Half Waif
Brooklyn, New York, United States | SELF
Music
Press
Classically trained musician Nandi Plunkett can do a lot with little. In this debut track from her now released EP, Future Joys, we see the bedroom musician creating a scope so big that it's hard to imagine anything but a full studio or a live audience behind her. Her voice is comforting, placating, and vibrant in ways that contribute layers of nuance to the track, "Wooden Horse", which makes us think of Plunkett as a musically inclined Helen of Troy, using her wiles to woo us. The song is a particularly shimmery one, with key changes and pitch shifts that make it not your standard ethereal piano pop song. "Wooden Horse" has an icy heart and clear eyes, and while the ambient noise lying under it all makes it feel like it could stay frigid, it lights up with color and life in due time. And it's well worth the wait. - Impose Magazine
Classically trained musician Nandi Plunkett can do a lot with little. In this debut track from her now released EP, Future Joys, we see the bedroom musician creating a scope so big that it's hard to imagine anything but a full studio or a live audience behind her. Her voice is comforting, placating, and vibrant in ways that contribute layers of nuance to the track, "Wooden Horse", which makes us think of Plunkett as a musically inclined Helen of Troy, using her wiles to woo us. The song is a particularly shimmery one, with key changes and pitch shifts that make it not your standard ethereal piano pop song. "Wooden Horse" has an icy heart and clear eyes, and while the ambient noise lying under it all makes it feel like it could stay frigid, it lights up with color and life in due time. And it's well worth the wait. - Impose Magazine
Discography
"Vespers" single, released July 2012
"Black Mountains" split 7" with Deerhoof, released on Famous Class Records in October 2012
Future Joys EP, released May 2013
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Bio
Half Waif began as the solo project of Nandi Rose Plunkett. Freshly graduated from liberal arts school with a degree in music--and newly alone in the unknown city of New York--she spent a great deal of time in her pea-sized bedroom, forsaking space so that a giant electric piano could fit in the crack between the bed and the wall. Pulling inspiration from Debussy, Feist, Joanna Newsom, and Erik Satie, she created a breed a classical pop all her own, striving to weave in some of the Celtic vocal inflections and Indian rhythms that make up her heritage. During this time of incubation and reflection, Nandi befriended Deerhoof drummer Greg Saunier, who became an unimaginably important source of inspiration and encouragement.
After releasing the song "Vespers" independently via bandcamp in July 2012, Half Waif joined Deerhoof on a split 7", released by Brooklyn label Famous Class in October 2012 as part of its LAMC series. It was at this time that Nandi met Thomas Alton Crane and Greg Chudzik, both jazz conservatory-trained musicians and long-time contributors to the Brooklyn music scene who shared an enthusiasm for the songs that already existed under the Half Waif name and wanted to take them further. Since their expansion into a trio, the band has developed their sound from the more delicate piano/voice arrangements to full-blown baroque pop. The band's influences vary greatly--from Boz Scaggs to Angelo Badalamenti to Bjork--leading them to create a rich, layered, dynamic sound that inevitably stands out in a sea of lo-fi synth-poppers.
Band Members
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