Nai Palm Of Hiatus Kaiyote Releases First Solo Album Needle Paw Available Now

NEW YORK, Oct. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Nai Palm – lead singer and composer of R&B future soul outfit Hiatus Kaiyote releases her first solo album – Needle Paw – today via Sony Music Masterworks. Find the album here.

A two-time Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter and musician from Melbourne, Australia, Nai Palm is a composer, instrumentalist, producer, vocalist and poet who approaches all of these self-taught disciplines with an intuitive, infectious grace. This gift has sent her and her band Hiatus Kaiyote on a journey to sculpt songs that have been received and treasured across the globe.

Celebrated by musicians from the late Prince, to Questlove, Erykah Badu and Chance The Rapper, and sampled by a wide range of artists including Drake, Kendrick Lamar and Anderson .Paak, Hiatus Kaiyote's success sets the stage for Nai's first solo effort.

Comprised almost entirely of her guitar playing and vocal arrangements, Needle Paw is Nai Palm's self-imposed challenge to explore the potential for immortality and timelessness within her music by stripping away the produced layers to focus on the element that is closest to the source of the human soul, the voice. As she explained in an exclusive interview with Julie Adenuga at Beats 1 "[the voice is] such an emotional instrument. So you really hear all the all the textures within that when there's nothing else."

Needle Paw is the rawest glimpse into Nai Palm's musical world. It is dreamlike, honest, and beautifully transparent, revealing her musical ruminations to listeners with a courageous vulnerability and artistic generosity. Nai sees this album as a reminder to musicians that they don't have to rely on production to expose their gifts. 

The album, which Revive describes as "magical" features acoustic versions of Hiatus Kaiyote favorites 'Atari,' 'Mobius,' 'When The Knife,' 'Molasses,' and 'Borderline With My Atoms.'

 'Breathing Underwater' from Choose Your Weapon is featured in a medley with David Bowie's composition 'Blackstar' and Radiohead's 'Pyramid Song.' 

The second non-Hiatus Kaiyote cover on the album is of Jimi Hendrix's iconic composition 'Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)' on which Nai celebrates the soulful side of Hendrix. View her performance from Paste Sessions here.

"People have a tendency to celebrate Jimi Hendrix's technically ability and overlook his writing ability. His soulful chord structures and movements are sexy as fuck. I wanted to celebrate the soulful side of Hendrix and be really playful with the vocal arrangements…It's an ode to femininity from a male perspective being interpreted by a woman who plays electric guitar."

There are six new tracks on the album written by Nai including the "Homebody" which she refers to as her "purest offering…a sanctuary to lick your wounds…without acrobatics."

Also featured is the medley 'Crossfire/So Into You' which dives into a topic that Nai rarely writes about … romantic relationships. The outro of the song is a cover of Tamia's 'So Into You.'

"It's a nod to 90's R&B but also an examination of how easily we can be drawn into coveting the idea of picture perfect love. I find most people are afraid of real love – to hold it you have to be brave," says Nai.

Nai Palm's approach to vocal arrangements is orchestral.  At any moment, the instruments she hears in her mind are presented in an organic blossoming of sound. A voice can be presented as a horn or strings or a choir of wild dingos. Her sonic environments celebrate the synthesis of sound and the points of contact that gather us together within it, steadily moving away from the artist as ego and fitting each heartfelt offering into the ecosystem of the entire arrangement.

At this point in her journey, she has nothing to prove to anyone, just something that provides for everyone.

Order / Listen to the album here - https://NaiPalm.lnk.to/NeedlePaw

Media Contacts - Sony Music Masterworks
Angela Barkan / angela.barkan@sonymusic.com  
Larissa Slezak / larissa.slezak@sonymusic.com
Colin Yost / colin.yost@sonymusic.com

SOURCE Sony Music Masterworks