Going Native

“It’s a bit like how, when you look in the mirror every single day, you don’t notice anything change. But if you look at a photo from two years ago, it’s obvious.”

Taylor Rice is assessing the time since his band, Local Natives, released their well-received debut Gorilla Manor.
Since that 2009 introduction, the LA act have made their presence felt in Europe with incessant touring, opened for The National and Arcade Fire, and parted ways with bassist Andy Hamm after “unresolved differences”.
Rice has stated that it was a period filled with the highest of highs and lowest of lows. It’s all gone into the much hyped follow-up, Hummingbird, which finds the psychedelic, harmony-laden folk group simultaneously expanding their sound and becoming more lyrically direct.
“This record is more personal,” notes the impressively moustachioed frontman. “Very much borne out of the experiences we’ve gone through in the last two years. It’s still these guys that I’ve been playing with since I was a little kid, but at the same time, I do feel like we really have grown up. We’re closer as a band than ever before.”
Well they’ve had plenty of time in each other’s pockets. When Hot Press’ Celina Murphy spoke to the band three years ago, the group were living together. Indeed, Gorilla Manor takes its title from their semi-legendary party pad. Debauched days?
“It’s possible that it was blown out of proportion! That record is very special though. It’s emblematic of that time, when we were pursuing our dream and all living together. We did have a lot of fun. We’re not in the same place anymore. That would be chaos! But we still spend more time together than most married couples do. I sometimes feel like I’m married to three other people.”
With The National’s Aaron Dessner on production duties for Hummingbird, the band decamped to his Brooklyn abode to record in his garage. Naturally, they also decided to make themselves at home.
“Aaron kinda lives in the bottom floor with his family and we... we were living in the attic.”
Essentially four Arthur Fonzarellis hanging out at Richie Cunningham’s, then. Did the racket they were making not irritate Dessner’s nearest and dearest?
“He’d just had a new baby arrive, so we definitely were trying to keep it down a little!” Rice laughs. “There’s one track on the record, ‘Heavy Feet’, which is partially about that. There’s inside references to the fact that we’d be taking our shoes off when we were walking around. But it’s this old creaky house, so no matter what we did, we made noise. We’d be getting texts from him saying ‘KEEP IT DOWN UP THERE!’.”
Luckily they’re still on speaking terms. Indeed, Rice only speaks of Dessner in glowing terms.
“He just knows band dynamics so well... that was one thing that really made us feel comfortable working with him. It didn’t feel like we relinquished any control. Touring with the likes of Arcade Fire and The National, it’s not like you sit around with them and they go, ‘This is what you gotta do on your second album’! But I’d say with Aaron, we view him as a sort of mentor. These are bands we look up to, that have had incredible careers, and they’ve been very generous in offering us their own perspective on things.”
I speak to Rice the day after his band have played a small vinyl store in their hometown. It’s their last show before Hummingbird’s late January release. Once it’s out, they hit the road again, with a Whelan’s gig planned for February 11. Ireland warmed to the group quickly, and Rice cites their Other Voices appearance as “the most surreal, crazy experience” of their 2012 tour.
“We were flying from Paris on the day of, and the flight was delayed. Finally they greenlit us and we flew. When we landed we really put the pedal to the metal, going like 80 miles down the road, in the rain. One minute 30 seconds to go before we were on air, we were still setting up! It was a surreal, absurd ‘movie moment’ – racing to get to Ireland and perform on live TV!”

Local Natives give Hummingbird a live airing in Whelan's, Dublin on
February 11.