Passive Aggressive

Hush magazine’s Ed Vint sat down with Jesse Wood and David Beadle of The Naked and Famous to find out about their music, their new tour and whether the New Zealand rockers like to take their clothes off.

Q: We’re here to talk about your new album Passive Me Aggressive You. Who’s the passive one and who’s the aggressive one?

A: It depends on what mood we’re in or how run down from touring we are. If we’re both charged up we can both be quite aggressive, but if we’ve done a week straight of touring or promo like we’ve just done now…
A: We’re passive right now.

Q: You were talking about your creative process and how you use USB drives as your notepads. I get that files come and go but how does that unfold?

The process of the writing, given the style of the music, we’ve got the freedom of being so computer-based with all the creating that we do. Things usually stem from a really basic demo whether it’s melody or lyric or whatever’s going on. And me and Thom will spend quite a while producing it and checking all its electronic layering. And that’s where quite a lot of the back and forth happens. Kind of the equivalent to what a band would do if they were just jamming out in a room working on a track. Rather than that, me and Thom are just sitting on our laptops and I’m chucking out a million ideas and it’s that kind of back and forth process. And that’s when we go to a live band environment and it’s all five of us working on it as a band and changing arrangements and really completing the track as a whole.

Q: Do you think that changes your sound as opposed to being in a room to start with? Is that what makes you who you are or is that just the way that you do it?

A: That’s just the way we do it I guess. We still have that band thing because part of that creative process is coming into the live room and seeing what does work performance wise. Because whatever is recorded, whatever track is in the album, we make sure that that can be translated live exactly as you hear it. So I guess coming together as a band and performing is a very important part of it as well.

Q: You guys have two singles right now, Young Blood and Punching in a Dream. The lyrics say “Punching in a dream, breathing life into a nightmare, I don’t want to be here.” What’s your take on that?

A: I wish I knew because I never remember my dreams. So I don’t have much to relate to it by. But I think the name of the track itself represents quite well what’s going on. Everyone knows that feeling of being in a dream and you might be in a fight or trying to run away and no matter how hard you try and run you can’t run. Or how hard you try and punch, you can’t punch. It’s about all that kind of stuff. The feeling of not being in control, of things not being right.

Q: Let’s talk about being naked because that’s part of the band name. Yay or nay?

A: I don’t think anyone would want to see that.
A: I enjoy it in the shower. Occasionally if it’s a really hot night I could do a sleep naked. That’s about as far as my nakedness goes.

Q: To someone who’s never seen you guys perform live, what can they expect when they walk in the room?

A: We kind of follow with all the tracks in the album. Our principle the whole way along was what goes into the recording needs to be redone live. So we’re not really into completely reinterpreting tracks to work live. We like to be able to completely recreate what you hear on the recording in the live environment as well. So it’s a pretty full on set up with all the electronics and stuff.  

Interview |  Ed Vint

Photos | Todd Duncan