(EXCLUSIVE) HIATUS KAIYOTE INTERVIEW WITH SIMON & PAUL + HIATUS KAIYOTE @ THE BEE PUBLIKA LIVE

Hey K-poppers, we’ve got something out of the K-pop scene but we know that you will enjoy! Hiatus Kaiyote is a future-soul quartet that formed in Melbourne, Australia in 2011. As of 2015, they have released two albums Tawk Tomahawk (2012) and Choose Your Weapon (2015). Hiatus Kaiyote rocked the stage at The Bee Publika, with a full house audience. Their music have an ethereal feeling to it and it transports you out of this world as you listen to it. The group consists of four members – Nai Palm (Vocals), Perrin Moss (Drums), Paul Bender (Bassist) and Simon Mavin (Keyboards). In 2013, they were nominated for a Grammy for Best R&B Performance for their song "Nakamarra”. Highly recommended to check out their tour dates - http://hiatuskaiyote.com/tours.

What does it mean to perform in a different country?

Simon stated that they have been touring a lot in the last couple of years and it’s their first time in Malaysia. US and Europe is currently into Hiatus Kaiyote’s music  however he also states that he was not sure what’s happening with the music scene in Asia because it was like whole different thing here. He expresses that it’s really exciting to come and last time we played in Hong Kong and it really was an awesome show.

When you’re visiting a different city, is it the same feeling each time you perform or is it a different feeling?

PAUL :  sometimes it’s kind of like the movie Groundhog Day, you’re doing the same thing but you’re in a different place but sort of having the same day but other times it’s like really cool being in Asia for the first time. I feel like everywhere we’ve toured been Anglo centric so it’s just cooler to be somewhere different. We’re going to Japan tomorrow but we’re really excited to be here in KL (Kuala Lumpur).

According to Hiatus Kaiyote’s website, your music is described as Multi-Dimensional Polyrhythmic Gangster Shit, how did Hiatus Kaiyote came upon this?

PAUL: We find anime sounds, I guess we listen to different type of music and we kind of went into the band knowing the concept is going to be really open. With this band, it’s like “let’s do a band and we have all this weird songs”.

SIMON : It also helps in the beginning that we’re pretty bad organizing and business skills so there was no real ideal about what we want to accomplish. We were working on different things every day and it was fun.

Simon shared that they were living together and playing every day and in about 6-8 months, in which it really develop the sound of Hiatus Kaiyote. They just wanted to explore the music and that’s what they did until they came across a manager. Then they managed to finish a record. It was really important for them to have that time to grow. Simon said that it was a lot of fun buy lot of work.

If you were given a chance to collaborate with an artist who might not speak the same language as you, would you?
PAUL : JACKIE CHAN! But lately I’ve been getting into these throat singing groups and it’s like a whole another kind of music. It’s really pure you know, those guys just live off the mountains and it’s awesome.

How do you find your style or direction of a music video of Hiatus Kaiyote as every music video seems to have somewhat of a “raw” feeling to it?

SIMON : We’ve only done 2 proper videos, the first one which was Nakamarra, the thing is that we really want to match the energy of the track with the video. The song was recorded in a old school way, four of us in a room and there was microphones capturing the whole band. It’s a simple song and so it makes sense to make a simple music video. A song about friendship essentially and it relates to the Australian dessert. It also makes sense to make a road trip movie. We got a rental van and drove to central Australia and started filming and just hung out.  We kept it really light and focus on what’s the track about.

Paul and Simon states it’s really hard to describe their music to somebody at the side of the street if they were to promote the band. There is no words but at the same time I don’t really demand anyone to listen to us as Paul said. However, it’s just good music.

That’s it! Our interview with the man on the keyboard – Simon and the bassist – Paul! Do check out their music (Hiatus Kaiyote) and discover more artists here in www.kpoptimelotus.com. Our publication would like to thank Sony Music Malaysia for the opportunity for the interview.