In 2009, Los Angeles-based band Local Natives burst onto the indie music scene with its breakout debut album “Gorilla Manor.” In 2011, the band performed a free concert to a packed Bruin Plaza at UCLA. Now, the band is back on the charts with its new album “Hummingbird.” The band will also perform at both weekends of the Coachella music festival in Indio, Calif. The Daily Bruin’s Andrew Bain spoke with UCLA alumnus, guitarist and vocalist Taylor Rice about the band’s origins, the process of writing “Hummingbird” and their feelings about Coachella.
Daily Bruin: Could you talk a bit about the origins of Local Natives and how your years at UCLA impacted the band’s development, if at all?
Taylor Rice: The band started … far before that time. I started playing music with Ryan (Hahn) and Kelcey (Ayer) in high school and even as early as junior high with Ryan. But the three of us who are the singers in the band have been playing together for over 10 years now. And we had bands in high school that were more punk. … Our band kept playing all throughout college, so even though I was the only one going to UCLA, everyone was sort of in the area. And then, basically after I graduated, it was kind of time to say, “Okay, we’ve been doing the band for so long, and it’s been our passion and our love, let’s give everything to it.”
DB: “Hummingbird” is definitely a slower, more methodical set of songs than the music on “Gorilla Manor.” Was this a deliberate change of pace, or did it happen organically?
TR: It is definitely a different record, and we did approach things differently for (“Hummingbird”). Part of that was very conscious and was this meditated on and agreed upon thing, and part of it was just very natural. This is a very emotionally direct album, and it’s very personal. It’s sort of just a snapshot of where we were at the time. … The difference is that we weren’t worried or preoccupied with how these songs were going to be played live. Like, with “Gorilla Manor,” it was very “plugged straight into your amp.” We didn’t mess around too much with orchestrating things, and it was all done very live and in a single room. With this, we wanted to say “Let’s not worry about that. Let’s record as we go and really push ourselves to experiment and do something different.”
DB: Did those changes happen smoothly or were there some growing pains the band had to get through?
TR: It was enjoyable. Writing in our band is awesome. … We’ve been together 10 years. (The band members) are like my creative family and my counterparts. And we’re such a democratic band, there’s no autonomous dictatorship in any way where I can just come in and say “This is my song, here’s how it’s going to go.” … It’s much more like one of the three songwriters will come in with an idea, and it will either be super fleshed out or it could just be a chord progression and a melody. But I know in the end everybody is going to get their hand on the song and mold it and twist it into something different than I had in mind. And that’s always really difficult, because it’s like handing over your baby – you’re so protective of it – and it’s a constant exercise in ego and letting go while still holding on and finding that balance.
DB: How do you guys approach playing at Coachella? Do you spend any time as fans at the festival or is it mainly another stop on tour?
TR: Well, it’s another stop on tour. We all grew up in Southern California so Coachella was the festival we grew up either hopping the fence to or spending all our money to go to, and it means a lot to us to play there. So, I have a setlist note on my phone for Coachella, and we’ve been throwing out setlist ideas for weeks now. It’s something we’re really looking forward to, and I think this will be a really incredible moment for us as a band. As far as hanging out, the first weekend we are just playing, and then we have to take off right away, but for the second weekend we planned to make sure (not to) book any shows. … We definitely are going both as artists playing but also as fans.
DB: A couple years ago, you played a free concert at Bruin Plaza. What made you decide to play there, and would you consider doing it again?
TR: When I went to UCLA, I saw a lot of bands play there, and I remember walking by and seeing Bloc Party play before they really blew up. … I remember seeing Grizzly Bear – they actually played in Kerckhoff – and I saw Islands and a lot of really great shows, and it was just something I wanted to do for that reason. … I thought that it would be great to come back to my school to play. Yeah, we’d definitely do it again.
DB: This tour will take you through much of the rest of the year. Any long term plans?
TR: There’s certainly a little bit of a break as we’ve switched into … turning “Hummingbird” into this thing we could play live. But now, we’re starting to ease into it, and the bug is starting to come back a little bit, and we’re starting to work on ideas together. But it’s always basically little ideas, because we need to have that very dedicated creative zone to actually make songs. This is basically the time where (we) just have been collecting experiences and pushing (ourselves) and jotting things down in (our) notebook as (we) go. We’re in that phase.