The Naked & Famous

Written by Jackson Fitzgerald

The Naked & Famous’ debut single Young Blood hit the NZ charts in 2010 and hurtled to the number one spot, the first NZ band to do so in over three years. 

Since then the five piece has gone on to win the APRA Scroll, New Zealand’s most prestigious song-writing award, been nominated for the BBC Sounds of 2011 poll and most recently became the first independent band in over fifteen years to feature in the commercial charts.

MORPH writer Jackson Fitzgerald asks Thom Powers 10 Questions (count creatively…he did) just before they release their new album (March 2011) and head off on tour with The Foals.

Who is The Naked and Famous, how did you start, and what’s behind the name?

Alisa Xayalith, Thom Powers & Aaron Short met around 2006 at MAINZ. Thom and Alisa began writing demos which they recorded and produced with Aaron. David Beadle and Jesse Wood finalised the five piece line up in early 2009 when they began working on Passive Me, Aggressive You.

Ok I'm going to stop writing in third person, this feels weird.

A good blend of electronic and raw rock was put into your debut album Passive Me, Aggressive You what was the inspiration at the time?

Electronic music and rock are both indicative of our general music tastes. We referenced plenty of dance music, old and new; The Chemical Brothers, Bjork's first album, Fuck Buttons. Also plenty of rock such as Frightened Rabbit, My Bloody Valentine, Nine Inch Nails, Health. But it really depends on which aspect of which track, if you're after more accurate explanations.

Where was the album recorded?

Most of the electronic aspects were programmed at our homes. Big studio drums, guitars and bass were recorded at The Lab, in Mount Eden, with Ollie Harmer. There are plenty of bedroom recordings on the album though. For some tracks we even ran with the first-take demo vocals; the ending vocals to Frayed are exactly this.

How is the writing done in the band?

In general Alisa and I will come up with the basic idea for a song, perhaps verses and choruses and I'll bash out a demo on the computer. Aaron and I will then pass recording sessions back and forth, adding and subtracting instruments and working on production. Often we'll leave gaps for each other to fill in or we'll just do massive overhauls on tracks; changing keys, tempos, swapping or exchanging instruments.

There's a whole lot of creative discussion over timbres and aesthetics ie  ".that 808-kick is too techno... it's just not cutting through" or "I think these guitars are too generic rock, lets re-think the layering” etc.  We bash the demos out as a band in a practice room and work on tightening up intricacies like drum fills, rhythm section stuff and the basic 'feel' of performing the song. Usually we'll then head into the studio.

That's the way things usually happen but there have been exceptions like Spank - Aaron gave Alisa and I this to write lyrics for. It was already arranged; most of the synths and drums were written. I mainly came at it from a 'guitars and vocals' point of view.

What are The Naked and Famous doing now, and what is happening for them in the future?

We've been doing some summer shows and the full Big Day Out tour, and will be heading back to the UK & US early next year when our record comes out world-wide in March. Initially we're going to relocate to London but there's some US trips already booked, like SXSW and some promo stuff in LA and NY. We'll pretty much be flying back and forth for the next year or so. In the meantime we'll be doing a few remixes and finishing off some b-sides.

If you were stuck in a lift for half-a-day, what celebrity would you have with you to keep you sane?

Eddie Izzard or maybe the ghost of Bill Hicks. I've always imagined what it would be like explaining to someone, who'd be cryogenically frozen or just brought back to life, what the world is like today.

Most memorable gig?

I think it would have to be supporting Nine Inch Nails in Auckland. We were at the end of touring our EPs This Machine and No Light. Trent came into our dressing room after the show to tell us how much he enjoyed our set. It was a pretty humbling moment - meeting/supporting one of your biggest musical heroes.

How do you find the NZ music scene, and what are its strengths and weakness?

It's strange... I don't really feel like it's a 'scene'. I feel like there's a bunch of artists operating independently. I think the fact that we don't take ourselves too seriously can keep artists grounded, connected and 'real' but the negative side is the fostering of 'tall poppy syndrome'. It's so ironically bad sometimes that hipsters will insult bands by saying they're using 'tall poppy syndrome' as an excuse - haha.

I find it pretty comical how seriously people take music sometimes... like it's the only thing happening in the world; nothing else is important. If they don't like one album they spend an entire day 'reviewing' it on their blog like it has completely fucked up the world for the next ten years so.

Regardless of what I think, I'm too young to be making an arm-chair analysis of the ethical, social and commercial strengths and weaknesses of the NZ music industry. I wish more artists would shut up and admit they're in not a position to be making sociological observations.

My advice? Don't take advice from musicians.