Based between Sydney and Melbourne, Haiku Hands are the girl gang everyone wants to be a part of. With members Beatrice Lewis, Claire Nakazawa and Mie Nakazawa at the centre of the project, the group has established themselves as a firebolt of genre-transcending sound, merging pop, hip hop, electro, and punk influences to craft a high-octane signature sound.
Last year, they won over audiences in the US, playing SXSW and supporting Tame Impala, Chicago rapper CupcaKke, and Japanese punk four-piece CHAI on tour. Their debut is set to arrive this year, via Diplo‘s Mad Decent imprint, so we had Haiku Hands fill us in on their favourite records, as a hint of influences we can expect.
DJ Shadow — ‘Entroducing…..’ (1996)
Beatrice: When I first heard this record I had to pull my car over because I couldn’t actually believe what I was hearing. Entirely sample based Entroducing is to me the perfect combination of hiphop, trip hop and other more emotional electronic music that I was listening to at the time, bands like Radiohead and Portishead. It was one of the albums that made me want to make electronic music and it also had a huge influence on electronic music and so many other artists including, Thom Yorke, RJD2 as well as JDilla and Donuts.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs — ‘It’s Blitz!’ (2009)
Beatrice: I was very late to the party with this one but I have been obsessively listening over the last year. Karen O’s lyrics, vocal style and dynamics and melodies and just next level. She is a great artist. Also the music, the synth work is so unique and interesting and I love how the conventional verse-chorus structure is constantly detoured with small miniature grooves and sonic asides. It constantly keeps your ear engaged, the whole album feels like an artwork.
James Blake — ‘Overgrown’ (2013)
Mie: It was hard to choose between Overgrown and The Colour in Anything, both are such great albums. The melodies in Overgrown are so beautiful, they really tug on my emo strings. This album can change my mood or enhance the one I am in as soon as I put it on. I love a lot of sounds in this record, the little clicks and a lot of the snares he uses, I also enjoy the combination of the piano with all the electronic sounds. I have been close to over playing this album with all the flying and driving I have been doing lately.
The Streets — ‘A Grand Don’t Come For Free’ (2004)
Mie: This album was different to anything I had heard, it was what made me fall in love with the English accent. The album is one of my favourite conceptual albums alongside The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill (Which is just so good). The Grand Don’t Come For Free takes you through an emotional journey, kinda like watching a quality tv show. This is a brave album and open doors to a new style of music for me.
Cypress Hill — ‘Black Sunday’ (1993)
Mie: This album is very nostalgic for me, it reminds me of summer, sitting in the same room all day and breaking into the local pool at night. It’s one of the first albums I found by myself, I was so into it being playful, energetic, chill and naughty, it made me feel tough. I wrote the lyrics of Insane In The Brain for a year 8 assignment. A lot of the lyrics were very unrelatable to me, which made them seem quite surreal and I was into that, it inspired me to write surreal stories and poems as a kid.
Bounce around to Haiku Hands’ latest single, featuring glitch-hop producer Mad Zach, here:
Header image by Dan Monick.