ARTIST RESEARCH

The band formed in 2008 when Thom Powers and Alisa Xayalith recorded EPs ’This Machine’ and ’No Light’ with engineer Aaron Short, a fellow student at Auckland's MAINZ music college. The band took their name from a line in the English artist Tricky's song "Tricky Kid", "everybody wants to be naked and famous."

The EPs were subsequently released on local independent label Round Trip Mars and Powers and Xayalith began performing live with Ben Knapp and Jordan Clark on bass and drums respectively. Aaron Short became a performing member of the group. Knapp and Clark left the group and Jesse Wood (drums) and David Beadle (bass) joined the band as full-time members in 2009.

After recording the track, "All of This", the group then set about recording the single "Young Blood" and their debut album. "Young Blood" debuted on the New Zealand chart at number one on 14 June 2010 – the first New Zealand artist in three years to do so. The Naked and Famous released their debut studio album, ’Passive Me, Aggressive You’, on 6 September 2010 on their own label, Somewhat Damaged.

The band settled in Los Angeles in mid-2012 after completing touring for ’Passive Me, Aggressive You’. They had performed over 200 shows in 24 countries between 2010 and 2012. On 23 July 2013, the band revealed their new single "Hearts Like Ours" along with the release date for their second studio album ’In Rolling Waves,’ on 16 September 2013 in the UK

Members

Alisa Xayalith – Vocals, keyboards (2008–present)

Jesse Wood – Drums, (2009–present)

Thom Powers – vocals, guitars (2008–present)

Aaron Short – keys (2008–present)David Beadle – bass (2009–present)

Reviews taken from the Amazon page shown in the previous slide

BBC Music Review of ‘Passive Me, Aggressive You’

The last thing any fresh-faced band wants to hear is "hold your horses", but the slow-burn rise to fame can have ameliorating effects. Auckland’s The Naked and Famous topped New Zealand’s chart with their debut single, a synth-pop fist-pumper called Young Blood, and they’ve spoken about their hunger to bust their country’s confines and repeat its success elsewhere. No shame in that. But a rapid rise might well throw a harsh light on the quintet, whose potential is let down by the giveaway of a band still unsteady on their feet: transparency of influence.Their debut is an eager beaver, bustling with melody and colour, but little of it is fresh. Young Blood and its dutifully punchy, dream-pop follow-up single, Punching in a Dream, take their fuzzy-catchy cues from MGMT, with reductive romantic self-immersion diluting the lashing sarcasm of Kids and Time to Pretend. Alisa Xayalith and Thom Powers’ boy-girl harmonies recall The xx by way of, on the mumbled-word outro of Frayed, Massive Attack. The abrasive psych-rock surges of Spank and A Wolf in Geek’s Clothing threaten to generate sparks, yet the shadows of Nine Inch Nails and The Chemical Brothers weigh heavy.It’s disappointing because, although orchestrating ingredients is hardly the same as innovating, TN&F’s knack for layering songs and sounds could go somewhere interesting. They write strapping, festival-fit tunes, yet toy with template-stretching textures on The Sun and The Source. Ripples of drama fleetingly enliven Xalayith and Powers’ vocal interplay, she the forceful yin to his drowsy yang. And, in All of This, a sense of wistfulness sits well with an anxious, driving melody.That very urgency, though, is less well-served by a tendency to lapse into default bluster-pop positions, as if therein lies the surest means to force the A-to-B of Auckland-to-breakaway success. The 1980s synthetics of Eyes offer one example; so do the gusty guitars that strafe the otherwise welcome reserve of No Way. You could justify that over-emphasis as evidence of a broad-ranging band flexing their options and chafing at their limits. But, in songs and career alike, you could also say The Naked and Famous might benefit from a sense of pacing.

--Kevin HarleyWe don’t agree with the negativity of this review personally!!!!!

Reviews taken from the Amazon page shown in the previous slide

Record LabelsFiction Records is a British label founded by Chris Parry in 1978. They specialise in Post-Punk and Alternative Rock. The current Fiction stable includes Crystal Castles, Ian Brown, Snow Patrol, The Maccabees, Kate Nash, Athlete, Elbow, White Lies, Yuksek, Spector and Filthy Dukes.

Republic Records is an American record label that is under the ownership of Universal Music Group. The label was founded by Monte Lipman and Avery Lipman in 1995. It specialises in various genres. The label's current artists include Colbie Caillat, Akon, Lil Wayne, Nelly, Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj, Lorde, Drake and Enrique Iglesias.

AwardsThis is a print screen from the bands Wiki Page:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Naked_and_Famous

We're only young and naive stillWe require certain skillsThe mood it changes like the windHard to control when it begins

The bittersweet between my teethTrying to find the in-betweensFall back in love eventuallyYeah yeah yeah yeah

Can't help myself but count the flawsClaw my way out through these wallsOne temporary escapeFeel it start to permeate

We lie beneath the stars at nightOur hands gripping each other tightYou keep my secrets hope to diePromises, swear them to the sky

The bittersweet between my teethTrying to find the in-betweensFall back in love eventuallyYeah yeah yeah yeah

As it withersBrittle it shakesCan you whisperAs it crumbles and breaksAs you shiverCount up all your mistakesPair of forgiversLet go before it's too lateCan you whisperCan you whisperCan you whisperCan you whisper

The bittersweet between my teethTrying to find the in-betweensFall back in love eventuallyYeah yeah yeah yeahThe bittersweet between my teethTrying to find the in-betweensFall back in love eventuallyYeah yeah yeah yeah

Here are the lyrics to ‘Young Blood,’ the track we have chosen to use for our product, from the bands first album ‘Passive Me, Aggressive You.’We particularly liked the idea of love being 'bittersweet' in the lyrics and the transience of youth as we thought these ideas could be projected onto a story line well. We also liked the physicality to the lyrics from words such as 'whisper,' 'shake,' 'claw' and 'crumbles' as this made the lyrics stand out to us and added passion and reality to the song. From the animalistic sense to the lyrics we were able to already think of some possible themes for our own products.

We chose this track as the lyrics reflect our genre beliefs (youth/rebellion/fun) and it is one of the bands best known singles. When choosing the song we wanted to use for our final product we tried to find something that was upbeat and with a strong dance feel to it. We decided to subtly show our friends the track and ask their opinions without telling them what it was for to gauge an idea as to how popular the song was. Most had never heard of it but said they liked it very much and we received overall positive feedback from doing this. This reaffirmed in our mind our choice and we began planning ideas around the lyrics.