Meet Half Alive

HALF•ALIVE

Dense production, perfectly crafted videos, energetic shows... There’s nothing left to chance for the Californian trio on its rise to success! With a few irresistible singles (including the viral «still feel.»), half•alive managed to put itself on the world map of bands to follow. Its music is full of feel good vibes and its aesthetic is worthy of some cinematographic productions, as proved on Jimmy Kimmel TV show a few days ago. Josh Taylor (lead singer), Brett Kramer (drummer) and J Tyler Johnson (bassist) talked to us about the backstage of half•alive. Let’s meet a charming, inspired and perfectionist trio !

On The Move: Hey guys! First of all, how was half•alive formed?

Josh Taylor: Hey On The Move! Brett and I met at church and we were sharing studio space and we started writing together. We combined our time to finish a song project I was doing, back then. Later, Brett met J on another project.

Brett Kramer: Actually, we all went to music schools but different ones and somehow, through connections, we met each other.

Josh Taylor: Also, I knew J through his brother.Brett Kramer: Yeah, kind of a weird triangle! (laugh)

On The Move: Where does your band’s name come from?

Josh Taylor: It came up in a film class I was taking at school. It was like the coolest film class I’ve ever taken!

J Tyler Johnson: The only class he has ever taken (laugh)

Josh Taylor: Ok, I’ve never been to school, I gotta go now (laugh) Actually, it was called «The Theory of Fiction in Films» and in there, we were studying Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, just psychology in general. They both agree on theories that say the human soul is divided in two: one side computes for life, one side computes for death. So, somehow, you end up as being half alive. That’s where it comes from!

« we essentially want to build a structure to our songs that is flexible enough to change as we change » - Josh Taylor

On The Move: What does each of you bring to the formation, in terms of creativity and personality?

J Tyler Johnson: I’ll talk about Brett! I would say old Brett over here brings a liveliness, some comedy, and he is also a great lyricist. He brings amazing lyrics to the team. Everything he says is very thoughtful and very thought provoking. I love to hear his words, as well as his musician skills. He is an incredible drummer, he has great keys and he is good at everything that we use. So yeah, Brett brings a lot of really solid skills to the band. And the jokes!

Brett Kramer: Hum... Josh gives a perspective to all the songs that we write, he kind of filters our ideas through. A lot of the time, we write and we come up with ideas, Josh sees some things that we didn’t see and he gives a form to it all. All his ideas are really cool, he uses it and the final project ends up amazing. So yeah, I would say that he brings a lot of amazing perspectives and vision to our project.

Josh Taylor: Thanks Brett!Brett Kramer : And great videos as a director!

Josh Taylor : Well... J Tyler Ross Johnson! He brings some good vibes, he is always looking fresh (laugh). But it is true! I feel like J is very entangled to the structure of the songs, the foundation of it. Making sure that the chords actually work. Making sure that they are according down to the bass. Obviously, he is playing tones of instruments. I think that you’re good at seeing things that we miss. Like «What about this? Does this actually make sense? No it doesn’t!» Yeah, these details. Strong ones!

On The Move : That sounds quite complementary!

J Tyler Johnson : I feel so loved (laugh) So loved, that’s amazing!

On The Move : Your first track came from some kind of challenge you, Josh, put yourself into. It was about writing a lot of songs in a short amount of time. Can you explain that?

Josh Taylor: Yes, I was in film school for a bit, and I decided to take a semester off to just really focus on songwriting only. To really dive into that. I didn’t really have a game plan but a mentor of mine challenged me to put a number on it so I decided 50 songs in 7 months would be a good challenge. And then I just never went back to school!

On The Move: Now that you guys work as a band, does it always start with songwriting or has your process changed?

Josh Taylor: Yes, it has definitely changed! It was first just me, and then Brett and myself, and now, J has joined us both. So, I think it has just evolved towards a natural progression with that dynamic changing, as well. But we’ve done it two ways: either someone brings a song or an idea or like a core progression and we go from there, using that as a jumping point. Or we’re coming with absolutely zero and we just book time and say we’re gonna write and then we end up with something!

On The Move: There was a bit of a change in sonorities between your first EP «3» and the last two tracks «still feel.» and «arrow», going towards more pop territories maybe...

Josh Taylor: We did those 3 songs just to really explore what works, what we like the best. I’d say out of the three, we probably gravitate towards «The Fall» a bit more. But yeah, we essentially want to build a structure that’s flexible enough to change as we change. And as we’re writing new songs, it will just continue to expand, I guess. Not necessarily going into different directions but, just expand our entire vision. So that we can have something that encapsulates the EP but also something completely different.

Brett Kramer: I think that what we’re more interested in is to push forward the vision of the band. And making songs that are true and honest to that. We’re actually trying to not being pop. It’s not really that representative of our songs. We just have constant inspiration and are searching for different things for each song.

On The Move: Who are your main inspirations?

Josh Taylor: We are big fans of Chance The Rapper, Kimbra, Emily King, Tyler The Creator...

J Tyler Johnson: Christine and The Queens and Phoenix!

Josh Taylor: We honestly like to take from all genres and eras. We really appreciate the 60s and 70s! We love modern music as well, and we really like to infuse different genre and blend it together. That’s like a big thing for us! We definitely love the pop things but I think our influences are just multi-cultural, everything kind of. We don’t want to be too broad either but we like so many different sounds, we just grab little things we like and try to make sense out of it.

On The Move: The visual side is very important to your body of work, through your music videos mainly. At what time in your process do these ideas happen? Is it before, while or after creating a song?

Josh Taylor: Definitely after! I need to hear the song in its completion before any idea start popping. Or else, it won’t just be as locked in. Sometimes our demos are very different from the final production. Sometimes, they are the same but we never know. And certain ideas come from... Like if I hear one sound, that can be the start of an idea so I need to have most of it to feel like we’ll go to the right direction.

J Tyler Johnson: In the «still feel.» video, there’s a moment where they do the hand clap, it was an early idea but the song wasn’t done when we did the video so we thought «yeah, we will add that in!». Little things like that are way easier when the song is almost completely done because this subtle moments can happen and it also creates a better video aesthetic. Those are small details we can adjust. That’s how we approach things, little motions that can be really cool when you see it and hear it at the same time. We love to try to mess with that a bit!

« What we’re more interested in is to push forward the vision of the band » - Brett Kramer

On The Move: Do you find inspirations in other artists’ music videos?

Josh Taylor: Yes! In everything that Donald Glover/ Childish Gambino has done. Sia, Florence + The Machine, Christine and The Queens. Francis and The Lights. Perfume Genius also!

J Tyler Johnson: We have sort of a Youtube playlist you can watch with 20 videos or + that are part of our favourites!

On The Move: Dance has also got a strong presence in your universe. Where does it come from?

J Tyler Johnson: My brother Jordan first choreographed our «aawake at night» music video. Josh wanted to mess with some dance ideas and we really ended up loving these parts of the videos. On «still feel.», Jordan co-choreographed the dance as well, he is also the dancer in it with the other choreographer.

On The Move: What were the biggest challenges on these videos? Was it the dance part?

Brett Kramer: I’d say the time table, the logistics!

Josh Taylor: For me, the dance was a lot... I had a lot to learn, for «still feel.» especially and I remember practicing a lot, just in my room. In front of my mirror, making sure my moves would look good (laugh). In the studio, learning the dance parts, I was a mess, a hot mess. I was forgetting every single thing. I promised that I would practice at home and I did! And I got better, thankfully!

J Tyler Johnson: But all the videos have been one day shoots so that’s why it was like a challenge, it had that stress. Especially for Josh directing it and having all these scenes to shoot, these movements to learn. We also built the entire space for «arrow»!

Josh Taylor: Yeah, that was a struggle, none of it existed before the video.

« All our latest videos were shot in one day, that was a challenge » - J Tyler Johnson

On The Move: The hand choreo in «arrow» is pretty incredible. Was it hard to execute?

J Tyler Johnson: We didn’t do it actually but these dancers were incredible! The choreographers hired friends of theirs that are dancers and they killed it in like three shots. That was the quickest thing. They were amazing!

Josh Taylor : Plus I think they changed the way to do it, like above head, last minute but that was the easiest part, honestly.

On The Move: Do you guys bring all that aesthetic on stage as well?

J Tyler Johnson: Yes, we do! Color aesthetic, movements, we got it all (laugh) All these things are very important to us so we wanna keep it as much as possible, through our merch, through our live shows, and our videos.

Josh Taylor: You can expect the same intentionality that we bring through the songs, the lyrics... It comes into the shows as well. It is all very intentional!

J Tyler Johnson: Plus, so far, the response in Europe has been really great. We were in Berlin a few days ago and people were very welcoming. It was very fun there. Being in a new area and get to play and meet these people that come from so far from us and being able to connect through the music... it’s been incredible!

On The Move: What can we expect from you this year?

Josh Taylor: A larger body of work, for sure! But the details are yet to be announced...

J Tyler Johnson : To be denounced (laugh)

On The Move: One last question, who are you listening to at the moment?

Josh Taylor: Emily King for me! She recently released a new record that has blown my mind, that’s so good.

Brett Kramer: Conor Oberts and Phoebe Bridgers.

J Tyler Johnson: Bruno Major, his most recent materials are really great!

Josh Taylor: The new Jungle record is great also!

J Tyler Johnson: All the videos of all these artists are so inspiring as well.

Josh Taylor: The hand stuff was choreographed the day before we shot!

J Tyler Johnson: And they never practiced behind the couch. They just honestly kill it!

INTERVIEW BY CORALINE BLAISE PHOTOS : ALL RIGHTS RESERVED