Hiatus Kaiyote Share Album Title Track 'Love Heart Cheat Code' | Brainfeeder / Ninja Tune

Hiatus Kaiyote shares the title track from their forthcoming album Love Heart Cheat Code, which is set for release on June 28th via Brainfeeder Records / Ninja Tune. Keeping in line with the album’s themes of cherishing the warmth of platonic love, its title track 'Love Heart Cheat Code' demonstrates how the same platonic love that the band has for one another seamlessly translates to their music.

One of Hiatus Kaiyote’s greatest strengths is their ability to write collectively, and that process is rooted in the deep fun the band has playing together. The band’s bass player Paul Bender shares, “Everybody in the band has an array of toys and sounds and stuff, and I just remember thinking, ‘I wonder how it would sound if I put my little bass pedal on ‘harmonize’ mode?’” Simon on keys then added in chords from an old Roland RS 505 Paraphonic synthesizer that elicited a eureka moment for the band and Nai Palm shaped the jam into what would become the album’s title track. Nai shares, “‘Love Heart Cheat Code’ doesn’t mean anything and it means everything. On one hand, it’s just cool words together. But also — and I don’t care if I sound corny here, because I’m a romantic — but I really believe if you move through the world with love, it’s the ultimate cheat code to the world.”

Love Heart Cheat Code is a snapshot of four musicians dancing together on the edge, 11 playful, exuberant tracks that shine light. Yet, for a band that made a name for itself with its complexity and received critical praise and multiple Grammy nominations for their embrace of maximalism, one of the most striking things about Love Heart Cheat Code is its simplicity. “I’m a maximalist. I complicate fucking everything,” Nai laughs. “But the more you go through things in life, you become more relaxed and uninhibited. Sometimes you can still have depth and reach people and really stop dancing around the fact: What do you want to communicate to people? And I feel like this album is a result of that clarity for us. We didn’t need to spell out complexity if the song didn’t call for it.”

On the forthcoming album, the band’s direction is not always attained directly; less deliberate, and more via deliberation and drift: in jam sessions that last late into the night and early mornings; in meals shared; in messing around with equipment and with each other. The album also features other Melbourne-based musicians like Taylor “Chip” Crawford, who played an instrument of his own invention called the frello; guitarist Tom Martin; and flautist Nikodemos; and the unprecedented addition of a very important creative force: Mario Caldato, whose work with the Beastie Boys and Seu Jorge is the stuff of legends.

Hiatus Kaiyote have always spoken about their albums as microcosms, a complete ecosystem. On Love Heart Cheat Code the band envisioned a strong visual world to coincide with the music and they worked with Sri Lanken born, Toronto based multimedia artist Rajni Perera using one of her paintings as the artwork for the album. Illustrator Chloe Biocca and Grey Ghost then collaborated with the band to create visual symbols and associated artifacts for each of the tracks on the project that pair alongside Rajni’s painting. The artifacts morphed into real products, custom jewellery, edible goods, ranging from the inspired to the haunted and utterly random. Eventually this led the band to conceive of an entirely imagined place, a Love Heart Cheat Code supermarket. The band; its employees who create these products, market them, stack the shelves, clean the aisles. In the banality of creating art into ‘product’ for the modern world the band find solace in each item and song as they are packed with transcendent and resplendent musical magic.

Throughout the album, Hiatus Kaiyote emphasises sensing rather than knowing, a type of trust that can only be brought through creative harmony and hours of studio sessions. The result is a wide-eyed, cohesive, yet relaxed body of work that reflects a deeper understanding of themselves and the music they wish to share with the world around them.

Hiatus Kaiyote consists of Naomi “Nai Palm” Saalfield (guitar, vocals), Paul Bender (bass), Simon Mavin (keys), and Perrin Moss (drums). The band have been sampled by many household names including The Carters (Beyoncé & Jay-Z), Kendrick Lamar, Anderson .Paak, Chance The Rapper, and Drake—with whom Nai Palm also collaborated with on his Scorpion album. They’ve also received co-signs from celebrated artists including Kehlani, Willow Smith, Virgil Abloh, among others. Last Fall, Doja Cat covered Mood Valiant single "Red Room" at the Live Lounge in Los Angeles and has continued to perform the song across her tour.

Listen to 'Make Friends' and find album details above, and stay tuned for more from Hiatus Kaiyote coming soon.

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