NEW Zealand band The Naked and Famous is excited its schedule has allowed them to tour regional Australia with Groovin the Moo.
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“We’ve always heard about it but never found the right time for it,” singer Alisa Xayalith said.
“We have played Big Day Out, so to go on to Groovin the Moo will be awesome.”
In a year that has been filled with great moments for the band, The Naked and Famous has just returned from Los Angeles and this weekend kick off GTM in Oakbank, Maitland and Canberra.
“We just supported Amazing Dragon on an arena tour, which was very scary,” Alisa said.
“We have never played in front of so many people before. It’s insane to think we have gone from small club shows to, all of a sudden, playing in front of thousands of people.
“You never get used to it.”
Alisa said there was a different energy playing to a room compared to an arena show.
“In a room you can see people singing and dancing and you can connect with them but an arena is just a sea of black shapes bopping up and down.
“I never thought we would play a show like it.”
Alisa and the rest of the band have matured since their first album in 2010, Passive Me, Aggressive You.
Three years of touring and more than 200 shows later, Alisa says the group had become better musicians and learnt a lot from their debut album.
Last year The Naked and Famous released In Rolling Waves.
“We learnt a lot through playing live and took that and applied it to the next process of writing,” Alisa said.
“The maturity and song writing has grown, which is important for the evolution of sound.
“(The evolution) is definitely evident between the two albums.”
The band met at musical college in NZ and after stumbling its way through a first EP, managed to catapult out of its home country.
“We were pretty fortuitous,” Alisa said.
“We were still figuring out how to record but we had some pretty cool songs.
“I do finally feel like a professional. My godmother is 70 years old and years ago asked how music could support me and told me I needed a university degree.
“Now I can say I’m a professional musician, so I don’t need to worry as much.”
Aiding that argument is the fact The Naked and Famous will head to the US after GTM for its own headline tour before heading off to Europe for more shows and festivals.
“Surviving the festival scene is all about staying alive and staying awake,” Alisa said.
“There’s so much travel involved, so many state lines crossed that your bodies always feel out of whack.
“It’s pretty crazy but then you go and propel yourself on stage.”