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The Naked and Famous’ Alisa Xayalith on travel, fans, and a new album
The long wait is almost over: the Wanderland Music and Arts Festival is happening in two days.
The event, which started in 2013, will have a Space theme this year. On Saturday, March 5, the Globe Circuit Events Ground will be turned into Wanderland Planet, which will let attendees have out-of-this-world fun. Aside from the music, there will also be food, art, games, and lots of fun activities (Zorbit and trampolines, anyone?).
The one-day festival will feature a well-curated list of local and international acts playing on two stages:
Globe stage: Curtismith, Chad Valley, Commandeur, Blackbird Blackbird
Main stage: The Naked and Famous, San Cisco Panama, CRWN & Jess Connelly, Cheats, Jensen and The Flips, and Oh, Flamingo (Wanderband 2016 winner).
GMA News Online talked to Alisa Xayalith of New Zealand band The Naked and Famous. Currently based in Los Angeles, the group has released two award-winning, critically acclaimed studio albums: Passive Me, Aggressive You (2010) and In Rolling Waves (2013).
Xayalith talks about how it’s like being on the road, writing, and some much-awaited new material.
GMA News Online: How are you guys today? How has 2016 been treating you so far?
Alisa Xayalith: Hello! Today was a long day, we spent the entire day in a dusty room in downtown Los Angeles working on a new song. 2016 has been productive. We’re moving along and that’s always great even though its taking us a while.
You guys travel a lot for shows. Do you still get the chance to do actually go around and explore certain cities while on tour? If so, what are the places that you enjoyed checking out? And what’s the activity that takes up most of your time when you’re traveling?
It’s encouraging when we see that we have a couple of days to spend in a city. We just did that in Singapore in December, we had a few people take us out to dinner and to these beautiful botanical gardens. I also got to spend one morning before the show just walking around the city and getting a feel for where I was. Often I’m faced with sizing up my options of getting enough rest before a show verses being out and about and exploring where we are at the time. Most of the time, for me, making sure I get enough rest sometimes trumps any prospect of me going out and having fun.
What’s the best thing about living in Los Angeles, and what do you miss most about living in New Zealand?
One of the things I like about Los Angeles is feeling like I’m living in the middle of a creative mecca. Mostly everyone here, is trying to make something of themselves in whatever creative industry they’re in. What I miss most in NZ is my family and the ease of going to the seaside. I love the ocean and I miss NZ summers. Our home town is so beautiful.
Your music videos are art forms in their own right. Personal favorites would have to be “Hearts Like Ours” and “I Kill Giants”—both are so arresting and beautiful, so well thought of. Is the band fully involved in making the videos?
Joel Kefali is responsible for both of those videos mentioned. He’s part of a creative outfit called Special Problems. Joel and Campbell Hooper have been responsible for all of our visual content across the board for years.
We leave the visual aspect up to them, they’re both so qualified in what they do and have really good taste.
So we blindly entrust them to have free reign on the visual aspect. So they have fun with having full control creatively and we’re always so happy with the result every time.
Speaking of “I Kill Giants,” how was it like writing a song this personal? It’s such a wonderful track, has the combination of heaviness and lightness that was made more beautiful by the video. How did you feel when you saw the finished video for the first time?
For me, writing about something this heavy was very cathartic for me. I remember Thom always pushed me to turn the lyrics/poem I had into a song. I think Joel did a great job of making something beautiful and haunting. I think I cried the first time I saw it. I was very touched.
How did #FanArtFriday on your Facebook page start? Whose idea was it?
We noticed our fans can be really creative and we all thought it was a cool idea to find a way to showcase that we appreciate the people that support us and if we stumbled across something cool we’d post it. If I see something on the internet, I’ll most likely post it.
A question that many fans are asking: Is a new album in the works?
Big fat YES. We’re sorry it’s taking so long, but we want to make sure it’s right. Hang tight. — BM, GMA News
The Wanderland Music and Arts Festival will be held at the Globe Circuit Events Ground, Carmona, Makati City on March 5 from 1 p.m. onward. Regular Wanderer tickets (P4,800++) are still available at SM Tickets’ website and outlets until March 5, 2016. For Globe/GoSurf subscribers, text WANDERLAND to 8888 for info on ticket discounts up to 25% off. Pay via GCASH Mastercard to enjoy 20% off your ticket.
