Local Heroes!

Local Natives are new to this music industry lark. You’re more likely to find them practicing their harmonies ‘round a piano than dreaming up snappy quotes for a journalist. Either that or on Twitter, posting things like “New York show tomorrow. Anyone have a floor we can crash on?”

It’s a weird fit but these are five authentic LA kids who feel blissfully at home in grubby Europe, having barely left since they were flung into its jaws six months ago. They’ve only played one festival so far - Blighty’s Lattitude back in July - but they’re still raving about it.
“It was awesome!” beams guitarist Ryan Hahn. “We just spent the whole weekend drinking and going to see bands!” Welcome to Europe, lads.
Falling somewhere between a sexed-up Fleet Foxes and a cheerier Arcade Fire, Local Natives are as much a vocal group as anything else. They belt out crystal clear four and five part harmonies without reserve and you get the impression that Hahn, guitarist Taylor Rice and keyboardist Kelcey Ayer could all be lead singers in their own right.
“We get on surprisingly well,” Hahn boasts. “We live together, all five of us. We originally lived in a house south of L.A. where we wrote the album.”
Ah, the infamous “Gorilla Manor”, a place of ungoverned primate-like debauchery by all accounts, and the namesake of the band’s debut album.
“It just totally embodied the nature of us and the goings on within the house.”
Meaning you’re all total filth bandits?
“We’re a little messy, yeah,” Hahn laughs, “and really crazy. Andy’s girlfriend lives with us and she’s pretty much at her wit’s end!”
The album, currently being hailed as one of the most imaginative of the last 12 months, has its wild side too. ‘Airplanes’, for example, one of their most memorable tunes, and certainly their most sentimental, begins with a round of heavy booing. Bassist Andy Hamm recalls; “When Kelsey first came to the band with those chords, he would start the song like a pop FM ballad and we’d always boo and it turned into this great thing.”
“We recorded Gorilla Manor in a weird fashion,” reveals drummer Matt Frazier. “We funded it ourselves, and did most of the album in six weeks. A year later we went back and added more songs and took songs off. It’s been a long process.”
With an almost unrecognisable cover of Talking Heads’ ‘Warning Sign’ gracing the record, David Byrne and company are clearly a huge influence.
“Absolutely,” Hamm agrees. “We ended up covering them because they had elements that we related to immediately. Not only the music itself, but the artsier, weirder side.”

Gorilla Manor is out now on Infectious, and gets an airing on March 10 in The Academy 2, Dublin
WORDS Celina Murphy