The Naked and Famous are a New Zealand

indie electronic Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

band from

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

, formed in 2007. The band currently consists of

Alisa Xayalith Alisa Xayalith (born 24 August 1986) is a New Zealand musician best known as the lead vocalist, guitarist, and Electronic keyboard, keyboard player for the indie electronic band the Naked and Famous. Early life Xayalith, the daughter of Laos, ...

(vocals, keyboards) and Thom Powers (vocals, guitars). The band has released four studio albums: '' Passive Me, Aggressive You'' (2010), ''

In Rolling Waves ''In Rolling Waves'' is the second studio album by New Zealand indie electronic band The Naked and Famous. It was released on 13 September 2013 by Somewhat Damaged, Fiction Records and Island Records. On 23 July 2013, the album's lead single, " ...

'' (2013), ''

Simple Forms ''Simple Forms'' is the third studio album by New Zealand indie electronic band The Naked and Famous. It was released on 14 October 2016 by Somewhat Damaged in partnership with Kobalt Label Services. " Higher" was released as the album's lead sin ...

'' (2016) and '' Recover'' (2020). Since 2012, the band has been based in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

History

Xayalith (born 1986 in Auckland) is the daughter of Laotian refugees and was raised together with a younger brother. Her father introduced her to his native folk music and, at the age of 13, she taught herself guitar. Powers had been playing in local bands from an early age after he had been taught to play guitar by his father.

2007–2008: Early years

The band formed in 2007 when Powers and Xayalith were working on what became two

extended play An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

s—''

This Machine This Machine may refer to: * ''This Machine'' (EP), a 2008 EP by the Naked and Famous * ''This Machine'' (album), a 2012 album by the Dandy Warhols * "This Machine", a 2003 song by Julien-K Julien-K is an American electronic rock band based ...

'' and '' No Light''—that they recorded with engineer Aaron Short, a fellow student at Auckland's Music and Audio Institute of New Zealand. The EPs were subsequently released on local

independent label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represente ...

Round Trip Mars. Powers and Xayalith began performing live with Ben Knapp and Jordan Clark on bass and drums respectively, while Aaron Short became a performing member of the group. Knapp and Clark left the group in 2009 and were subsequently replaced with Jesse Wood and David Beadle.

2009–2011: ''Passive Me, Aggressive You''

After recording "All of This", the group then set about recording the single " Young Blood" and their debut album, recording mostly at home and at Auckland studio The Lab. "Young Blood" debuted on the New Zealand chart at number one on 14 June 2010—the first New Zealand artist in three years to do so. The Naked and Famous released their debut studio album, '' Passive Me, Aggressive You'', on 6 September 2010 on their own label, Somewhat Damaged. The album was produced by Thom Powers and Aaron Short, and mixed by Billy Bush. On 6 December 2010, the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

announced that The Naked and Famous had been nominated for BBC's Sound of 2011 poll. In 2011, the band garnered six nominations at the

New Zealand Music Awards The Aotearoa Music Awards (previously called the New Zealand Music Awards), conferred annually by Recorded Music NZ, honour outstanding artistic and technical achievements in the recording industry. The awards are among the most significant that ...

for Album of the Year, Single of the Year, Best Group, Breakthrough Artist of the Year, Best

Alternative Alternative or alternate may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Alternative (Kamen Rider), Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * Alternative comics, or independent comics are an altern ...

Album and the People's Choice Award. They were also nominated for the NZ On Air Best Music Video and won the MAINZ Best Engineer Award and its Best Producer Award.

2012–2013: ''In Rolling Waves''

The band settled in Los Angeles in mid-2012 after completing touring for ''Passive Me, Aggressive You.'' They had performed over 200 shows in 24 countries between 2010 and 2012. Sharing a home over the back of Laurel Canyon, they began work on writing and demoing their second album. They intended to record an album that could be played live, not relying on backing tracks—something the group had always eschewed. On 28 February 2013, the band announced '' One Temporary Escape'', a concert film recorded at

The Warfield The Warfield Theatre, colloquially called The Warfield, is a 2,300-seat music venue located in the Theatre District in downtown San Francisco, California, United States. It was built as a vaudeville theater and opened as the '' Loews Warfield' ...

in San Francisco in 2012. It was released for free download on 18 March 2013. Entering Los Angeles' Sunset Sound studio in March 2013 with engineer Billy Bush (who had mixed the previous album), they began the process of recording ''

.'' The album sessions were completed in a month and then in June 2013, The Naked and Famous headed for London where

Alan Moulder Alan Moulder (born 11 June 1959) is an English record producer, mixing engineer, and audio engineer. Early life Moulder was born on 11 June 1959 in Boston, Lincolnshire. He was educated at Boston Grammar School. He had an interest in music from ...

spent a month mixing the album at his Willesden studio, Assault and Battery. The album was mastered at Sterling Sound in New York by Joe LaPorta, who had also mastered ''Passive Me, Aggressive You'', and was produced by Thom Powers with Aaron Short.

Justin Meldal-Johnsen Justin Meldal-Johnsen (born March 26, 1970) is an American record producer, musician, songwriter and musical director. He is best known for his work with artists such as Beck, Nine Inch Nails, M83, Air, St. Vincent, Wolf Alice, and Deafheave ...

co-produced two tracks with Powers. On 23 July 2013, the band revealed their new single " Hearts Like Ours" along with the release date for their second studio album ''

'', on 16 September 2013 in the UK.

2014–present: ''Simple Forms'', '' Recover '' and Xayalith solo career

The Naked and Famous performed at

Coachella Coachella (officially called the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and sometimes known as Coachella Festival) is an annual music festival, music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valle ...

in 2014. On 20 November 2014, the band announced that they had begun working on a third album. The band began tracking for the album in September 2015. In March 2016, they performed at the

Wanderland Music and Arts Festival The Wanderland Music and Arts Festival, commonly referred to as Wanderland, is an annual outdoor music and arts festival held in the Philippines organized by Karpos Multimedia. It showcases international and local live music, and art installations ...

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

. On 3 July 2016, the band announced their new single " Higher" would be released on 7 July. Upon the single's release, the band revealed that their third studio album, ''

'', was set to be released on 14 October 2016 via their label Somewhat Damaged in conjunction with Kobalt Label Services. On 24 August 2016, they released another single titled "Laid Low". The album was recorded at Powers'

Echo Park Echo Park is a neighborhood in the east-Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles, California. Located to the northwest of Downtown Los Angeles, Downtown, it is bordered by Silver Lake, Los Angeles, Silver Lake to the west and Chinato ...

studio and released as per the announcement. In February 2017, it was announced that the band would perform as opening acts, alongside

Wavves Wavves is an American rock band based in San Diego, California. Formed in 2008 by singer-songwriter Nathan Williams (born June 12, 1986), the band also features Alex Gates (guitar, backing vocals), Stephen Pope (bass guitar, backing vocals) an ...

, in

Blink-182 Blink-182 is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Poway, California, in 1992. Its current and best-known line-up consists of bassist and vocalist Mark Hoppus, guitarist and vocalist Tom DeLonge, and drummer Travis Barker. Though its so ...

's 2017 spring tour which would visit mostly the

southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is List of regions of the United States, census regions defined by the United States Cens ...

. The band released an acoustic compilation album titled '' A Still Heart'' on 9 March 2018, at which time they indicated that they were working on their fourth studio album. That same month, it was announced that Jesse Wood and founding member Aaron Short had departed the band. Following their departure, Luna Shadows joined the band on piano. The group released ''A Still Heart (Live)'' on 8 June 2018. Sometime before March 2020, the group parted ways with Beadle and Shadows. In April 2020, the band announced that '' Recover'', their fourth studio album, would be released on 24 July 2020.

Name

The Naked and Famous took their name from English musician Tricky's song " Tricky Kid", which expressed ambivalence about the notion of celebrity. In the song, Tricky quotes the line "everybody wants to be naked and famous", from The Presidents of the United States of America's song "Naked and Famous".

Band members

Current *

– vocals, keyboards * Thom Powers – vocals, guitars Former * Aaron Short – keyboards * Ben Knapp – bass * Jordan Clark – drums * David Beadle – bass * Jesse Wood – drums * Luna Shadows - keyboards Timeline

Discography

* '' Passive Me, Aggressive You'' (2010) * ''

'' (2013) * ''

'' (2016) * '' Recover'' (2020)

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Naked And Famous, The 2007 establishments in New Zealand Aotearoa Music Award winners APRA Award winners Fiction Records artists Female-fronted musical groups Indietronica music groups Island Records artists Musical groups established in 2007 Musical groups from Auckland New Zealand electronic rock musical groups New Zealand electronic music groups New Zealand indie rock groups New Zealand musical quartets New Zealand new wave musical groups New Zealand noise pop musical groups New Zealand post-punk revival music groups New Zealand synth-pop groups