The Naked and Famous are a New Zealand indie electronic band from Auckland, formed in 2007. The band currently consists of Alisa Xayalith and Thom Powers.
members: Ben Knapp, Alisa Xayalith, Jordan Clark, Thom Powers, Aaron Short, David Beadle, Jesse Wood
formed in: Auckland
labels: Island Records, Fiction Records
genres: synth-pop
awards: Aotearoa Music Award for Best Group
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Xayalith (born 1986 in Auckland) is the daughter of Laotian refugees and was raised together with a younger brother. Her father introduced her to his native folk music and, at the age of 13, she taught herself guitar. Powers had been playing in local bands from an early age after he had been taught to play guitar by his father.
The band formed in 2007 when Powers and Xayalith were working on what became two extended plays—This Machine and No Light—that they recorded with engineer Aaron Short, a fellow student at Auckland's Music and Audio Institute of New Zealand. The EPs were subsequently released on local independent label Round Trip Mars. Powers and Xayalith began performing live with Ben Knapp and Jordan Clark on bass and drums respectively, while Aaron Short became a performing member of the group. Knapp and Clark left the group in 2009 and were subsequently replaced with Jesse Wood and David Beadle.
The Naked and Famous performed at Coachella in 2014. On 20 November 2014, the band announced that they had begun working on a third album. The band began tracking for the album in September 2015. In March 2016, they performed at the Wanderland Music and Arts Festival in Manila.
The Naked and Famous took their name from English musician Tricky's song "Tricky Kid", which expressed ambivalence about the notion of celebrity. In the song, Tricky quotes the line "everybody wants to be naked and famous", from The Presidents of the United States of America's song "Naked and Famous".
Are you them, or do you know them? The mail slot is open.
"Punching in a Dream" is a song by New Zealand indie electronic band the Naked and Famous from their debut studio album, Passive Me, Aggressive You (2010). It was released on 23 August 2010 as the album's third single.
The song debuted and peaked at number 11 on the New Zealand chart.
The single was most recently featured in one of the trailers for Season 2 of the Netflix series Beef (2026). It was previously featured in the episodes "Kill or Be Killed" and "Our Town" of The Vampire Diaries and in the 2011 comedy Getting That Girl. It also appears on the soundtrack for EA Sports game, FIFA 12 and season 1 episode 7 of the show World of Jenks. The song is frequently used as the pre-match tune on Foxsports A-League coverage. It can also be heard in a car commercial for the 2012 GMC Terrain. The song can also be heard briefly in the short film Kony 2012. The song was used on the British series Made in Chelsea in 2011, and also in the 2012 film Pitch Perfect. The song was also used in the 2012 game Forza Horizon, as part...
"Young Blood" is a song by New Zealand band the Naked and Famous from their debut studio album, Passive Me, Aggressive You (2010). It was released on 7 June 2010 as the album's second single.
"Young Blood" debuted at number one on the New Zealand Singles Chart. The song received the 2010 Silver Scroll for Song of the Year.
"Young Blood" is a synth-pop song, featuring a buzz-guitar riff. Kevin Harley of BBC Music compared the song to the work of MGMT. According to Godfrey de Grut of NZ Musician, "Young Blood" is set in the key of F#, and follows the chord progression of B–F♯–B–F♯–C♯–B–F♯–B–D♯min–C♯. The theme of "Young Blood" is that of "spirit of youth" and its loss, and contains a "yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah" hook.
The song received critical acclaim by music critics. AllMusic's Matt Collar noted "Young Blood" as one of the top tracks from Passive Me, Aggressive You and described it as "layered and shimmering". Tom Cardy from The Dominion Post called it "one of the catchiest indie electro tunes I've heard in years". The New Zealand Herald's Scott Kara labelled "Young Blood" as "an inventive, rousing, and uplifting tune".
The accompanying music video for "Young Blood" was directed by Joel Kefali and Campbell Hooper of Special Problems and filmed on location around Los Angeles.
Jessie J covered "Young Blood" for BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge in March 2011. Chiddy Bang remixed it in September 2011. Birdy covered the song on her eponymous debut album Birdy. Her version was featured in the "Moment of Truth" episode of Grey's Anatomy and on Harry's Law at the end of episode "The Contest". A remix was also made by Dutch DJs Tiësto and Hardwell, whose version appears on Tiësto's album Club Life: Volume Two Miami. Machine Gun Kelly sampled "Young Blood" in his "Half Naked & Almost Famous" single.