They may come from a land down under, but things are certainly looking up for electropop quintet The Naked and Famous, quite arguably the best thing to come out of New Zealand since The Lord of the Rings movies. Its debut album Passive Me, Aggressive You hit No. 1 in New Zealand upon its September 2010 drop and is poised to do some damage on the U.S. charts following its March 15 release. Bolstered by hit singles "Young Blood" and "Punching in a Dream," the band already has generated some serious hype across the pond - they were considered for BBC's coveted Sound of 2011 list last December and received NME Magazine's award for most promising new artist in February. As the band gears up for its first U.S. tour, a presumably clothed Thom Powers (vocals, guitar) entertained tableau with his rad Kiwi accent while spilling about his buzzworthy band.
"We all met in New Zealand back in 2007," Powers said. "Alisa [Xayalith] and I met at [Music and Audio Institute of New Zealand], and we started making demos."
Drummer Jesse Wood, bassist David Beadle and keyboardist Aaron Short soon joined Powers and Xayalith, who share lead vocals. Powers said Xayalith, Short and he are the backbone of the band's creative process.
"Alisa and I end up writing the bulk of the demos for the band, and then I collaborate with Aaron for the production part," he said. "I'm like the driver. Aaron's in the passenger seat, and Alisa is the steering wheel."
Despite frequent comparisons to electronic favorites MGMT and Passion Pit, Powers named industrial rock stronghold Nine Inch Nails as one of the group's favorite artists and main influences. To be sure, tight hooks and Xayalith's frantic, androgynous vocals put "Young Blood" and "Punching in a Dream" firmly into the category of radio-ready crossover hits - which is not a bad place to be. But Passive Me, Aggressive You is less self-indulgent than MGMT's Oracular Spectacular (and certainly less so than Congratulations) and far less saccharine than Passion Pit's Manners.
Disillusionment abounds on PMAY, and the best tracks are the ones that harness that confusion into tightly controlled, up-tempo tracks such as the syncopated "All of This," on which Xayalith laments, "All of this is tearing us apart/ I don't know where us or this start." With comparable energy, the hypnotic "Spank" features some awesome Xayalith-Powers harmonies and a killer bed of distorted guitar riffs.
Like a proud parent, Powers couldn't choose a standout track off the album.
"I don't have a favorite," he admitted. "Every track on the album is there for a reason; I can't pull them apart. I see them as the album itself. The way we sequenced them was really relevant, and they all really complement each other."
Outsiders can have favorites, though, and for me it has got to be the impossibly catchy "Girls Like You." Powers takes lead vocals on the album's closer, disdainfully asking a phantom girl, "How would you feel if nobody chased you?/ What if it happened tonight?" and "Don't you know people write songs about girls like you?" A pulsing drumbeat and a sick dominant guitar chord make this one a "listen on repeat" track for sure.
With the band's future looking bright, Powers reflected on its journey up until this point.
"It's pretty amazing, really," he said. "We never really had any aspirations to leave the country. We were a pretty small indie band, so it's pretty cool - amazing, really - how things have turned out. Being able to make a living as a musician is what I've wanted to do since I was a young fellow. It's a dream-come-true scenario."
The Naked and Famous will tour the United States through the middle of May and then expand to a world tour for the remainder of the year. After that, Powers wants to get back into the studio as soon as possible.
"I think I would go crazy if we ended up touring for too long without recording anything," he said, laughing. "We find that creating an album is the heart of being a band and the heart of what we want to do. I just want to keep creating stuff for The Naked and Famous - other than getting to the gym, that's my goal right now"
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