Biography
New York-based Half Waif functions as the vehicle for Nandi Rose Plunkett’s classically trained explorations on vocals and keyboards, channeling her searching and inventive approach to indie rock. Enlisting shifting collaborators across projects, among them several Pinegrove associates, Plunkett introduced the endeavor through the 2013 EP Future Joys. The group’s cinematic textures expanded steadily, culminating in a critical breakthrough with the 2018 album Lavender. Its fifth full-length, Mythopoetics, set a tone of fragile optimism against the project’s boldest synth layers yet when it appeared in 2021. Themes of loss and recovery shaped the more ensemble-oriented See You at the Maypole, released in 2024 with added instrumental warmth from harp and clarinet.
Plunkett was raised in Williamstown, Massachusetts, by an American father of European heritage and an Indian refugee mother; her lyrics recurrently examine displacement, interpersonal bonds, and the cycle of life. After moving to New York she recorded the Future Joys EP with bassist Greg Chudzik and drummer Thomas Alton Crane. The 2014 follow-up KOTEKAN added a string quartet and horns, while Probable Depths marked the first appearance of Pinegrove drummer Zack Levine and surfaced as a DZ Tapes cassette in 2016. Cascine reissued that album on vinyl the next year. In the interim Plunkett sang on Jaye Bartell’s Light Enough, and Pinegrove attained wider recognition when Cardinal placed on several prominent year-end lists. The 2017 Cascine EP form/a presented the stabilized trio of Plunkett, Levine, and Pinegrove-affiliated bassist-guitarist Adan Carlo. David Tolomei (Nymph, Effi Briest) produced the same lineup’s third album, Lavender, which itself earned critical acclaim upon its 2018 release.
Pinegrove issued its third and fourth albums, Skylight in 2019 and Marigold the following January, before Half Waif returned with The Caretaker in March 2020. A stylistic and thematic successor to Lavender, The Caretaker also reflected Plunkett’s multigenerational family history of displacement; co-produced by Plunkett and Tolomei, it served as the project’s first Anti- release. Themes of endurance amid difficulty informed the still richer Mythopoetics, issued on Anti- in mid-2021. Following two further Pinegrove LPs—Amperland, NY in 2021 and 11:11 the next year—Half Waif delivered its third Anti- album and sixth overall, See You at the Maypole, in October 2024. Conceived as a shift from the darker tone of prior work, the record ultimately incorporated experiences of loss, including a miscarriage and a family cancer diagnosis, alongside motifs of recovery. Plunkett and Mythopoetics engineer Zubin Hensler produced the sessions, which featured Pinegrove veteran Josh Marre among the players and received partial mixing from Andrew Sarlo (Big Thief, Bon Iver).
Plunkett was raised in Williamstown, Massachusetts, by an American father of European heritage and an Indian refugee mother; her lyrics recurrently examine displacement, interpersonal bonds, and the cycle of life. After moving to New York she recorded the Future Joys EP with bassist Greg Chudzik and drummer Thomas Alton Crane. The 2014 follow-up KOTEKAN added a string quartet and horns, while Probable Depths marked the first appearance of Pinegrove drummer Zack Levine and surfaced as a DZ Tapes cassette in 2016. Cascine reissued that album on vinyl the next year. In the interim Plunkett sang on Jaye Bartell’s Light Enough, and Pinegrove attained wider recognition when Cardinal placed on several prominent year-end lists. The 2017 Cascine EP form/a presented the stabilized trio of Plunkett, Levine, and Pinegrove-affiliated bassist-guitarist Adan Carlo. David Tolomei (Nymph, Effi Briest) produced the same lineup’s third album, Lavender, which itself earned critical acclaim upon its 2018 release.
Pinegrove issued its third and fourth albums, Skylight in 2019 and Marigold the following January, before Half Waif returned with The Caretaker in March 2020. A stylistic and thematic successor to Lavender, The Caretaker also reflected Plunkett’s multigenerational family history of displacement; co-produced by Plunkett and Tolomei, it served as the project’s first Anti- release. Themes of endurance amid difficulty informed the still richer Mythopoetics, issued on Anti- in mid-2021. Following two further Pinegrove LPs—Amperland, NY in 2021 and 11:11 the next year—Half Waif delivered its third Anti- album and sixth overall, See You at the Maypole, in October 2024. Conceived as a shift from the darker tone of prior work, the record ultimately incorporated experiences of loss, including a miscarriage and a family cancer diagnosis, alongside motifs of recovery. Plunkett and Mythopoetics engineer Zubin Hensler produced the sessions, which featured Pinegrove veteran Josh Marre among the players and received partial mixing from Andrew Sarlo (Big Thief, Bon Iver).
Albums
Singles
