After just going on tour with alternative powerhouse Twenty One Pilots, the band Half•Alive has begun to rise to recognition thanks to social media platforms. But who is this band with their intricately choreographed music videos and dance-worthy beats?
Early Life
Half•Alive is composed of lead singer Josh Taylor, their drummer Brett Kramer, and bassist J. Tyler Johnson. In a feature in tmrw, the trio had formed in 2016 after performing at college events for a few years as well as various family members. In April of 2017, the band had put out their first single “The Fall” which was followed by their first EP, 3, being released that same month. The song “Still Feel” (which you may have heard in some grocery stores or even your local Panera), was labeled the breakout single of their first album due to its music video’s contents of neon colors and varied contemporary and modern dance styles. But, what was the thought process behind the inclusion of dance? In the same interview with tmrw, the trio discussed that:
“Josh’s friendship with Jordan Johnson of JA Collective sparked the first notion of choreography in the ‘aawake at night’ music video. After such a positive experience with that touch of dance, we decided to go full out and have JA choreograph an entire video for us, being ‘still feel’. None of us in the band have had any real dance training. Josh moves the most out of us three and interacts with JA’s choreo in the live show, but it seems like for all three of us our openness to movement has really been the biggest motivation for how much dance is integrated into our aesthetic now.”
You can read more of the tmrw interview here: https://www.tmrwmagazine.com/features/music/the-story-of-half-alive#:~:text=Kramer%20and%20Johnson%20met%20while,So%20began%20half%E2%80%A2alive.
Art vs. Social Media
Currently, Half•Alive has 3 albums out, with their third being the latest release from February 11, 2022 titled Give Me Your Shoulders, Pt. 1. Alongside the idea of dance, art has been a major conversation piece for the band. With their most recent song “Move Me” from the new album, Half•Alive scoured various social media platforms inviting various creators to come up with their own art or choreography to a thirty second snippet of the song. An outpour of artists on Instagram as well as TikTok came to create their own masterpieces depicted within dance as well as digital creations. The end result? Half•Alive had taken every last video they had received and compiled it into their music video for “Move Me” on YouTube. It didn’t matter that the creators had used the same snippet for their displays, due to the videos seamlessly being pieced together and flowing perfectly throughout the entire song.
Feel free to watch the video here (Spoiler Alert: it might move YOU to tears).
Music in itself is an art form, but the balance that Half•Alive has achieved in reaching every facet of art tends to create beautiful audio and visual display for their fans.
Be sure to give Half•Alive a listen as they enter their first North American Tour:
https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/37i9dQZF1DZ06evO4q0HyE?utm_source=generator