Local Natives

Thu 18th Nov, 2010 in Features

All it took for Local Natives to catapult out of musical obscurity was playing a string of breakthrough indie shows at America’s influential South by South West Showcase last year.

Since then, 12 short months of touring European territory and winning over the ears of Britain have passed and the American newcomers are ready to grace Australian shores with their debut album, Gorilla Manor. Lead singer Taylor Rice shared why he’s so keen to visit down under and play at St Jerome’s Laneway Festival.

Hi Taylor. How’s your day been so far?
It’s been really wonderful. You’ve caught me on a super rare day off. We’ve just been hanging out in London all day.

Oh, great. Well firstly, I initially discovered Local Natives last November when I streamed Wide Eyes and now I hear it in Australian supermarkets and so on. I’m pretty thrilled with how big you guys have gotten in the sense that you’ve shorten out of obscurity to a global name. Could you share what this has been like for you?
This year has just been really amazing in terms of that. Like you said, that being a “global band”. It sounds so weird to say that already. But what happened – which was especially interesting and kind of unexpected from our perspective – was we actually got signed first in Europe in the UK. We did our first headline tour in Europe and we played our biggest shows in London and across Europe before it really took off in the US which is where we’re from. That was something we really didn’t expect, but it’s just been amazing.

We just did a French tour last week. And it has probably been our third or fourth time in Paris this year. And we’re in London today and we’ve got to go to Japan this summer and all of these places you dream of. I mean, we’ll play in our band and we’ll work really hard and we’ll get known in the US hopefully. Maybe in a couple of albums we can get across the world and one day get to Australia. It’s so amazing for us on our first album that we’ve been able to travel the world. Australia has kind of been like the one place we’ve had our eye on. And it all worked out awhile ago, but this will be our first time there for Laneway.

Did South by South West really help you guys get your name and sound out there and catapult to where you’re at now?
Yeah, exactly. That’s really what helped get the word out about us, especially in the UK where it started as I was mentioning. That’s because so much of the industry come down to South By. They come down to Austin. We were a band getting messages in our inbox from these people from across the world saying: “Hey, I’m going to South By. I’d love to see you there”. We really didn’t know what it would turn into. We booked nine shows and played them in three days. And every single show there were just more and more people there not even from America. So it was kind of ironic that this festival in Austin, Texas [laughs] turned out to be so helpful for us in spreading our music across the world.

Who would have thought it would eventually catalyse a trip to Australia! What you’re looking forward to most about visiting Down Under? What’s so appealing?
For me, it’s about traveling. Playing shows is always great and getting to know audiences and seeing how different audiences react, but my favourite thing about traveling if kind of the time off and getting to know each country a little bit. Getting to go to the restaurants that are kind of typical or just meet people and see how cultural attitudes are different. I guess that’s what I’m looking forward to the most. I was a sociology major in school, so that’s what interests me. I’ve heard just nothing but good things about Australia and how it’s a very interesting mix where it’s still “Western” in the sense of how London is this crazy departure from Los Angeles versus Japan – which is like being in a whole different universe – but at the same time there’s even a more laid back feel even more so than LA.

It’s also pretty neat that while you’re here you’ll be sharing the Laneway stage with an impressive artist line-up including Beach House, Warpaint, Deerhunter, Foals. How do you feel about that?
Playing with other artists like that has also been just one of the incredible joys of being able to tour so much this year. You know, I’ve gotten to meet a lot of my heroes even this year just by being on the road. I’ve gotten to watch so many bands that I admire and respect. And it’s really incredible to be able to play a festival and you play your set, but then you get to watch maybe four or five sets of other bands that you love and you’ve been listening to.

Beach House is a good example. We spun their record so much; actually we got a leak of it before it even came out and it was last year. We were listening to it to death and played a bunch of festivals with them this summer. I watched their set a couple of times and got to say hi to them and stuff. It’s been stories like that. Or Broken Social Scene is another example. For the past year we’ve gotten to hang out a lot. So yeah, I’m really excited to catch Deerhunter. I’ve never seen them play before. Warpaint we actually just did the French tour. So we’ve just been with them this whole week. But yeah, there are a lot of bands I’m looking forward to seeing.

Does that mean you will be rehearsing a lot? I mean, what’s your schedule like? Do you get nerves or are you use to playing alongside big names at such large-scale shows with sardine-packed audiences now?
I don’t think we’ve rehearsed a single time in the last year and a half [laughs]. And that’s not because we don’t need to rehearse; it’s because we’ve been playing shows all the time. We’ve just been touring very, very solidly. So right before this Europe tour that we’re on currently we were doing a US tour which was a six week tour. And before that we were in Europe all summer doing festivals. So we’ve really just been playing shows so consistently and I think what’s great about his Australian trip is that it’s actually the first time we’ve got December and January pretty much off before we come over for Laneway. So I think we might have to put in a rehearsal or two because that’ll be a very foreign concept to us to play songs that we haven’t played in the last week.

How would you describe your sound? I’ve read so many different descriptions, but I’m interested in yourself… how would you describe the sound?
Oh, boy! This is the hardest question. It’s hard for me because what I think about our sound is that we’re a very collaborative band in terms of our writing process. It’s not like I write every single song or two people write every single song. It’s a lot of input. So as a result, it kind of really ranges I feel on the album. It covers a lot of territory: emotionally, lyrically, musically. And I think that we’ve found common-threads in the harmonies. It’s Ryan, Kelcey and I who sing the harmonies; almost most of them. We’ve been singing together since high-school and even before; so for over eight years we’ve been playing together and it’s something at this point that’s just so natural to us. You know, musicians collaborating since we were kids type thing. It’s not like one day we just decided “oh, let’s try harmonies”. It’s something we’ve been cultivating for many years together. I think we’ve found common threads on how to use harmony as a musical tool and how to set a mood and building songs around that. The other main feature I think that stands out to me on the album which is kind of a thread that ties it together would be the rhythm section; like the drums. We really spend a lot of time on the drums. It’s Matt, then Kelcey who plays keys and also plays with the drum. And he was the drummer first actually. And they do a lot of integrated beats where, you know, they’re not just playing the same beat together. They’re playing a lot of different beats that integrate together and create something different entirely.

It seems like this shared aspect is essentially very important because you guys collaborate in every aspect from song writing to laying down instruments to even designing Gorilla Manor’s artwork?
Yeah, it’s like the democracy in collaboration of our band is something that’s embedded so deeply into kind of the fabric and the culture of our band and just what makes us “us.” What makes us Local Natives is this thing. There’s not really a decision that goes by, whether it’s artwork or making a song or making a T-shirt or making the website or whether or not we’re going to do a different acoustic version for a blog; like it’s all a group effort. And I think that it’s a little bit unique because in the end, there’s definitely a lot of discussion. And there’s some tension sometimes, but I think it’s a positive thing where it’s a real democracy where a lot of ideas are thrown out and we’re always pushing each other.

I’ve been reading your Outta Sight blog and it’s great that every band member provides fans with insight into the band’s journey. Will you be featuring your Australian adventures on there?
Yeah, definitely. I think Andy has done a lot of our blogging, but we all like to be involved in it and post photos through our Tumblr and so on, especially because we’ve been on a break for awhile. It’ll be the first time in Australia, so I think we will definitely do a blog post on our Australian adventures as you say and what we discover.

You mentioned earlier that you’ve toured with some of your heroes. Who are the band’s sole influences, whether it be musically or even books or art or anything. I guess artists would probably be easier?
Well again, there could be a diverse answer to that because each individual has their own. There are also group ones that we can agree on.

Like Talking Heads? Your Warning Sign cover was pretty ace.
Yeah, Talking Heads is a great one where we’re all really attached and connected to the energy of Talking Heads. There’s kind of a phonetic nature and dynamic to Talking Heads that we relate with a lot. I think it’s a good example. I could also point to contemporary bands like Animal Collective or Broken Social Scene who are influential to us. Definitely harmony wise, we group up listening to The Beach Boys and to The Zombies and bands in the sixties who were using harmony in a way that to us was novel; it’s not Barbershop Quartet. It’s not cheesy. It’s got a more jazz element to it. And it’s just interesting. It doesn’t just have to be a standard thing; you can use harmony in so many different ways. For me personally during the making of this record, Sufjan Stevens was a very big influence for me personally on a lyrical level and instrumental level. Also, Andrew Bird. You should definitely check him out.

So what can Australia expect at Laneway? Will you just play original penned songs or spice up the set-list with some covers or new material, too?
We’ll likely play, hmm… well we’ll see because it’ll be a break so maybe we’ll have to see what we kind of work on in the mean time. But you can definitely expect the track Some Girl Amanda and probably the cover song on there from Talking Heads Warning Sign. But I think that what’s a little bit different and why I’m so excited to play Australia for the first time is that our live show tends to be a bit more energetic; a bit more raw than the album is. And so I think that this is our first stab at an album and we’re still kind of learning there. Whereas, I think we feel a bit more comfortable in the live setting; it’s something we’ve been doing for a long time. It’s a little more high energy. I’m really excited to get to Australia and play for all of you people there.

Local Natives are set to tour Australia in February as part of St Jerome’s Laneway Festival and at sideshows in Melbourne and Sydney