Melbourne natives Hiatus Kaiyote are Australia’s newest export in genre-defying musicianship.
The group have enjoyed a meteoric rise since the release of their debut album last year; from shout-outs from Prince and Pharrel, to an appearance on Jay Leno, to a Grammy nomination, Hiatus Kaiyote have a signature style that blends the swing and timing of jazz against the driving beat of hip hop and soul. “It was relatively random, it was almost fate I guess,” says Simon Mavin, the man responsible for the band's keys, synths and electronics.
“All of a sudden we were all rehearsing and that's how it came together, it was pretty random but once we had that first rehearsal we all knew that it was pretty special and we had a good connection musically. Everyone has a different flavour they bring to the group and as a combined effort it works really well.”
Their debut album, 'Tawk Tomohawk', which was originally released independently on Bandcamp in 2012, was rereleased on Salaam Remi's Sony Record's imprint, Flying Budha. “It came out eight or twelve months after we started working together,” Simon says about the album the band recorded in the Northcote house they were living in. “There wasn't really any deadline as such until we got our manager on board and he just said, 'alright I need something by this date’. So we just threw together what we had and that was ‘Tawk Tomohawk’.”
Since then, Hiatus Kaiyote have toured an international circuit extensively with their own headline shows, were nominated for a Grammy earlier this year for Best R&B Performance and popped their American talk-show cherry with an appearance on Jay Leno – all from an album that was recorded in a house. “It’s an incredible thing to be nominated for a Grammy and it was an amazing thing to go across to America and be a part of the awards ceremony,” Mavin says in response to whether they have now ‘made it’ as musicians.“But no, not really, man,” he laughs. “It's not really an indication that we have made it as such; if you start thinking that way then why release another record? We would just stop doing what we're doing and be like, 'Well, we've made it’. We took it as more of a. 'You're doing a really good thing, keep doing what you're doing’. That's what we really took out of it.
“We're not trying to win anything with this next record, we just want to do pretty much what we did last time. We just try and be as creative as possible and just be who we are, no influences or pressures of any kind.”
Before jetsetting their neo-soul grooves across the world they honed their sound and musicianship to a delicate balance by playing a residency at a local club in Melbourne for seven months. “It was a Wednesday or a Tuesday night and we did that every week,” Simon says. “That helped us build our sound and put our set together and we slowly built a following from those gigs.”
One thing quickly led to another and before long the band’s fame had snowballed to a level that Prince, The Root’s ?uestlove and Pharrel started showing love for the band on social media. “I think the realisation came when we got to the States to play our first tour and every show was sold out,” Simon says. “It was quite a shock to go over and play to packed venues after you have been playing a residency in Melbourne.”
Among the highlights of touring America and Europe was their first US television appearance. “The Jay Leno thing was awesome, man. It was a lot of fun and quite a surreal experience. We just got off the back of doing a month touring through Europe and were due over there.
“We were in Amsterdam a few days before and we drove down to Croatia for a festival but we arrived late and missed the festival by half an hour. We had to fly back to Amsterdam within a few hours to get a flight to Frankfurt, then a flight from Frankfurt across to Las Vegas and then from Vegas across to LA and walk straight onto the Leno show. It was probably 35 hours of travel before we got there and did the gig. It was a surreal experience for everyone; we were all totally exhausted. It helped in a way because we weren't nervous, we were just ready for bed.”
Now the band are ready to play to Australian audiences once more, but not before work continues on album number two. “It'll be out early next year between February and April. We are still finishing it up, it's coming together and it's really close.
“It's been a while since we have played in Australia,” he adds. “We've had a couple of gigs here and there but this is probably our first major tour around Australia, we haven't really had a chance to play Australia too much.”
Hiatus Kaiyote will play Woodford Folk Festival, which takes place from 27th Dec until 1st Jan.
Written by Benjamin Pratt
Hiatus Kaiyote Tour Dates
Sat 15 Nov – The Hi-Fi (Melbourne)Fri 21 Nov – Stawberry Fields Festival (Melbourne)
Sun 30 Nov – Queenscliff Music Festival
Fri 5 Dec – Corner Hotel (Richmond)
Sat 6 Dec – The Hi-Fi (Brisbane)
Sun 7 Dec – Budda Bar (Byron Bay)
Sat 13 Dec – The Brisbane Hotel (Hobart)
Sun 14 Dec – Metro Theatre (Sydney)
Fri 26 Dec – Woodford Folk Festival
Tues 30 Dec – Lost Paradise (Glenworth Valley)
Fri 6 March – Womadelaide (Adelaide)
