TOM’s Charlotte Boumford spent the afternoon chatting cheese, sleep talking, Big Day Out, Coachella and new album, “In Rolling Waves” with Thom Powers, Jesse Wood & David Beadle aka ‘The Naked and Famous’ rhythm section!
TOM: How are we doing? Congrats on a killer Big Day Out performance yesterday!
Thom: A little tired, but yeah it was an exceptional show! So flattering having all those people there!
TOM: Before we get into the good stuff, let’s start at the very beginning- fill us in on how ‘The Naked And Famous’ came about?
Thom: It was about 2006, I met Alisa and Aaron at Music University; Alisa and I stayed there for all of 3 months but Aaron finished his degree. We just worked on demos and we really wanted to be in a band, I guess that sort of took us through to 2009 where we met the other guys and became a full five-piece line up. We’ve just been working relentlessly and ardently on this band ever since.
*Loud banging noise- David jumps*
TOM: Well, you’re all awake now!
David: I never drink coffee and I’ve had two cups of coffee today, I’m losing it!
TOM: So how did you two latecomers, David and Jesse, become involved with the band?
David: I’ve known Aaron since I was five years old, so we go way back. All the guys went to the same high school and I was always in the audience for the first few shows that ‘The Naked And Famous’ played.
Jesse: I was going to go to one of the shows once, half way there Thom called me and said “it’s not a very good one, don’t bother”… so I never actually saw them before I joined. If I went and it was a bad show, I probably wouldn’t have joined…
TOM: I’m sure that wouldn’t be the case! Now, the name ‘The Naked And Famous’ definitely catches the eye, enlighten me, where did it come from?
Thom: I stole it from a ‘Tricky’ song, the lyric just stuck out to me. I thought it was really flamboyant and over the top and embodied all the silly aspects of being in a band and being a rock musician- I just thought, that’s very ironic.
TOM: You seem like pretty relaxed guys, so I definitely see the irony!
Thom: I hope the irony is at the forefront of peoples understanding and when they read it they’re like “surely that’s just a tongue in cheek name!” As we get bigger as well and as our career progresses I hope the irony becomes more prevalent too. Sometimes people just don’t get it and think we’re dead serious about the name, it’s like… how can you possibly think that?
TOM: Keeping people on their toes, I like it! Just like the name, your music keeps people on their toes also, it’s quite difficult to pinpoint a particular genre. Where do you think you draw your influences from musically?
Jesse: I’d say alternative rock is a nice one.
Thom: Alternative music is what we all listen to and rock just makes you go, okay cool, guitar music! Guitar based rock music, I think that’s what we are. There’s obviously a lot of dance in there, post-rock and definitely the whole pop formula, you know, verses and choruses, hooks, 4 minute songs… that’s something we naturally gravitate towards as well.
David: We all do have different backgrounds, I grew up listening to a lot of my Mum’s folky records and so we’ve all got our own influences. Collectively though, we all listen to a lot of the same music as well so we come together on a lot of common grounds.
Thom: I guess David, Jesse and I all have a pretty strong rock background, so as a band you know with guitar, drums and bass I guess that’s where a lot of the connection comes from. Sitting in a room hanging out and playing riffs, they sort of come from those primary instruments. It can be different for singers and especially Aaron’s position; he’s an electronic/synthesizers kind of guy, he didn’t grow up playing synths songs, we grew up playing guitars. There’s definitely that element that’s very strong for all of us now, but it’s rock music that brings us all together.
TOM: Well the combination obviously works nicely, your first album “Passive Me, Aggressive You” was so successful! How are you feeling about the new album “In Rolling Waves”? It’s been a few months since the release, has it had time to settle with you yet, are you happy with it.
Thom: Only a few months though! It’s definitely going to be a long hard road to get it out there in the same capacity that “Young Blood” did. I mean, that took off on it’s own, it did it’s own thing. Also, there’s something to be said for being a buzz band, you know a fresh band, your career is pegged to a lot more when you’re a band that’s done this once before. You have a few more battles to fight and a lot more people to win over but it’s kind of exciting being one amongst many again.
Jesse: It’s not really a bad problem to have though! Can’t really complain can we?
TOM: The new album is a little different to the last, I find it to be more raw and emotionally charged, is that what you were going for?
Thom: Yes! Thank you! It definitely came from a more emotional place and a more difficult place, writing this record was not easy and finishing it was even less easy. The first time we were writing, producing and recording all at the same time; there was a lot of energy, we were younger and had more stamina. We decided to go the hard route to get it done this time, we were working towards a goal and we certainly didn’t decide to record, produce and write all at the same time. We did it all step by step and the aim of the process was to be perfectionists and challenge ourselves. It was a difficult process and a little old fashioned.
David: There’s that saying, ‘you’ve got your entire life to write your first record’ and so come the second time around you’re sort of working towards a goal, or some sort of deadline that you’re imposing on yourself.
Thom: It’s like, stop… and then someone says go again!
TOM: How long was the process of this album in its entirety?
Thom: We got a lot done in a short amount of time and a lot of sympathy from our management who now are going “I can’t believe we made you do that!”
Jesse: It was ridiculous. We stopped in like April 2012 and pretty much finished recording in May 2013, so what’s that?
David: A year and a month!
Thom: Looking at it now, I really can’t believe we did that. I’d love to do it again though, the same amount of time, just with the recording process a little differently.
TOM: For this new album you all up-routed to LA, what were the motives behind moving?
Jesse: Initially when we went there we didn’t really like the place but through touring we had a few days off here and there and got to kind of know the place a little better. It’s really practical from a music point of view; there are a lot of studios, rehearsal spaces and all the touring companies are there, so to start a tour it’s a really good place to be. If you were in New Zealand for instance, you’d have to fly everywhere- it’s really remote and inaccessible! LA just seemed like a practical place to set up shop.
Thom: And! It’s pretty cool to be able to say, we lived in LA once!
TOM: Was the writing for the album all in LA? Talk me through the songwriting process for the album.
Thom: A lot of the writing was done on the road, all the initial stuff anyway. We had a bunch of demos on my computer that we’d been working on whenever we could in the time that we were touring “Passive Me, Aggressive You” and then when we came off the road it took us a long time to figure out how to go back to basics and just sit there with a guitar and a pad and a pen and just write lyrics and that sort of thing, but when that kicked into motion it was pretty quick. I’d say that it was a two-year process, writing and then rehearsals and there’s a big stage that’s just producing. When we’re in the studio it’s a very executing process, there’s not a hell of a lot of improvisation.
TOM: Previously you, Thom, with the help of Aaron did all of the producing, this time around you worked with a co-producer, why the change?
Thom: We hit a brick wall. We thought we should just get someone else in to give us a hand. He worked with us on two tracks, he was just cool, he came in sat with me and told us we were being a little sloppy and just kicked our arses a little bit.
David: It wasn’t a typical producer role; the first two times we met him he came around to our house in LA, we just sat in the living room listening to demos, talking about them and eating cheese.
TOM: What kind of cheese? That’s the most important part!
Jesse: Brie!!
TOM: Well, I approve! Continue…
David: It was more like that, rather than being in the studio working on ideas face to face. It was very much a collaborative listening process.
Thom: The listening and talking about it was actually more valuable from a practical side. If someone sat back and was like, “that’s a great song, but I can’t hear your lead line or I can’t hear your vocal” it’d be like… Ah! Turn it up! That was just so valuable. I think next time we’ll probably try and engineer that process in amongst ourselves a bit more, so the band has more perspective on how to do that. Because sometimes we‘re just in the studio reproducing something and I’ll put three different guitar ideas down… first one, everyone will be like “yeah yeah that’s cool” great! … what about the second one? “yeah yeah that’s cool” … third one? And they’ll go “Great!” and I go, well screw all of them then, I’m not using any of these!
David: To be more objective, I think that’s the lesson I learnt.
TOM: Recording can be a hard process; it can all start to sound the same can’t it?
Thom: Yeah, you’re desensitized to it. It’s like watching a movie for the sixth time, you start to remember the lines and there are no surprises there.
TOM: Is there a song on the album you’re each particularly fond of?
Thom: ‘Grow Old’ for me.
David: ‘Waltz’.
Jesse: ‘To Move With Purpose’ is pretty fun live; I’m always looking forward to getting to that song!
Thom: It’s great live too. In the studio it sounds like a very electronic song and it is, it’s all synthesizers and loop-based drums, but live it’s like four of us on keyboards and Jesse with a live drum kit and a pair of brushes. So it’s just this craftwork with the drumming.
TOM: I really admire that the electronic side of things translates into your performances, what you hear on the album appears live and that’s fantastic!
Thom: Thank you, thank you! Honestly, we put so much bloody effort into it! Because it’s so wonderful when we play it live and people that have heard the records go “Oh my god, that’s the song! It’s exactly the way I imagined it and what I love and came to familiarize myself with” and it just gets performed to you exactly as you hear it in your head. Of course the flip side of that is some people come along and want you to do twirls and bells and whistles and fireworks and they get bored that your songs sound just like it does on the recording! You just can’t please everyone. Our preference is to play the songs as much like the recordings as we possibly can.
TOM: I wouldn’t question you on the amount of effort it must take to get everything happening in time!
Thom: It’s hell!
Jesse: Once it’s up and running, it’s great though! It’s just autopilot essentially.
Thom: It’s a big challenge to get it set up and running but also when it is up and running like Jesse said, it’s easy play around with it. It’s this ensemble of very strong, solid, instrumentation and concepts. It’s exciting!
David: We’re happy with what we do, we go in guns blazing and do the biggest best things we can.
Thom: We have this new monster of a lighting rig we’ve been taking on the road, it’s like a capsule, time machine thing. We’re like…. this’ll be fine.. this’ll be fine…
TOM: You’ve racked up some serious miles with all the touring, especially through Europe recently, have you got any highlights?
Jesse: It’s really proportional to how much time you have off in a place and what’s happening. We’ve been to Switzerland three times, but it wasn’t until the third time we got the chance to look around. On paper it might look like you’re doing all this fun stuff, but then you wake up in a parking lot and leave that night and don’t see anything, so it’s really hard to say.
Thom: I have a fun time with David. Jesse’s really good at seeing the sights and David’s really good at finding museums.
David: Yeah, that is true! Again, like Jesse was saying it is so proportional to how much time you get to spend in a place and usually we’re only there for about 19 hours or so, but it’s when you do have a little bit of time and you get the chance to walk around…. Oh yeah! I found this really cool museum in Amsterdam, that’s right! It’s called the Museum of Broken Relationships or something and so people bring in stuff, like a pair of glasses their ex gave them and then they tell the story about what those glasses meant to them or something…some of the stories are really, really heart wrenching and others were just hilarious.
Thom: That’s awesome! Why didn’t you take me? That sounds great!
TOM: I thought David did take you to the museums? Obviously not the good ones!
Thom: No, see that’s the thing, I’m the lazy one! I’m normally sitting on my computer in the dressing room so if you’re ever in the same country as us, you’re more likely to see these other guys.
David: It started with me wanting to go to the red light district and I don’t think you were too interested at that point.
Thom: It was probably just too early in the day.
Jesse: David says, “Oh I’m going to do this” and Thom and I are like, well that sounds stupid. He comes back and says “Oh it was awesome” and we’re like, “whatever it was probably dumb anyway!”
TOM: So David’s somewhat the adventurer then! It’s great to have you guys hear in Brisbane, did you have a blast at Big Day Out Yesterday? Get to see some great performances?
David: ‘Deftones’ were out of control, so sick! I was dancing and wiggling around the place drinking red wine, I’ve still got little stains on my fingers, I was getting so excited!
TOM: I hope you weren’t wearing a white shirt or you would have been in trouble.
David: No, but my black shirt stinks! Not this one by the way, this ones fine!
TOM: Well I appreciate you putting on a nice smelling shirt for today! So after your Big Day Out shows, you’re off back to America to tour with the ‘Imagine Dragons’, that’s awesome news! How are you feeling about an arena tour?
Jesse: That’s going to be interesting! We’ve never done an arena tour before so we’ve got a great slot. It’s a pretty busy schedule, we’ve got a few of our own shows booked in too. It’s going to be interesting being around that level of production constantly, where they’ll be a thousand people doing one job instead of one person doing a thousand jobs. I think, the bigger the venue gets the more comfortable It gets, there’s more space and stuff. Some of the smaller venues in Europe you get into and you’re all jammed into a small room and you need to spend ages making everything sound good. The arena tour will definitely be nice to be around and a part of that level of production!
Thom: I’m hoping there’s going to be this nice flow everyday. Like Jesse said, it’s easier when it’s bigger, you’re disconnected a little bit. Big venues do feel really empowering, and it’ll be nice to play to big audiences too and reach out to new audiences. I’ve heard some great stories about ‘Imagine Dragons’ production and what they do so it’s bound to be a very entertaining show, it’ll be cool to see that!
TOM: And, big news! You’re playing Coachella?
Thom: We’re really stoked! We’ve almost done every festival we could have hoped to have done, and that was one on the list, we made it!
David: We’re playing The Governors Ball Music Festival too, that’s another huge line-up so that’ll be wicked!
TOM: I’m so excited for you guys. Ten years ago, did you imagine you’d be playing these festivals?
Thom: Shit no!
Jesse: Even Big Day Out, ten years ago it was never a dream to play Big Day Out, it was like a fantasy.
Thom: I was going consecutively for about ten years to Big Day Out, the dream got closer and closer and one year it was like, what… I’m playing!
TOM: Do you guys have a favourite thing about being on the road?
Thom: I think just being with these people.
Jesse: I think it’s just satisfying once you’ve put in the hard yards and its kind of this very rewarding experience.
Thom: I find it validating. You do six months of miserable at each others throats rehearsals where you just feel like it’s really tense and then you get days on the road and days off like this, where you just get to hang out and be friends and play shows. You get your six months of being in a band and then you get your six months of bloody hard work. That’s what we’ve experienced at the very least. It’s total icing on the cake of course when all that happens and then you get to go and meet some audience members and they’re stoked to see you play and had the best time. That comes at the very end of the whole process and it’s so worth it. I love it. It’s such a privilege.
David: Like seeing bands at Big Day Out yesterday and getting goosebumps, it’s amazing that we can do that for other people. It’s awesome.
TOM: There have been a lot of laughs today, so I’d imagine there’s been some hilarious moments out on the road, I’m sure I’m not the only one that wants to hear a few stories!
Thom: Honestly, it’s a constant source of hilarity!
Jesse: David sleep talks! I constantly wake up and he’s swearing in his sleep.
David: Don’t listen to him, usually they are really intelligent, insightful things like inventions or epiphanies!
TOM: Somebody had better start writing them down!
Jesse: Yeah, we’ve got an App now, so once he talks over a certain volume it starts recording.
David: Well now you know, I’m chronic a sleep talker… Thom’s a sleep fidget-er!
Jesse: He smashed a glass off the table the other night!
Thom: I smashed another glass off the table last night, along with a pillow and the alarm clock. Just arms and legs everywhere.
TOM: Are you sure you weren’t writing a song on an air guitar in your sleep or something?
Thom: That sounds way cooler! I probably was, let’s go with that!
David: I was sharing a room with someone the other week and apparently I was playing the guitar and sat up and starting singing. Oh! The recent one was on a plane coming back home from LA to New Zealand. I was so tired and I was trying to sleep and my arm kept twitching and hitting the guy next to me, but I was too tired to do anything about it. Eventually he tapped me on the shoulder because it had been going on for a while, so I had to tie my arm into the seat belt like a straight jacket.
Jesse: I’m glad I wasn’t sitting next to you!
TOM: I second you on that one, Jesse! Now, one last fun question for you, if you had to personally sell your album to someone randomly on the street, how would you sell it to them or what would you do to sell it to them?
Thom: Oh, I don’t know, run at them and tell them to buy it and tell them it will change your life?
David: I don’t know.
Thom: Would you make a combo deal? Like, 2 for $5?
David: Someone told me to sell this, but it’s free, here you go.
Jesse: Someone’s watching me trying to sell this record, please take it!
TOM: I’ve had so much fun hanging out with you guys today, thanks for taking the time to chat with me and fill me in on the hilarity of the life of ‘The Naked And Famous’!
Thom: No, thank you! It’s been great fun!
