half•alive

Before half•alive, vocalist Josh Taylor fronted a Long Beach band called The Moderates, releasing an EP titled Colour in 2013. In late 2015 he set himself a seven-month songwriting challenge aiming for fifty songs; drummer Brett Kramer, whom he knew through their church, joined the project, and the two formed half•alive in 2016. Bassist J Tyler Johnson joined soon after, completing the line-up.

Their music combines indie pop songwriting with funk and R&B rhythm playing, favoring live instrumentation over programmed sound and leaning on Johnson's bass lines and syncopation rather than guitar riffs, giving the songs a percussive low end that carries the melody as much as Taylor's voice does.

Their debut EP, 3, arrived in April 2017, recorded inside a converted helicopter hangar studio in the Mojave Desert, and was led by the singles "The Fall" and "Aawake at Night." The songs built a streaming audience before the band had played a proper headline show.

The band broke through in 2018 with "still feel.," whose choreographed video, filmed at Popsicle LA and staged by Taylor with JA Collective, drew attention from Alternative Press, Rock Sound, NPR and Triple J. The single sold over a million copies and reached number seven on the Alternative Airplay chart, leading to a deal with RCA Records.

Their debut album, Now, Not Yet, followed in 2019 and peaked at number fifteen on Billboard's Top Alternative Albums chart, the first of four studio albums alongside several EPs and live releases. Onstage, the choreography from "still feel." carries through the whole set, treated as a serious part of the show rather than a gimmick.