to create the album art for Needle Paw.In June 2018, Nai Palm was featured on Scorpion by Drake, who has spoken highly of both her and the band, and has also sampled one of their tracks in a song of his.
The recording process of Needle Paw was very different from Hiatus Kaiyote albums. During an interview with Julie Adenuga of Beats 1 Nai Palm mentions she thought "Needle Paw" was the name of a desert flower. In an interview with Sound of Boston, Nai Palm explained the greater flexibility to work on her guitar sounds and the challenge of releasing a more raw and personal record.
Discography
Albums
| Title | Details |
| Tawk Tomahawk |
|
| Choose Your Weapon |