Hiatus Kaiyote

2012-14: Debut

The four band members met in their native Melbourne, Australia. Singer songwriter Nai Palm stated she had a vision for Hiatus Kaiyote’s brand of future soul. “I always knew I wanted to be in a band, but I never knew it could be my own conversation.” Following a performance by Palm, bass player Paul Bender decided to seek her out; one year later, the two began to collaborate on compositions that felt intuitive. Bender brought multi-instrumentalists Perrin Moss and keyboardist Simon Mavin into the equation, which led to Hiatus Kaiyote playing their first gig at the Bohemian Masquerade Ball among sword swallowers, fire twirlers and gypsy death core bands. Gilles Peterson named them the Breakthrough Artist of 2013.

The band released their debut album Tawk Tomahawk independently in 2012, which was noticed by numerous musicians including Q-Tip, Animal Collective, The Dirty Projectors, and Erykah Badu. Shortly after, the band was noticed by Salaam Remi. Remi had been working in A&R for Sony, who had given him the opportunity to start up his own label, titled Flying Buddha. The band signed to Remi's label shortly after, who distributed their debut album worldwide. Remi later introduced the band to Q-Tip, which led to him featuring on a remix of "Nakamarra" which was included on the re-release of their debut. Following the release of "Nakamarra" the band received public endorsements from both Prince and Questlove via Twitter who urged their followers to listen to the song.

The band began receiving attention in 2013, when they were nominated for a Grammy for Best R&B Performance for their song "Nakamarra", performed with Q-Tip, but lost out to Snarky Puppy and Lalah Hathaway's recording "Something". In 2014, the band joined forces with hip hop artist Remi, the multi-faceted Kirkis, producer Silent Jay and vocalist Jace XL to embark on an Australia-wide tour titled 'The Sonic Architects National Conference'. Three additional backing vocalists: Jace, Loreli, and Jay Jay were added for this tour. During the tour Hiatus Kayiote met Taylor McFerrin, whom they credit for bringing them international attention after catching the last part of Hiatus' set in January 2014.

2015: Choose Your Weapon

The band released their second album, Choose Your Weapon, on 1 May 2015. Lead vocalist Nai Palm described the album as an "extension" of their debut, and stated she and the band had no intention to make a one genre body of work. During the recording the band wanted to pay tribute to the format of a mixtape, so they incorporated a range of interludes. The review aggregator Metacritic has given the album a normalized rating of 88 out of 100, based on 6 reviews, indicating 'universal acclaim'. On 9 May 2015, Choose Your Weapon debuted at number 22 on the Australian albums chart. The album also became the band's first release, to chart in the US, parking at one hundred and twenty seven on the US Billboard 200, and number eleven on the US Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

The song "Breathing Underwater" from their second album Choose Your Weapon was nominated for Best R&B Performance at the 58th Grammy Awards, but lost out to The Weeknd's recording of "Earned It (Fifty Shades of Gray)".

EPs

Singles

Music videos