There are songs about unusual mating rituals in the animal kingdom, the healing power of music, the beauty and comfort of home, and the relationships we have with ourselves, those around us, and the world at large. The album had largely been written before the pandemic hit, but when it did, they used the extra time to write even more and create something even more intricate. When you have nothing is when you really experience gratitude for what you have.” “I didn't really care about the mundane things anymore, so it felt really liberating to be in a vocal booth and find joy in capturing who I am, as opposed to psychoanalyzing it. “All the little voices of self-doubt or validation just went away,” she says. It changed everything about Nai Palm’s approach to life, herself, and her music-and the band began writing again from a different perspective.

The process was halted when Nai Palm (Naomi Saalfield) was diagnosed with breast cancer-the same illness which had led to her mother’s death when she was 11. The Melbourne jazz/R&B/future-soul ensemble began writing their third album, Mood Valiant, in 2018, three years after the Grammy-nominated Choose Your Weapon, which featured tracks that were later sampled by artists including Kendrick Lamar, Drake, and Anderson. “Things should change and evolve, and music is an extension of that, of the continuity of life,” Hiatus Kaiyote leader Nai Palm tells Apple Music.

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