Foto © Dan Fairman
Schon vor zwei Jahren hielt der NME fest: “When Haiku Hands become one of the most hyped live acts on the planet, it should come as a shock to nobody” Und seit dieser Zeit hält sich der stetig ansteigende Hype um den wilden Dance-Pop-Entwurf des australischen Kollektivs, bestehend aus Claire Nakazawa, Beatrice Lewis und Mie Nakazawa. In ihren Songs thematisieren die drei aus Melbourne und Sydney kommenden Energiebündel soziale Normen visuell und lyrisch. Am heutigen Freitag erscheint nun endlich das selbstbetitelte Debütalbum von Haiku Hands. Zu diesem haben sie uns ein schönes Track by Track geschrieben.
Manbitch
Beatrice – Manbitch was one of the first songs we ever wrote and it still makes me laugh whenever I hear it or we play it live. The look on peoples faces when we play it at shows often begins as confusion and then moves into laughter and joy. For me this song is a reclaiming of the word ‘bitch’ and a flipping of mainstream gender stereotypes which are well past their use by date. It’s also a soundtrack for your inner confidence beast, and about ownership of your body and the dance floor.
Claire – Highlights linguistics and gender stereotypes.
Sunride
Mie – We wrote Sunride at a time which was quite hard for everyone, we were touring a lot and were tired, but when we went into the studio we gave everything we had. I think this song cary’s a feeling of hope. I imagine myself sitting on a cloud and riding it through a blue sky when I listen to this song.
Claire – Explores relationships, trust, conflict and communication.
Also forgiveness and acceptance of each other and our imperfections.
Beatrice – Sunride for me is about how crazy life is, the connections you make through it and how people often see better in you than you see in yourself. I really liked writing this song, it always feels nice in my heart to sing, the chorus feels like you want to sing it at the top of your lungs with a huge group of people you love. This is one we have never played live and I can’t wait to be able to sing it with people at shows.
Jupiter
Beatrice – Jupiter is an ode to the almighty planet, a rally cry and a memo of understanding. It was one of our first tracks and it definitely set the tone for what was to come: an expedition into joy infused, high energy, genre-bending space exploration. Erupting with buoyant beats and jam-packed with attitude, Jupiter is a collaboration with some of Australia’s finest writers and producers, including Joelistics, jaytee hazard and Elgusto (Hermitude).
Claire – Jupiter is a feel good empowerment song about joining forces. Being brave, strong, independent minded and defying social confines.
FMA
Mie – The chorus came to life on the train going home from the Sydney Biennale, the international festival of contemporary art. We found enjoyment out of the ridiculousness of the art/fashion world and made up the chant fashion fashion, model model, art art art. We chanted this all the way back to the inner west. I hope when people are feeling uncomfortable in certain industries they can think of this song and it will remind them that it is all a bit ridiculous and then they can enjoy themselves.
Beatrice – “I want to talk about myself”. Fashion Model Art is a moment in time when you don’t know where to put or what to do with both your hands in a social scenario. It’s a dedication to those moments at every Art Gallery opening or social event where you have most definitely undressed or forgotten to clean under your nails. It’s also about celebrating those parts of yourself… Art is weird, models are weird, fashion is weird, life is weird but I do thoroughly enjoy it.
Claire – Is ridiculousness in disguise
Onset
Beatrice – Our friend Mad Zach came to see us play our first show in Berlin where he lives. After the show he told me he thought he knew a vibe that our set needed, I sent him a vocal sample of mine, which is at the start of the track and in the following few days Zach delivered Onset in its completed form. It’s the perfect combination of lofi, booty bass meeting Zach’s signature dark sound with a sprinkling of breakdancing lasers and g-funk west coast synth whistles. After he came to see our show in Berlin we all went and saw Aphex Twin play at the Funkhaus and although this has no relevance to the creation of this song I thought you should know because it was one of the greatest moments of my life
Claire – Is a vibe gang song, having fun over a sweet beat and exploring bravado.
Eat This Bass
Claire – Is a unicorn. It started out with Beas hook and the rest of it was structurally written in a single take of freestyle gibberish pure expression that we then put words to. It’s one of my faves for sure.
Beatrice – I started writing Eat This Bass with a producer from Vienna called Mirac at Red Bull Music Academy in Montreal in 2016. We wrote the intro and then ‘eat this bass’ phrase over a very different beat, then one day out of the blue Mirac sent this new version and I will never forget opening the email in my house and hearing it coming bursting through the speaker like it was punching it’s way out. I took it into the writing room and Claire pretty much improvised both the verses and it was one of the most amazing free flowing bursts of improvised creativity I have ever seen. I remember having “6 burgers with the lot” written in my writing book and Joel saw it and it kicked started the chorus.
Car Crash
Claire – Was ones of the first songs written and recorded and was written and recorded in a day. Joel stayed up until 2am mixing my vocals that night. It’s quite a vulnerable song, I was the greenest vocalist out which you can tell but I think it adds to the honesty. It was inspired by a really good friend who I love.
Super Villain
Claire – Embodies rage, power, determination and feels good.
Mie – This is the perfect morning chant, ‘Fuck this shit, i’m a do this if I want I want when I want, I’ma get it’.
Beatrice – Super Villain the beat was written by Travis Stewart aka Machinedrum, he wrote it with his awesome wife Lexi. We loved it as soon as we heard it, I often judge a beat by if it makes Claire get up off the chair and dance and I remember she got up straight away for this one. We wrote the lyrics over two days in Melbourne with Joel Ma then we proceeded to put it in our live show pretty quickly. It’s been the closing song of our show for a while now and it’s an epic full stop, punch line final banger. It’s one of my favourite moments of the show as we often get into the crowd for the final chorus and it’s total debauchery.
Mechanical Animal
Beatrice – Mechanical Animal has possibly been through the most verse iterations of all the songs. The chorus and main theme of a meeting place between technology and our natural animal instincts has stayed the same but we have explored many different narratives to get there. I remember we were in a writing session and we went to the gym for a break, I was running on a treadmill and watching a documentary about seals – we came back to the studio and lines like ‘I’m a blue sea cub’ got in there. I then went to Red Bull Music Academy in Montreal and worked on this song with Just Blaze, he thought our lyrics like the ‘blue sea cub’ and another one ‘I wanna bite your tongue’ were “really weird” so we ended up re-writing some of it. Theo Parrish walked into the writing room at one point, he walked straight up to the mic and in his amazing voice which is 4 octaves lower than any of ours started saying: “We bang them drums”.
Claire – We started writing this song early on and revisited it a fair bit. It was a quirky song from the beginning and never allowed itself not to be. In the end we accepted and embraced it for the unique song it is.
I See You Baby
Beatrice – Technology. We are all turning into computers.
Morning Becomes
Mie – ‘Morning becomes’ feels like a bow to the journey of an all nighter, celebrating friendship and play. We all like partying and are usually some of the last awake. I love those occasions when people let their guards down and we can all share our raw, creative caring emotions. We went wild on the add libs on this track to capture the free and wild precious moments of an all nighter with your beautiful friends.
Beatrice – Morning Becomes is a song about friends and being out all night and watching the sun come up. I’ve had some of the greatest times of my life in moments like these. Being away from my friends and community so much over the last few years because of touring has made me really appreciate how important those connections are. This feels like an ode to that, an ode to the people in your life who you want to watch the sun rise with.
Claire – Is about having an all nighter and feeling existential.
