By Monica Pizzo
Hiatus Kaiyote is a self-coined “future soul” band whose sound is extremely distinct and individual. They mix soul, hip-hop, synth and jazz to create their unique sound.
The Melbourne-based band formed in 2011 when the members came together to begin their futuristic soul journey. Front woman Nai Palm is the band’s singer, guitarist and songwriter, her smooth vocals giving much of the band’s soul influence. Bassist Paul Bender, drummer Perrin Moss and keyboardist Simon Mavin each contribute their own style to fuse together their soulful tunes.
According to their Facebook page, Hiatus Kaiyote takes influence from artists such as Grizzly Bear, Stevie Wonder, Flying Lotus, Aretha Franklin, Radiohead and Jeff Buckley. Their musical influences truly showcase their eclectic music style.
In 2012, the band self-released their album Tawk Tomahawk, which mostly featured heavy synth tracks that showed the beginning of the band’s sound before they leaned more towards soul and jazz influences.
The band slowly began to gain attention from DJs and other artists of the same style and later that year, signed to the label Flying Buddha. Under the label, they re-released Tawk Tomahawk with a bonus track featuring a verse from the artist Q-Tip. This track was nominated for a Grammy under the best R&B Performance category.
In 2015, they released their most recent album titled Choose Your Weapon, which featured extremely experimental and unique tracks such as “Shaolin Monk Motherfunk” and “Breathing Underwater.”
Their individuality and dedication to being different gained them a lot of attention in the R&B world. They were recently featured on Spotify Sessions, which is a segment on Spotify that allows the artists to comment on their most popular songs and perform live versions for recording. These sessions further showcased their uniqueness.
Hiatus Kaiyote is a pioneering group that stays true to their sound in a music industry dominated by a single sound. Click here to be linked to their Spotify and experience their individual style.
Featured Photo Credit: Feature photo courtesy of Hiatus Kaiyote on Facebook.
Monica Pizzo is a freshman journalism major and can be reached at mpizzo@terpmail.umd.edu.
