Interview - Local Natives (Summer, 2010)

The past year has been a big one for Local Natives. The L.A. band released their debut album, Gorilla Manor, in the UK last November, and brought it stateside a few months later to great critical acclaim. Since then they’ve sold out headlining tours, played big festivals, and even ventured to Japan. Melophobe had a chance to catch up with guitarist and vocalist Taylor Rice as the band headed to a gig in Philadelphia to talk about the band’s creative process, remarkable success, and plans for the future. And, of course, Taylor’s mustache.

melophobe: Hey Taylor. Thanks so much for doing this interview, we really appreciate you taking the time to talk to us.

Taylor Rice: Yeah, yeah, no problem. We’re just sitting in some traffic here, so no worries.

melophobe: Awesome. You guys are in Philly today?

TR: Yeah, we play at First Unitarian Church.

melophobe: Have you played in Philly before? Have you played at the First Unitarian?

TR: Actually, yeah. The first time that we came – or I guess it was technically the second time we came to Philly, but the first time was a self-booked tour that we played for probably about fifteen kids – so the first real time that we came to Philly we were supporting the tour with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. And it was such a great show, it was awesome. We played the downstairs room and we were thinking “Man, this place is so great.” And then we went upstairs to the dressing room, which is in the sanctuary of a huge church, and we just started imagining, “Man, this would be such a crazy spot for a show.” So luckily enough, this is our first time headlining in Philly and we get to play in the sanctuary, in this incredible venue.

melophobe: That’s awesome. I’m from the Philly area originally and I’ve seen a lot of shows in the downstairs, but the sanctuary shows are definitely really sick.

TR: Do people sit in the pews, or do they kind of stand?

melophobe: A lot of the times people sit in the pews. Most of the shows I’ve seen in the sanctuary have been quieter shows, whereas I feel like you guys will rock out a little bit more. So I’m sure you’ll be able to get people up and dancing.

TR: For sure. Nice.

melophobe: So you started out with a tiny self-booked, but now you’re headlining shows and playing big stages like Fader Fort, Sasquatch, and opening night of Bonnaroo. It seems like there’s been this huge explosion for you guys in the past year. What has that been like? Is that something that you saw coming when you recorded Gorilla Manor, or did it take you by surprise?

TR: I mean, it definitely took us by surprise in terms of how quickly and how well everything went. Our journey with this really started abroad – we got signed to a label in the UK first, and we ended up really touring there first. Our first headlining tour was in Europe, where we were selling out shows. So that was really unexpected. At that point we were just hoping that the States would be half as supportive as Europe had been. And then we came and did our U.S. headlining tour in February, and I think pretty much every show sold out and again surpassed our expectations.

When we were making the album we had been playing together as a full band for many years, and we all had school and jobs and things, but we hit this point where we all decided to move in together and really commit and say, “OK, the band is first and we’re going to make this work.” So there was this belief in the band. We had been together long enough to know that we thought we had something really special and we had the ability to make some really great music and get some success. But I definitely don’t think anyone was expecting to be as well received as we have been. You’re right, this last year has been a complete whirlwind for us.

melophobe: So you released the album first in the UK because you were having a lot of success abroad, and you started to get a lot of buzz in the States via the internet. And you became, for lack of a better term, sort of “internet famous” as a band. Do you feel like that’s still the case, or have you broken into something a little more mainstream? Like do people recognize you on the street, or you do guys still mainly fly under the radar?

TR: I mean, definitely not just out on any random street. We might get recognized occasionally in L.A. But we spend probably 99 out of 100 days in and around a venue we’re playing, so we’re definitely recognized at the shows that we’re headlining and that’s where we live most of our lives. We haven’t had enough of a break to really get past that.

But yeah, the internet and blogs especially have been very supportive of our band and sharing our music, and that’s how people got a hold of our record. Since then we’ve actually sold a few physical records, which I didn’t think happened anymore. But yeah, I think you’re right – people have definitely gotten and shared a lot of our music through the internet.

melophobe: I saw, on the internet of course, a takeaway show where you guys played “Airplanes” and talked a bit about where that song comes from and what it’s about. Can you walk me through the background of your favorite song to play?

TR: Well, my favorite song to play varies completely from night to night. Kind of dependent on - one, how we play, and two, the crowd. Each show is so different, just the dynamic between the band and the audience is different every night. So it shifts.

But an example would be “Who Knows, Who Cares.” That’s one song that I think people tend to connect to live, it’s a song that goes over pretty well live. It has this big, kind of triumphant ending. Originally that song was actually about that decision of many years ago. It’s our second oldest song on the album, and it was about making the leap of faith to say, “We’re going to put everything that we have into this band and into becoming tour musicians.” It’s about living life on the road and not knowing what’s going to happen. You know, how we’re going to get our next burrito from El Pollo Loco, haha. You know what I mean? Kind of just putting everything on the line.

And it’s definitely cool to now be playing that song. For example we just played Japan last week – our first time over there, at this amazing festival. A real highlight, I think, of the last year. And playing that song in Japan was just…at the time we wrote that song, it was probably the farthest thing in the world from anyone’s head. And now here we are playing this song and getting to share our music with people literally across the world that maybe don’t even speak English that well. It was pretty surreal to me, playing that song.

melophobe: Yeah, that’s gotta be quite a trip. Are you writing any new material while you’re on the road?

TR: Yeah, you know it’s difficult for us because we are a very collaborative band. A song will start off with what I like to call a “seed” – someone will bring in a simple “Hey, I have this chord progression and this melody” or something. Every song is case by case. It could be more fleshed out or it could just be a simple idea. But no matter where the song starts from, from that one person, the band really tosses it around a lot as a unit. And the song inevitably will change probably seven times completely by the time it’s finished. And I think that’s one thing that’s pretty unique about our band.

Ooh, we almost had a crazy crash. We’re OK though. We’re merging onto a freeway from a standstill. Where was I – lost my train of thought when we almost died. [To driver] It’s all good. You did well, Alex. Well done. You handled it very well.

So yeah, anyway, the songs all shift so much because that’s kind of the process we’ve come to and we really trust each other to say, “OK, I have an idea for this song and I think it’s really awesome, what can my bandmates do with it. Let’s mess around with it.” So I think on the road, definitely, we all have some of the seeds developing and growing. But we’ve just been so busy – we’ve been on the road non-stop – that we haven’t had time to really hash things out in a group setting.

So I think it’s going to be really important for us…you know, we’ve had a whole year to tour, gain new experiences, and definitely develop musically. We’re all super excited to see how the next album comes out. When we’re done touring under this album, we’re going to sort of take a big break and get away from the world and definitely focus on writing together for a while. I think that’s how we operate best.

melophobe: Very cool. You mentioned that you guys are really collaborative – you guys share a lot of the writing and singing, and even the instrumentation shifts from song to song. Do you ever butt heads, is that ever problematic?

TR: Oh no, never. Never. We’ve never had a single argument, it’s crazy.

No, I’m lying. I could not hold that up. We butt heads a lot, actually. But we’ve been writing together in this process for a long time, and I do think we’ve hit a groove. We trust each other. For example, Matt’s our drummer. And we all contribute drum ideas, but Matt and Kelcey especially – Kelsey also sings and plays keyboards and drums at the same time, kind of like an octopus man – they do a lot of integrated beats and rhythms together during our set. So that’s really one area where we trust the two of them a lot. That’s just one example. We know that we each have some strengths, and we align ourselves to that.

But there definitely is some creative tension. As I said, I might bring a song to the table, and it’s no easy thing to just give your song up. You feel very much like these are your babies when you work on them, and they mean so much to you. So there is a lot of tension, but I think it’s a creative tension. And we work best when we harness that tension and make something positive out of it and try to let go of the egos as much as possible and open up the channels to be creative.

melophobe: I guess the final important question, Taylor. Do the other members of the band get jealous of your mustache?

TR: Haha. I don’t know man, I think they’re alright. I think they’re doing fine. Not that I know of – you’ll have to ask them.

melophobe: Well it’s a fantastic ‘stache. Thanks so much for doing this interview, and best of luck with the rest of your upcoming shows!

TR: Cool, anytime. Thanks!

Some Related Entries:

Local Natives - Fader Fort (SXSW 2010; Mar 18)

Interview - Peter Silberman of The Antlers (Portland, OR; Spring 2010)

Interview - Freelance Whales (Philadelphia, PA; Winter 2010)

Interview - Fanfarlo (Seattle, WA; Fall, 2009)

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