Tuesday, November 03, 2009

We Are The Tourists In The Cafe


Liam Haynes interviewed Local Natives. Their album, Gorilla Manor was released on 2/11/09.

How do you feel your performance at SXSW this year helped you? What are the negatives?
Because we played nine shows at the festival we were able to attain a lot of new exposure. Each show sort of built up on the last so that by the end there were a lot of new people interested in checking us out. I have to say there are really no negatives from the SXSW experience. We had a really amazing time and its helped us tremendously in getting our name out as a new band.

Does being a band in LA help or is it too much of a crowded scene?
I think it helps. There's already so much of a spotlight on a place like LA or NY that if you can stand out in a scene like this, you're already on a bigger platform.

Where do you see music blogs standing in the grand scheme of (musical) things?
Blogs have already become extremely influential on today's music culture and I see them playing an even larger role in the coming years. Maintaining personal relationship with blogs that we really like has been a huge asset to this band. It helps put our music into new ears.

If you were all someone from Seinfeld, who would you each be and why?
I asked everybody and we agreed that I (Kelcey, vocals & keys) would be Kramer, because I'm a bit of the odd-ball, crazy guy. We're all a bit nuts but I think I might be the nuttiest. I think Matt (drums) would be Jerry because he usually is the observer of it all. Taylor (vocals & guitar) is Elaine because he acts like a lady sometimes. Ryan (guitar & vocals) is George because he complains, and Andy (bass) is Newman because Matt doesn't like Andy (not really; I just needed an excuse to have Andy be Newman).

Which UK acts do you feel closest to musically? How has your reception been here so far?
The Zombies? Not really sure which current ones we do relate to at the moment, suppose I can leave that for the journalists. The reception has been overwhelming here.

[MP3] Local Natives - Camera Talk
[SPOTIFY] Local Natives - Gorilla Manor
[BUY] Grab their debut album from rough Trade.
[SESSION] Check out songs from their Daytrotter Session here.