Hiatus Kaiyote Prepares New Album In June, Releases Single Anyar As An Introductor

Hiatus Kaiyote (Photo: Rocket Weijers

JAKARTA - The jazz band/funk from Australia, Hiatus Kaiyote, has announced the arrival of a new album entitled Love Heart Cheat Code. The album is ready to be released on June 28, 2024 via Brainfeeder Records / Ninja Tune.

Along with the announcement, Hiatus Kaiyote also shared a single 'Make Friends' which is a snippet of both of their latest albums after the single 'Everything's Beautiful' which was launched last January. The band nominee 3 Grammys shared an announcement regarding the album Love Heart Cheat Code' through a humorous video with the background of a family supermarket and aesthetics of handycam recordings that can be watched on this link.

The song 'Make Friends' is the last song to be included in Hiatus Kaiyote's new album and uniquely they never planned to add this song to the album. Inspired by a wise words made by their friends that read 'You don't make friends, you recognize them', the song 'Make Friends' reminds Hiatus Kaiyote vocalist, Nai Palm, that deep and platonic love has not been well represented out there.

"I want representatives from various people I love from women in my life, even men, even my non-binary friends," said Nai.

The approach to writing like that is very natural and fun, continued Nai. Hiatus Kaiyote's latest single has one reverse universe, but Nai ensures representation for women, men, and non-binaries by changing the pronoun every time he sings the verse. Nai said, "When I sang the third verse verse, I used the pronoun they/them and I was stopped for a moment because I realized that the concept of inclusivity has not been felt by many of my friends,"

The album Love Heart Cheat Code is an overview of the lives of four musicians dancing together on the brink, depicted through 11 songs that exude the resounding musicality of Kaiyote's Hiatus. Although they are known for their complexity and maximal musical nuances, Kaiyote's Hiatus this time shines through simpler things on their new album.

"I am a maximumist, I make it difficult for everything," said Nai with a laugh. "But the more things you go through in life, the more relaxed you will be and feel freer. Sometimes we think 'what do we want to communicate to people?' I feel this album is the result of that thought for us. We don't need to complicate things if a song doesn't need to be complicated.

Kaiyote's Hiatus always considers their albums to be like a collection of microcosmos that form an ecosystem. On the album Love Heart Cheat Code', Hiatus Kaiyote prepared a visual world with multimedia artist from Toronto, Rajni Perera. They used one of Rajni's paintings as the cover of their latest album.

Illustrator Chloe Biocca and Grey Ghost then collaborated with Hiatus Kaiyote to create visual symbols and various artifacts for each of the songs on this album which were then linked with Rajni paintings. These artifacts are then transformed into real products such as custom jewelry, food, and so on. This makes them to then create a supermarket-shaped fantasy place where they work there as employees who put items on display shelves and clean the floor.