Nik Ewing: Local Natives

Cullen and Mason chat with Nik from Local Natives. They chat about his history with the band, their newest album, and the bands that have influenced him.

Check out Local Natives: https://localnatives.com

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
A promt to know chief thing King sometime do you
feel the same thing.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Today, We've got Nick from Local Natives, super excited to
chat with you.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Nick.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
You've been in the band now for over ten years,
going on what like twelve thirteen years something like that,
ten something like that.

Speaker 4 (00:42):
Probably, Yeah, twelve thirteen however, reminded. But I am the
new guy.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
Yeah, you're still still the new guy. Yeah. I grew up.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
I grew up in like the like very rural kind
of Midwest, and my my grandma and grandpa actually lived
in for sixty years and even more rural part of
the Midwest, like in a town of like less than
a thousand people.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
And even though.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
They lived there for sixty years, like died there and everything,
because they weren't originally from there, they were never seen
as like a local. And so maybe maybe someday you'll
be considered a local, local native. But yeah, as of
right now, you're still You're still in the new guy,
You're still the transplant.

Speaker 4 (01:22):
It's all relative. There's always someone that's been there longer
than you, and no one's been here longer.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Any How are you doing today, Well, how's life on
the Pacific Coast?

Speaker 4 (01:36):
I'm doing well. I'm a little It was racing over
here in our studio. Nice podcast lovers love when you
talk about stuff they can't see. But I'm in my studio.
As you can see in the background raced over here.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
Is that your own studio or is that the band studio?

Speaker 4 (01:52):
This is the band studio?

Speaker 3 (01:54):
Nice?

Speaker 2 (01:55):
All right, So we're like we're seeing, we're seeing how
the sausage is made.

Speaker 4 (01:58):
You're seeing a podcast as love.

Speaker 5 (02:02):
That is the shiniest piano I've ever seen. I literally
feel like I'm i mean, like a Cadillac right now.

Speaker 4 (02:09):
You see a reflection in there.

Speaker 5 (02:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yeah, Is that like somebody's garage or is it like
its own like kind of space or.

Speaker 4 (02:19):
No, it's the sound space. It's like, I mean, it's
like a an actual studio that we converted into like
a like someone was living here before and we just
turned it into like our workspace recording studio.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Beautiful, and you almost like live close enough where you
can kind of just go there whenever if you need.

Speaker 4 (02:36):
Yeah, it's like between all our houses. I could walk
here if I wasn't running late. But that's just three minutes,
as is the way in La.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Of course, Colin and I have gotten to know Dustin
Cancer really well from Thrice, which I don't know if
you are you guys. You guys are in La now right.

Speaker 4 (02:54):
We're in La. But he Thrice there was some connection
with Thrice in the the guitar player I think recorded
at EP before it was local natives. Okay, Dustin came
to our last La Greek show. Okay, he was like
front row. He like bought a ticket. Oh yeah, it

(03:15):
was disarmy.

Speaker 3 (03:16):
Yeah, I love it.

Speaker 4 (03:17):
Well.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
Anyway, I've gotten to know him pretty well.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
And he talks about how Thrice has, you know, their
own like studio space, and I think it's like one
of the guys is like backyard kind of big shed
or something like that.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
I'm not I've never been there.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
But he's talked about it, but he talks about how
like because the band owns it, He's like, it is
the greatest investment that that band has ever made. He's like,
it's probably the big reason why they're still a band
after like almost thirty years is because like they have
like their own specific space where they can record and
do everything.

Speaker 4 (03:50):
Yeah, if we were a wiser band, I remember talking
about it like eight years ago. We should not be
rented in any stage of life. You should not be
renting if you're able to. But really, economic world that's crumbling.
But if you can buy itself, Yeah, it's probably more
valuable to have real estate than to be in a band.

Speaker 5 (04:10):
So can you like bunk up there and everything too?

Speaker 4 (04:14):
In theory? Is a fridge or is a washing machine?
All your essentials?

Speaker 5 (04:19):
Dang, that's all you know? Well, I think the washing
machine needs to be an instrument on the next album.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
There's a band that Colin and I listened to where
one of the there's a guy uh or the guy
that is like in the band for like, the percussive
part of the song was a guy banging on like
a washing machine or maybe it was like an old
was it washing machine?

Speaker 4 (04:41):
Colin?

Speaker 5 (04:42):
Yeah, it was a washing machine. They pick it up.
They would pick up a washing machine as they would tour,
so like they would just check like Facebook, marketplace and
pick up a washing machine and then bang it.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
And just a bang on that. For that one specific song,
it was pretty coo.

Speaker 4 (04:53):
Yeah, yeah, that's pretty DIY. Some friends of mine there
their first rec they had a song called trash Can
and it was just a trash canlet that they like
they would hit as like a percussive instrument that.

Speaker 5 (05:08):
Sounds very slip knot like his addressed as a clown.

Speaker 4 (05:14):
As well, or no, I wish it was like it's
very it's rock, it's like Americana Hell yeah, indie rock. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
Interesting.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
Well, let's talk about how you even got into music,
even before you got into local natives, Like what what
got you inspired to just even play music to begin with?

Speaker 4 (05:34):
I honestly don't remember time. Music wasn't part of my life.
There was like a piano in my house, and I
kind of just taught myself how to play the piano.
And then after I taught myself, that put me in lessons.
My dad was in a band when I when I
was a kid, I got eighties hair eighties hair metal band.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
Oh yeah, your dad and my dad should hang out.

Speaker 4 (05:57):
There's a lot of Yeah, a lot of these dads
should hang out. Yeah. So that was like, I guess
the introduction, But I like I was music. I don't know.
I played the end of my whole life. And then
high school started joining New Junior high just like start
joining bands, worship band. That was definitely like my first,
like from junior high to college. Yeah, just like you know,

(06:20):
you're playing.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
Every worship band and your dad was in the eighties
hair metal band is your dad?

Speaker 4 (06:24):
And Striper No, but he's a big Michael Sweet fan
of course. Yeah, he's always telling about his new album.

Speaker 5 (06:39):
How many of those have you listened to?

Speaker 4 (06:41):
U zero this century? But I do remember in the nineties,
my parents were very just back to your your tweet
that connected us to your coffee shop Christian tweet that one.
But my parents and one of my bandmates, one of
my guest friends you talked about, who said, Nate Pargazzi
has this bit where was like I grew up Christian

(07:03):
in the nineties, which was like the most Christian.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
And my parents more than Yeah.

Speaker 4 (07:11):
Yeah, there was a part in the nineties where my
parents were so Christian that they got rid of all
my CDs and then you have to go to like
the Christian bookstore, like if you like blinkin eighty two,
you might like Reliant K or something like, and there
was like all these things. Oh, because the last time
I listened to the reason I noticed I got the

(07:32):
singer of Striper's solo album in the nineties because I
was forced to throw away my Beatles and my Zeppelin.

Speaker 5 (07:40):
And even your Beatles records.

Speaker 4 (07:43):
Have you listened to? Have you? Have you listened to those? Backwards?
Pretty pretty demonic.

Speaker 5 (07:52):
They're demonic going forwards too.

Speaker 4 (07:53):
I don't know if you knew, but yeah, Revolution nine.
But I remember going to this bookstore and like, it's like,
if you like and I think, if you like Real
big Fish, you might like Michael Sweet from Streiper his
solo album, which which there is no correlation.

Speaker 5 (08:14):
No, no that whatsoever.

Speaker 4 (08:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (08:19):
So growing up in that kind of household, you have
a whole lot of other things that were throwing out
because they were too of the world or anything of
that sort.

Speaker 4 (08:27):
Yeah. Yeah, Like it was very christ very a lot
of movies and TV shows and remember Simpsons and Harry
Potter was all very There was a moment where it's
like this is really, yes, the work of the devil.

Speaker 5 (08:40):
Yeah, and waging a spiritual war.

Speaker 4 (08:44):
Yeah, a secret war Pokemon. I remember that was the
one I was just gonna say, can't do that. I yes,
I didn't even think about that.

Speaker 5 (08:54):
But yeah, Christmas one year, the one thing I wanted
were these Pikachu slippers, and I wanted them so bad,
and my grandma got them for me and I opened
them up on Christmas. My mom immediately threw them in
the trash because they were demonic because it's a pocket monster.

Speaker 4 (09:14):
Was this a bigger theme than I guess I realized,
like a lot of kids.

Speaker 5 (09:18):
And oh, I think, I think, especially where Mason and
I are from, it was very big. Yeah, but you
grew up in California as well.

Speaker 4 (09:26):
I grew up in San Diego, so southern California.

Speaker 5 (09:29):
And okay, yeaheah.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
I feel like any I think like anybody who grew
up like a youth group culture in the nineties and
two thousands especially can really attest to like that type
of story regardless of where they live, whether it's the South,
the Midwest, out West, it doesn't matter, like it's going
to be kind of the same universal experience.

Speaker 4 (09:49):
Yeah, Nate Pargossi is talking about it. Yeah, I mean
that was that was like childhood and music. But the
whole point was like in high school, okay, like eased
up a little bit or I could start sneaking stuff
and that's when I started like joining high school bands
and terrible dance.

Speaker 5 (10:10):
And what was your what was your gateway drug into
the secular world again.

Speaker 4 (10:16):
It was definitely emo music. It was like and I
still ride for him, and I've like said this publicly
and I have like friends who like playing his records,
but like Connor Oberst and like Bright Eyes was like
my yeah, my huge one. Like I think he's a genius.
I was like and then and then it was like
a tree of like high school emo music. And then like, oh,

(10:41):
I can listen to the White Album as a seventeen
year old and I was that kind of blew my
mind and because I was all thrown away.

Speaker 5 (10:48):
Before, Oh man, that hurts my soul.

Speaker 4 (10:52):
Yeah, I mean we we all, we all survived. And
I don't know. I'm talking to a friend about a
similar upbringing and her upbringing was even more religious and
she's a well adjusted, great artist. I'm just like this,
I don't know, it's kind of kind of amazing that

(11:12):
you can go through that for you do have to
play as you.

Speaker 5 (11:18):
Have to play a little bit of catch up though,
you know. But I do kind of have like a
little bit of jealousy around certain things like that, because
you know, a lot of people discover music and movies
and things like that in their high school years, and
for a lot of people, especially if you grew up
in the nineties or the early two thousands in a

(11:39):
very Christian household, you you probably weren't exposed to any
of it, so you had kind of like this delayed
gratification of like getting to see and experience all like
the coolest things in the world with like a more
mature mind.

Speaker 4 (11:53):
You know. Yeah, yeah, I guess so yeah, yeah, you
can like kind of experience it for the first time
as like an adult or not like an adolescent or
something versus this is just normal, right yeah, yeah, awesome.

Speaker 2 (12:09):
Uh well I'm curious then, like what maybe even right
before Local Natives, Like what kind of got you maybe
to eventually get into local Natives?

Speaker 3 (12:18):
Like were you in touring bands before then? Were you in.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
Bands that recorded previously, Like because I would imagine you
don't go just straight from like just your you know,
local generic high school band to playing in a band
like local Natives at that point.

Speaker 4 (12:32):
No, no, no, like so yeah, high school bad bands,
and then I guess college I was. I started my
own project, which I did for a few years, and
then honestly, like for like five years trying to think
big timeline, like four or five years. I was just
like in so many touring and recording bands and just

(12:53):
some I'm like really proud of, and some are like
known bands, but yeah, just like I don't know, it's
like a the cliched l a experience, but just like
you're kind of like a hired gun or then becoming
friends and they're like, all right, you want to help
on this record? And then but yeah, so I was
in a ton of ton of bands. Uh, Morning Venders

(13:16):
was the one that turned into pop et Cetera was
the one right before and Rooney Tape, Deck Mountain, the Sands,
the Howls. I'd have to really go through my desography.
There was a ton.

Speaker 5 (13:34):
So how did how did? How did the fellows from
local natives discover you? And uh and take you under
their wing?

Speaker 4 (13:43):
We were like in similar friend circles, but we didn't
really know each other. And one of my bands had
played a show that one of them DJ and like
on the peak first record that Gorilla Manner and then
and they parted ways at the end of Griller Manor

(14:03):
with their founding based bass player, and then they had
a touring a dude fill in so that he's like
play random shows while they're making their next record, Hummingbird,
and that guy he's he's a really good friend of
mine and he kept like just giving me stuff. He's
like I used to he used to be in Rooney
and then he did something. I was like, hey, do

(14:23):
you want to be in Rooney? And then he's in
a band called Fidbar, which is like this kind of
punk band, and they were taking off and they were like, hey,
do you want to tour with us? And he's like,
I would love to, but I really want to see
my band through. And then they'd like kind but he's like,
we should get my homie Nick. And they were just
kind of trying people out, and I did like a

(14:45):
tryout and we were vibing. It was more like I
don't know, like a Tinder date or something like obviously
like everyone everybody who's trying.

Speaker 5 (14:53):
Out a good time at the under One.

Speaker 4 (14:57):
There was not. It was you know, it was a
respect to ball t ender day because like everyone's like
the second date, right, yeah, yeah, everyone's trying out, can
like play the like everyone's good, you know, So it's
like more like the right vibe can you a lot
of touring like you play ninety minutes a day of
music on average, and like twenty two hours of chilling

(15:22):
and hanging out, and so like the the vibe is
kind of more important than so it's it's.

Speaker 5 (15:27):
More of like a hinge date. That is what you're
trying to say.

Speaker 4 (15:31):
I dated, I got married before all the dates took off.
So I don't know the difference between.

Speaker 5 (15:38):
See the same same here, but I do know that
hinge is where like the serious people.

Speaker 4 (15:44):
Go like gotcha there, like you're finding out a life partner. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (15:48):
I think that their slogans like designed to be deleted or.

Speaker 4 (15:51):
Something, Yeah, gotcha, And then there's other ones like designed
to hook up or something, yeah gotcha. Yeah, So it's
a hinge date. Nice, My references are off.

Speaker 5 (16:04):
So we talk about this all the time on here.
One of the things that we keep hearing is that
it you really have to be a good hang, because,
as you said, everyone's good, everyone's if you're trying out
for a band, everyone's already good. Anyway, it comes down
to are you a good hang? Can we stand to

(16:24):
be around you for twenty hours a day or something
like that? Right?

Speaker 4 (16:28):
For touring? Absolutely? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (16:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (16:32):
And then and then there's also like an artistic wavelength,
and I feel like we were on a similar one.
So it was very I wasn't expecting, but I was
very quickly there, like I was a touring member, and
then very quick they're like you do you guys? Do
you want to join us? Man?

Speaker 5 (16:45):
So when you say the same artistic wavelength, like what
is that? How would you more how would you go
into better detail about how to describe that?

Speaker 4 (16:55):
I mean it.

Speaker 5 (16:57):
Does lock in well, it's yeah.

Speaker 4 (16:59):
I mean, like especially I think tours a good breeding ground,
especially if we were in our young twenties. But just
like why you think why you like this new music?
I think Sergeant Pepper's is overrated? Or like why you
really were into like Kida but not okay computer like
just like getting into Nybie and a lot of it's
like new music. It's like stuff that's going on in

(17:22):
pop culture right now. You're like, why do you like
or not like the Playboy Party record or something, and
it's just like.

Speaker 3 (17:29):
Damn it really is.

Speaker 4 (17:32):
Yeah. I mean this is like I'm talking like fourteen
months to do that. But like you're like you're realizing
what you like, what you just like what the other
person likes how to push some or like and then
for me it was like I was like I wasn't
a part of the band, but I was like, all right,
the set change, the set list needs to change, because
like this song into this song could be better, like

(17:54):
go like this and like like anything artistic or creative
vision when it's collaborative, like you're you're trying to convince
each other in some sense and compromise and like you're
all trying to like make what you guys think is
the best song, the best concert, the best T shirt
design or whatever it is. It's like, and we're like

(18:16):
a very collaborative band, So I think down process, we
all kind of like, okay, this is a good sit Yeah.

Speaker 5 (18:24):
As a band, Yeah, Local Natives, in my opinion, has
always been very complex with textures and things of that sort.
And so I guess when you said artistic wavelength, I've
always just kind of wondered when you start playing new
music with somebody or like, like you're like you're trying
to create something new for the first time, do you

(18:44):
feel like it's like like you you like you just
speak the same language and everything just locks into like
the same like a kind of like a hive mind
almost kind of a situation or like what happens then
when you have like disagreements about a base tone or
something like that.

Speaker 4 (19:03):
I honestly feel like we've rarely achieved high mentality, very
like you're arguing over a based melody or like a
just a detail, but like it's it's tough to explain,
but it's just like you're there. I'll take the conversation

(19:27):
away from even like being the new guy like I could.
I can remember instances on our last record doing the
same thing, and it's just like, technically we can make
a song, but maybe it's not what we all want
it to be. Like there's all the parts, but like
something's not right, and it's all of us are trying
to figure that out together, and we have different opinions
on why that is. We're like, all right, what if
we make like a just embrace like seventies drum sounds?

(19:50):
Is that a thing we want to do? And half
of us like yeah, and two of us are like no,
Like all right, well what if we try to a
drum machine? Like we're all trying to like find that
to get other And I think looking back is a
little bit easier to see that making a record, I
think you're very easily lost in the vortex. But there

(20:12):
are like ten poles and references. But I can look
back now and be like, Okay, something that you since Hummingbird,
Aaron Destner and Layer and stuff or Yoleu Street experimentation
in seventies. Like it's easier now years away from it
as opposed to like in the middle of it, when

(20:33):
we're all kind of like figuring out what we want
this thing to do.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
Sure, yeah, I want to kind of go back on
the point really quick on just being kind of like
a good hang almost being like just such a huge
part of why certain people get picked in bands. And
it just reminds me of I see you have a
it looks like a Stanley Cup Finals had on. So

(20:58):
I'm guessing, I'm guessing your sports fan of some sort
or is that just anesthetic?

Speaker 4 (21:05):
This is all aesthetic because I don't know hockey at all,
but I love basketball and football fair enough.

Speaker 3 (21:11):
Well if you're a basketball fan.

Speaker 2 (21:12):
So I was watching this podcast episode with Lebron James
and he was talking about how there are guys in
the NBA and I would imagine, like every sport has this,
But there are guys in the NBA who make an
entire career making millions of dollars where they will probably
never play more than like ten games a year. But
the reason why they continue to be on teams year

(21:33):
after year after year and making millions of dollars is
because they're the good guy to have in the building.

Speaker 3 (21:38):
Like they're the guy that the team just by the Yeah,
they're they're the guy like even like with the like
the the.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
Building staff, Like they're the that's the guy that's like
picking up trash so that the.

Speaker 3 (21:50):
Janitor doesn't have to in the building.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
Like it's those are the kind of guys that Lebron
James has said, Like, those guys, even though they might
not be the most talented, they will make an entire
career in the NBA just because they're the guy that
like will pick up after themselves, or they're the guy
that like make sure that like when somebody else in
the building, you know, maybe their their daughter is sick,
and like he gets the A card. Like those are

(22:13):
the kind of guys that stick around for a long
time even if they're not super talented. And so it's
it's something to be said about like if you're just
like a good hang, just a good person like that
really will take you places in life. And obviously you
need to have some level of talent, right like you
are a talented basis, and lots of musicians who are
in these incredible bands that we all love, they're incredible
musicians right at the end of the day.

Speaker 3 (22:34):
But also like being.

Speaker 2 (22:36):
Like a good person is going to get you in
a lot of places in life and give you a
lot of really cool opportunities.

Speaker 4 (22:42):
Totally. I mean, like I guess that example is so great.
I just read this athletic piece this morning about PJ.
Tucker on the Knicks, and he's like this that who's
like forty, he's washed. I love him. He was on
the Clippers, my team, but like he's definitely has no
basketball substance to get a team. But he was brought
into the team and there was this whole like long

(23:03):
article just like having these team old only meetings, and
he was like talking to the stars and like you
got play better defensive, so you got communicate this way.
And he literally did not play like more than like
sixty seconds in the playoffs, but he was so crucial
to the team, like you know, like in sometime in
the sense like a band as a team, or like

(23:23):
I've never had like a real job, but I gotta imagine,
like I don't know, if you're an accountant, there's like
a team like you guys want to do something together.
So I think I think it kind of could relate

(23:45):
to a lot of stuff, like obviously you have to
be a good accountant. This dude I'm talking about he
can shoot threes like great, but then he's like a
one percentage point off of like like whatever, like a
prime NBA player should shoot it, or like yeah, me
or many people in bands, like when I tried off

(24:05):
with me is there's so many people who could play
the same notes I played correctly, But obviously it wasn't
just about that.

Speaker 2 (24:14):
It reminds me of like I just saw like maybe
maybe this is actually a quote, but I saw like
a tweet the other day that was like marriage isn't
actually a fifty to fifty relationship, It's a sixty to
forty relationship. And the trick is to see the trick
is to try to be the person that's doing the
sixty percent.

Speaker 4 (24:31):
Right.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
And I'm like again, like I think it kind of
you know relates to Yeah, like if you're just like
the person that's gonna work hard and do like everything
the right way, like you're going to get in places
in life. And whether that yeah, is a band like
Local Natives or an accounting firm or the NBA, like
if you're that kind of or even a marriage, Like,

(24:51):
if you're that kind of person, it's just gonna work
hard and do the right thing, like you're gonna you're
gonna get the opportunities that you should deserve.

Speaker 4 (25:01):
Yeah, I mean I can only speak from my experience.
I can't speak for all humans, but it's just like
like that, there's also like I I see like like
like a lot of unfair hands dealt and a lot
of it is luck and be in the right place
at the right time, but also like you know, having
the skills and tools to do that stuff when that

(25:22):
opportunity comes, like you know you're ready to go.

Speaker 3 (25:25):
Mm hmm love it.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
Well, let's talk about the new album came out last April, now, right,
and so yeah, what love to just kind of hear
were there like certain things on this album that maybe
you guys were trying to experiment with or trying to
do something maybe a little new that y'all haven't maybe
tried before.

Speaker 4 (25:47):
This last record. We kind of talked about the one
right before it came out the year before as.

Speaker 3 (25:51):
Well, less like less than a year apart, right.

Speaker 4 (25:54):
Yeah, I think there were like ten nine months apart.
They were all made together, so it's basically how I
view it. It's like a double album that got split
up and then we put them out in pieces, and
it was definitely a transition time in the career or
in the arc of the band. I think the record

(26:16):
before I feel like, I don't know if every artist
says this, but every record is kind of like a
conversation or reflection of the record before. So like Violets
Street felt very maximalist and very experimental and one of
my favorite albums records I've ever made. Incredibly proud of it.

(26:37):
But it was a lot, and so we were like,
all right, let's try to do like everybody's playing one thing,
like a classic Beatles record or something. So that was
like the North Star for a while. We're just like,
all right, let's just let the song speak for themselves
and keep it classic and not like a ton of

(26:58):
sans a wild experimentation. So the second part, but A
Way for You is just like the second half of
that or like they're they're kind of all one thing. Yeah,
and that was also the last record that Kelsey was
a part of and had like a tough time getting
back together. He spoke pretty candidly about it. We did
on the first record, and I think part of the

(27:19):
music you can hear too is just like us trying
to keep it together, the five of us. And I
think I can hear very specific parts or tension between
us when I hear it. I don't imagine everyone can
hear that, but it is like it is like the
end of an era. So we we put that record
out before like the public unit it Kelsey was quitting,

(27:43):
and then we announced it soon afterwards.

Speaker 5 (27:47):
Yeah, do you want to speak on that a little
bit more about where you plan to go without Kelsey?

Speaker 4 (27:57):
Yeah, I mean we were kind of this is like
his choice, and we love them and we support them,
and so this was just choice to leave. And having
said that, like we're kind of just viewing it now,
it's like, I don't know, an opportunity is like a
like a reset of the band, Like all right, like
let's rethink how we make music, and I feel like
a lot of us it's tough as you get older.

(28:20):
I feel like time will come first all the title,
but you don't really want to get in ruts like
this is how you make a record. You do the drums,
then you do the bass, and then you say it
like that's once you get formulaic. It's it's a pretty
bad place to be, Like no one's making their their
best work in that spot. And so this is like
an unexpected mix up. But we're like, I mean, we're

(28:44):
sorry working on the new record, and there's so many
songs I'm excited about and our band is so let's
talking about it so democratic, so like it's very little
like all right, you play the guitar because you're the guitar,
but you play it like there's so many songs. I
don't play bass, and I played all the keys on
or something, or like someone will write a chorus and
someone will write the verse or anyways, it's like it's

(29:07):
a band. So there's there's so much music that we've
already put out where it's like, all right, three of
us made this song, and then two people made that one,
and then four of us minus this other dude was
part of this, Like, so we're already kind of in
a weird sense, We've made a lot of songs without Kelsey.
They've made a lot of songs where I haven't played

(29:27):
on it, so because we just want the best song
and we're trying to get like our egos out of
the way of like, okay, now I need to come
on and fix the space part, you know when that's
probably just my ego speaking, So it's less about even Kelsey.
But it's like we've made music and so many different
configurations in this band already that we've done. We've made

(29:47):
songs without Cals, and we're well, we're gonna make a
whole record now without you know, is that kind.

Speaker 5 (29:55):
Of a daunting or scary experience?

Speaker 4 (29:57):
Uh?

Speaker 5 (29:58):
From from your point of view, you know, when you
take off one major piece of you know, an original
or original member of the band, does that feel like
it's like WHOA do we kind of have to like
look for a different kind of identity here or do
you feel like this this is just business as usual
and we're gonna you know, we miss him, but.

Speaker 4 (30:20):
You know, yeah, no, I don't feel it doesn't feel
daunting or overwhelming in the slightest like made it's not
even about him. But it's like we've made a lot
of music without him, He's made music without me. Like
it's just like I can remember very specific songs that
he wasn't a big part of, and there's a lot

(30:41):
of songs I wasn't a big part of. So it
doesn't it doesn't feel like this massive scary thing in
a sense, but kind of an exciting tier. I don't know,
we've made music. I think it's more just like, all right,
and I love him, He's gonna be my brother forever.
It's much less about him and much more like what

(31:01):
we would do this part of an album cycle already.
It's like, all right, we're working on music, and like
I see it the threat between those two. But I
don't I don't know if I want to make that
record or like we're all just in that stage right now.
We're trying to like figure out what we want to make,
which is a pretty normal, sure part of our process.

Speaker 2 (31:22):
Okay, it sounds like because he wasn't like the primary songwriter,
but because you all sort of equally had that responsibility,
it sounds like, you know, because you know Obviously, losing
any member is going to change some artistic direction to
some degree. But it doesn't sound like because he wasn't
the primary songwriter that it's not like you all are

(31:44):
going to now start to become like a punk band
or whatever. Right, My guess is it's still going to
be very distinctively local natives.

Speaker 4 (31:53):
Yeah, I'm sure you can. You'll hear a lot of
through lines from previous records. I mean, he was a
primary songwriter or on some so a lot of songs,
but we're there's there were like three primary songwriters, so
there's just it wasn't like yeah, like I'm trying to
think of an example. Yeah, I don't know, like when

(32:15):
like the singer of a band and it's basically just
like if Kevin Parker quit Tam and Pault, like that'd
be done. Yeah, it ceased to exist, but we were
like a band. Love it.

Speaker 2 (32:29):
Yeah, So I know you all it looks like you
only have like maybe like one show coming up here soon.
But I'm guessing you've done it kind of most of
the touring of this previous album. But yeah, are you
kind of hoping to get out on the road again
sometime soon? I mean Also it sounds like you guys
are writing, So yeah, what's kind of the future of
the band right now?

Speaker 4 (32:49):
We're only go like a handful of shows this year,
which is kind of like a normal we call it
the album cycle, but like we put out put Away
for You last year, away from that one the year before,
so it was like it was and then we kind
of do like a post covid our first tour back
like right before that record. So it's felt like a

(33:11):
two and a half almost three year album cycle of touring.
So it's pretty natural for us to go away for
a while and just play a handful of shows and
festivals while we're like working on a record, because those
are wildly different parts of like the like once you're
touring is very hard to like be creative or like
make music. We'll do it in mad respect to them,

(33:32):
but I guess maybe as a band, so we're we're
just focusing on a new record and I had to guess,
you know, it comes out next year and we tour
next year.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
Yeah, is there a part of the album process with
that whole album cycle that you're talking about, Is there
a part that maybe is like your favorite part, Like,
is it the actual creation of the album. Is it
the promotion of it? Is it the is it the shows?
Like do you have just like you personally have a
favorite part of that cycle?

Speaker 4 (34:04):
I don't it feel like such a cop out. I
really love recording. I love creating just in general. But
I really and this is like a man made cycle.
So it's not like it's like this this uh ornated
like thing that came down from the guy, like this
is God telling us like how you're supposed to tour music.

(34:25):
But I do appreciate, like it is like I have
so much fun coming up with promotion. I'm so involved
with that, have like a small label myself, so like
I really like doing that type of stuff. And then
we talked about it a bit. But like when COVID hit,
anyone was touring, and then the after COVID tours, like
we all came back. We hadn't played shows in so

(34:47):
many months and years. Made us at least us as
a band, and me myself like realized, like, oh, music
is communal. It's not just like making something I think
is so sick with my boys or by myself fun
a computer like like realizing like oh, there's like sounds
a crystal through through, but it's like there is like

(35:08):
an energy being shared. It's like I can't put my
I've played thousands of shows and I can't put my
finger on what creates like good energy in a room.
But you know it when you feel it. They know
when you feel it, and other shows like you every great,
but something's just off and it's just like a disconnect
with the audience or vice versa. Anyways, I'm giving you,

(35:31):
I'm explaining audi answer all the stages that I really
appreciate them all and then I feel like and then
after a long tour, I can't wait to be home
and not tour and sure more fun stuff Again, that
does leave.

Speaker 5 (35:44):
Me to do like a different question, and that's when
you walk up on the stage for the first time,
do you automatically know like it can they immediately read
the room and know what is got a happened that night?
Like how the crowd is going to respond? Or do
you like viewed as like a challenge you like I'm

(36:05):
gonna win you over something like that?

Speaker 4 (36:07):
Or we talk about that like we've done a handful
of like opening and it's like opening you there's like
a you're trying to convert. You're trying to make believers,
You're trying to convert people, and so that's like a
whole different beast, but we'll like analyze. Definitely, it's tough.
I mean, opening gigs are tough and I feel bad.

(36:28):
We have a lot of amazing openers, but it's like
we open for like The National and Kings Leon and
like these really big bands and it's like half full
in front and like people are getting their wine and
like like they're not really paying attention. But then you
can like, oh, this one song, I feel like the
energy shifted and they I don't know, we got more
Instagram followers at night, like you can like see something.

Speaker 5 (36:52):
Well, you already said enough, you already said enough. That
that you that you said that they're getting their wine.
You know what kind of you know, what kind of
crowd you're playing to if they're getting their wine instead of.

Speaker 4 (37:02):
Their best National that's definitely not Kings Leon. But we
will talk like even our own shows, like headlining, like
you go out first song and then you're like uh oh,
and then like like this is us debriefing after show?
Its like and then when we played like wide ice Forth,
I feel like something shifted and then we had them,

(37:25):
and then they were with us. Yeah, even like a
show can start average or below, like it's no indicator
where it will go or vice versa, or it's like
it's like hitting hard out of the gates, but it's
a Tuesday night and people are dwindling at the end
because it's a random Tuesday night and is raining.

Speaker 5 (37:43):
And yeah, yeah, so with with Local Natives, I mean
Local Natives had a lot of success even before you
were in the band, and so there was kind of
a built in, a built in audience to a certain extent.
Have you you ever had just like an awful experience

(38:04):
playing a live show?

Speaker 4 (38:06):
Oh my god?

Speaker 5 (38:07):
And what what would that be?

Speaker 4 (38:10):
Unfortunately, I think they're mostly private gigs, like we like everyone,
every once in a while, someone with a goodly amount
of money of wealth, like, hey, can you guys want
to play this wedding?

Speaker 5 (38:25):
Or this a wedding?

Speaker 4 (38:27):
Holy shit, a wedding?

Speaker 2 (38:29):
Yeah, Like when they ask you to play a wedding,
are they asking you to play local native.

Speaker 3 (38:34):
Songs or covers?

Speaker 2 (38:36):
Like are they basically like trying to get like the
best wedding band cover band ever?

Speaker 4 (38:41):
No, the it's and it's so like so like I
remember that, like the the couple, like the person was
so rich, they flew so like amazing crazy wedding. The
couple loved us as a band, and maybe like ten
other friends. It's and so they were stoked out of
their mind. But then like like one hundred and ninety

(39:02):
people had no idea who we were. They're older, they
didn't care, they're like their ants. Like so it's like
maybe like I don't know, fifteen people were stoked, but
just like some mid tempo indie rock after the first
dance wasn't reaching everybody. This is I mean, yeah, play

(39:25):
Dancing Queen totally. Most most of the horrible ones are
like Privates or my bands before, where you're just like
you're playing to the other three bands.

Speaker 2 (39:39):
Sure, yeah, there is something about I. I you know,
you talk about like opening for the National but so
Culin and I are really into like heavy music, punk music,
and then obviously lots of indie stuff. There is something
about like going to like an indie show right where

(40:00):
even if you're like the biggest fan of that band,
there's a certain kind of energy that you have where
it's a lot of you know, just like you're swaying
or you know, like I'm a huge like Explosions in
the Sky fan, and I've gone to a number of their shows,
and it's like, you know, what do you do other
than just stand and like just kind of like this
is cool. Whereas like if you're at a punk show
or a metal show, like you're participation. You're like, even

(40:22):
if you're not even in the mosh pit, there's like
there's a lot of like weird dancing or what like
the but there's some sort of energy that like it's
very clear, just very visibly clear that wow, these people
are into it. And a lot of that is because
of you know, when it comes to like punk or
metal shows, like the band like entire I mean, there's
times where like the singer will be out there mashing
with the fans or whatever.

Speaker 3 (40:43):
Right, And what.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
I've always loved about The National is they bring almost
this like punk rock ethos to their live shows. Obviously
they don't sound anything like a punk band, but you know,
like Matt will often be in the crowd doing punk rock.

Speaker 3 (40:59):
Singer kind of shit.

Speaker 4 (41:01):
Uh totally, And that's.

Speaker 2 (41:03):
Something I've always loved about a band like The National,
And they're one of my favorites ever. But yeah, I'm
just curious like for you, like, is that something that
you guys have thought about, like knowing that Okay, yep,
we're an indie band. We're not ever gonna be like
a punk band that's gonna have that kind of energy
at a show, but like, has there like been thoughts
about like how do we maybe incorporate that type of
crowd participation or how do you incorporate that kind of wait,

(41:25):
like that type of energy into a lip show.

Speaker 5 (41:27):
We say that we asked that question as Mason and
I have never yet had the chance to see you, So.

Speaker 4 (41:32):
That's true, that's true, Okay, yeah, yeah, I mean you're
bringing up Matt from the National and we've played like
a ton of shows with them, like the tours with them.
They've always been so supportive socially. Baron produced our second record.
We we definitely were inspired by him and one of
our singers. We'll go in the crowd in a similar way,

(41:53):
and it's very much Matt bearing er influence because we're
like this harmony heavy, beautiful indie music. So yeah, we'll
do that a little bit.

Speaker 2 (42:05):
Nice, nice, Yeah, I love, I mean it's It's always
a little like disappointing when you see an indie band
and they just they're just standing up there playing their
songs the best that they can and like, you know, respect,
like that's one way of doing a show. But again,
maybe I've just been like so so influenced or so
we've been tainted man, maybe yeah, maybe yeah, tainted or
brainwashed by punk music. That like my expectation is if

(42:27):
I'm going to go to a show that either myself
is going to get on stage or the like one
of the musicians better be coming down off the stage
into the crowd. That's just yeah, I don't know, I
just have been so tainted by that.

Speaker 4 (42:40):
We I mean, we've played like I don't know, I
feel like we're like we're definitely an Indian band, but
we've like open for like National Kings of Leon and
like Paramore, and I feel like or like even this
weekend we're doing a festival and Ziggie Marley's playing right
after us. I feel like all all those different artists.
I don't know if everyone does this, like we try

(43:01):
to like skew our set towards that like what we
think those fans would like, you know, like we're not
we're not doing covers, but it's like, all right, let's
let's play our most high BPM songs on this h
this paramore stuff, and then like let's get very beautiful
on this National. Like it's just like you kind of

(43:21):
skew it that way. That makes sense. Yeah, I don't
know if everybody does that in the opening slaws or
if it's like this is our thing.

Speaker 5 (43:29):
I've seen the National play and opening for them was
Lord Huron and it was a very similar kind of situation. Uh,
you know, there was a I don't know, like a
four minute Theoremon solo before the National, But I've also
seen Lord Huron without the National and there was no
Theoremon solo. Right. Uh, do you guys? Do you guys

(43:52):
ever try to like one up other bands like Seek secretively?
Maybe I don't know.

Speaker 4 (44:00):
I mean, we don't open a ton, but it is like,
I don't know, you're trying to back to religion. You
are trying to make believers and convert people, and I
feel like there's like a little sportsmanship is like we're
we're trying to steal your fans, but you can be
a fan of There's not like a limited amount of

(44:20):
artists you can be a fan of. So I was
just like, we're trying to I don't know, take these people.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
Yeah right, Yeah, I mean there is a I mean,
obviously there's lots of ways to convert somebody to liking
your music. I mean, honestly, a lot of It's like
for me, it's like word of mouth. Like if I
just see that there's a lot of hype going on
about one particular album or band or whatever, I'm like, well,
I guess I have no other choice but to be
interested or at least, like, you know, take a listen.

(44:49):
But another one another way of that is if I
see an opening band and I'm just like memorized by
memorized by it. I'm just like this has got like
I've gotta I gotta figure out what these are all about.

Speaker 3 (45:00):
Like that's another way to convert me as well.

Speaker 4 (45:04):
Yeah, and I like we've had so many sick openers
and as like the headliner. I always like love when
they're like amazing and like crushing, because I feel like
it's just like making the night so much better, Like
you know, it's just like this people are getting their
money's worth, Like this is like awesome.

Speaker 3 (45:21):
Yeah, I love it.

Speaker 4 (45:24):
Well.

Speaker 2 (45:25):
It sounds like, yeah, a little bit of an off
year for shows, but new music at some point. I'm
guessing you know you'll be recording, or it sounds like
you certainly are writing, but I'm sure recording some point
this year and yeah, next year getting the album out.

Speaker 3 (45:38):
Are we ready for top five?

Speaker 5 (45:40):
Culin, Let's do it.

Speaker 3 (45:42):
Let's do it? Okay, Nick?

Speaker 2 (45:44):
You ready for your top five most influence albums?

Speaker 4 (45:47):
You know I should have thought about this more. I'm
gonna go in. Some of these are recycled on other
lists I've done. Blonde by Frank Ocean is just the best,
the best album at the last a few decades or something.
Anyone who knows me already knows that.

Speaker 3 (46:04):
It's just like, yeah, I don't know, has he done
anything lately. I feel like I just haven't really been much.

Speaker 4 (46:10):
I feel like, no, he is. He's put out some
a lot of songs like five years ago, but nothing.

Speaker 3 (46:18):
That sounds about like the time.

Speaker 2 (46:19):
Last time I heard about him was yeah, yeah, so yeah,
it looks like yeah, Blonde was his last like actual
studio album.

Speaker 4 (46:27):
No.

Speaker 5 (46:27):
I don't want to make any judgments about you, but
I remember when that came out. It was every lady's
favorite album. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that
it's a gendered album by any means, but.

Speaker 4 (46:39):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean he's messing with the like
he I mean his record before, he like didn't really
want to talk about sexual like he's he's very you know,
pushing those boundaries without really wanting to talk about it.
But yeah, yeah, I don't know. I think he's a
musical genius. I feel like that album is so gorgeous

(47:01):
and so many like I've listened to, Like there's this
podcast called Dissect and like they break apart a record,
So I've listened to like a like the record a
million times, but like I've listened to this podcast, like
listen to like forty hours breaking down the podcast, and like, oh,
like there's so much intentionality in beauty in this record.

(47:23):
I could even realize I needed help with It's gorgeous.
It's a It's a perfect record for me.

Speaker 5 (47:30):
Oh yeah, love it?

Speaker 4 (47:31):
Yeah? Another one another one twenty two a million by
Bonny Ver.

Speaker 3 (47:37):
Oh oh yes, was that twenty yeah eighteen? Now was
when I came out.

Speaker 4 (47:43):
I think I was also twenty sixteen so a big year. Yeah,
well sixteen, yeah, or come I seventeen.

Speaker 5 (47:50):
If I can add one thing to that. So you
you learned about Mason through his tweets. Mason uh became
Twitter famous. I don't know what may since six years ago,
seven years ago, something like that. But there's a there's
a tweet from forever ago and it's my all time
favorite tweet of Masons. Mason, do you remember it? Do

(48:12):
you want to say it?

Speaker 3 (48:13):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (48:13):
So, like it's sort of like in parentheses it says, uh,
dog sitting your hipsters like dog sitting for your hipster friend,
and like quote end quotes, I say come get your bone.

Speaker 4 (48:24):
Ever okay, and it blew up on Twitter.

Speaker 3 (48:28):
It did not blow up at all.

Speaker 4 (48:30):
That was that was this is just your favorite.

Speaker 5 (48:32):
Pre pre Twitter famous, but it was my favorite tweet
that Mason's ever had.

Speaker 4 (48:38):
No, I mean, this is what I keep referencing it.
But I'm sure You've had a lot of moments. But
just like the I could spot something like a coffee
shop if it's like quasi Christian, Yeah, yeah, like I
could figure that out, like and know that spoke to
me and especially as a touring artist, I bet yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:00):
Okay, speaking of boniver though, like unbelievable band. So I'm
really stoked about the new album as well. I'm you know,
it just came out like a month or two ago.
But yeah, he's kind of like going a little bit
back to the kind of acoustic e singer songwriter type
of roots.

Speaker 5 (49:17):
I love the I love there's like a meme going
around right now where it's it's it's the dude from
Bonivere basically like explaining every song on his on his
most recent album, and he's like, this one is inspired
by like like music, if music was just like an

(49:37):
ethereal thought within your head that oh I saw.

Speaker 3 (49:41):
I saw that video too. It was so good.

Speaker 5 (49:44):
It's so accurate because if you listen to like the
song Exploder episode with Boni Vere, it's just like that.

Speaker 4 (49:51):
It's what he broke down a song on the new record,
and that's what you're talking about.

Speaker 5 (49:56):
So it's not actually him. It's a guy guy pretending
to be him, and like every song is just like
more ridiculous than the last in terms of how he's
explaining his thought process. It's it's so good, but it,
I mean, it is true. He definitely pulls from a
completely different box than I would say most artists do.

Speaker 4 (50:19):
Oh yeah, yeah, Yeah, that record in particular, I just
I don't know. I don't think it's a universally everyone's
favorite Bunny Bear record. But the glitchiness, like all the
kind of distorted electronics like it while he's like kind
of grappling with God and uh yeah, are we just

(50:44):
assignee meaning and all? Like the numerology Like I felt
that the artwork I thought was so so inspiring. Yeah,
it just felt so thought out and thought provoking. Yeah,
and more than just sonics and songwriting.

Speaker 2 (50:59):
A true musician, a true artist, like through and through,
like that guy will do art for the rest of
his life, like whether it's music.

Speaker 3 (51:07):
Or something else.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
But he just seems like one of those people that's
going to live and die as an artist.

Speaker 4 (51:12):
Yeah, totally.

Speaker 3 (51:14):
So all right, that's the second one.

Speaker 4 (51:15):
Right, two. Yeah, I'm gonna also go with Pacific Ocean
Blue by Dennis Wilson.

Speaker 3 (51:23):
Okay, I don't know if I know who Dennis Wilson is.

Speaker 5 (51:26):
I haven't heard this.

Speaker 4 (51:27):
He was in the Beach Boys. He died in the eighties. Okay,
he's the drummer of the Beach Boys.

Speaker 5 (51:34):
He's the high pitched voice.

Speaker 4 (51:36):
Right, Nope, he's the lowest one.

Speaker 5 (51:39):
He's the lowest one.

Speaker 4 (51:40):
Okay, yeah, kind of mixed up. It's not maybe even
my favorite Beach Boy thing, but it so. Then I
have a solo project and I covered that album in
its entirety from beginning to end, which isn't a plug
for that record, but it's just more than like this record.
I don't know. It feels like a special, quintessential LA record.

(52:02):
And I remember the first time I heard it. I
remember like how like it like I listened to all
I'm sure everyone did, and especially being in this band,
all the Beach Boys stuff, and like how inspiring that
is for a harmony band like this. And then discover
this record and it's not like, yeah, it's not better
than Pet Sounds or anything, but it is like so
broken and so beautiful and feels so la and so

(52:26):
tragic if you put it out and didn't do well.
And then Brian, his brother who's a genius, kind of
like shit on it, and then he died before Brian's like, oh,
I should have been more encouraging of him. Ryan tragic
figure as well, No doubt anyways, that one's always been
like a special one for me.

Speaker 2 (52:47):
I'm looking at the the artwork and it's you know,
just a portrait of him, but it's reminding me of
a thought I had the other day. Was every guy
in like the sixties and seventies just naturally hairer than
every guy now. Like it's humble, like the amount of
men that And maybe it's just like a thing that's

(53:08):
just like selective because we only see the pictures of
like artists or whatever, and those guys were just you know,
having like cool ass mustaches or cool beards or whatever.

Speaker 3 (53:16):
But it just.

Speaker 2 (53:17):
Seems like every dude back then, like it feels like
as a human species, over the last like fifty years,
men in particular have just gotten less hairy, especially in
terms of Mason.

Speaker 5 (53:27):
There was no low tea in the sixties.

Speaker 3 (53:30):
That's true.

Speaker 2 (53:32):
Was it was all the highest of teas. Like I
swear to god, every dude was just like either on
steroids or human growth hormones or something.

Speaker 5 (53:43):
A lot of biotin. They're just they're just eating biotin.

Speaker 2 (53:46):
So I don't know if you guys have ever had
that thought, but just like, yeah, I mean, just even
looking at like photos of like old like Western guys
or whatever.

Speaker 3 (53:53):
It's just like.

Speaker 2 (53:54):
Every dude had a mustache and also mustache, and you
just like never see guys that.

Speaker 3 (53:58):
Can have Yeah, just like, oh, how is that possible?

Speaker 5 (54:02):
Because if you if you couldn't grow a mustache, then
you wouldn't you wouldn't make it in the movie, or
you wouldn't make it on the on the Olme cover.

Speaker 3 (54:09):
I guess. So it's just it's really unbelievable anyway. I
don't know, it's just the thought.

Speaker 5 (54:13):
That's the fiest thing I've ever heard you say, those
are the thoughts that I have sometimes.

Speaker 3 (54:21):
All right, that's number three. What's number four?

Speaker 4 (54:24):
I'm scrolling my phone right now to get this right.
I don't even know if it's I don't much when
I want to go with I feel like I want
to do a song. I don't know if that counts.
But it is from a record, and I don't know
the record as well, but it was it was Max
Richter The Blue Notebooks, which came out about like fifteen

(54:47):
years ago. But then there's this mashup of Dina Washington
Max Richtor this Bitter Earth like it's like a sixty
soul song that was put on top of this A
cuss shoally beautiful UIC. Yeah, I would encourage anyone who's
listening to it like this. I don't know. This song
is like the most I don't know, like the closest

(55:11):
I felt like to touching God or something like. It
is so beautiful and it's technically a remix. It's like
this sixties soul singer and this neoclassical music from fifteen
years ago.

Speaker 3 (55:26):
And who is it matched up with? So you said
Max Richter? And who.

Speaker 4 (55:31):
Washington?

Speaker 5 (55:32):
Anything related to Dina Washington?

Speaker 6 (55:34):
I'm in man, Yeah, dang, okay this Bitter Earth on
the slash on the nature of Daylight?

Speaker 3 (55:46):
Okay, one did that?

Speaker 4 (55:47):
One?

Speaker 3 (55:48):
Did them?

Speaker 5 (55:48):
You say, Max Richter? Was that?

Speaker 4 (55:49):
Who was? Yeah? Okay, wait what's it? Yeah? Okay double shacking, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (55:57):
Okay, all right. It looks like maybe like two thousand
fourteen is when.

Speaker 2 (56:01):
It came out.

Speaker 3 (56:01):
Maybe that's so.

Speaker 4 (56:05):
He like two thousand and nine or so. Okay, that's
when his record came out. I don't know when this
like remix was made, but it is.

Speaker 3 (56:13):
Oh, I see, I love it?

Speaker 4 (56:15):
All right?

Speaker 2 (56:16):
Cool, Well that's a that's a I'm definitely gonna check
out the song. All right, so number one or the
last one or however you want to call it. But yeah,
what's uh?

Speaker 3 (56:26):
What's uh? What's the album?

Speaker 4 (56:30):
How many I got? I get four? Yeah, I feel
like they fucked this list up. There's so many I'm missing.
I'm trying to pick a Neil Young record.

Speaker 5 (56:41):
I don't know what's Oh, that's always tough, That's always tough. Yeah,
I love Young.

Speaker 4 (56:48):
I think I don't want to be a basic pitch
and just pick Harvest.

Speaker 5 (56:53):
But you gotta pick harvests, right, I might have.

Speaker 4 (56:55):
I don't know, I would do like the Ditch trilogy
I love. I don't know. I'm giving. I know he
gave me a prompt and I keep pushing it to
this limit. But after the gold Rouse Harvest, but then
the disc trilogy, I like love just seventies Neil Young.
I'll go Harvest.

Speaker 5 (57:17):
Okay, good call, good call.

Speaker 2 (57:20):
But I truly understand the difficulty of trying to narrow
it down for a Neil Young album.

Speaker 4 (57:27):
I feel like he has to be on my list,
like he's especially seventies Meal, I don't know, just a
brilliant songwriter. H Yeah, I.

Speaker 5 (57:39):
Feel like he was. He was in a completely different
kind of like state of mind than most of his
contemporaries at that time. How do you feel about his
his legacy, in his in his his place in the
music world now, I guess.

Speaker 7 (57:56):
I mean, I feel like it's I don't know if
it's it's tough to judge, Like he's made so many
records and a lot of them are not really good
as of late ye, and he's also been like pretty
political for a long time.

Speaker 4 (58:13):
And kind of write about a lot of things for
a long time. But I don't know if they even
translate to like, Okay, does a song slap or not? Though, right, yeah,
I feel like just kind of time well even that
stuff out, Like I feel, yeah, I feel like I
really messed with this stuff. Like the other person I
feel like I should have a person is Dylan. I
love Dylan and Neil Young are just like or Leonard Cohen,

(58:36):
I really mess it up, Like they're just like this
this this top bar for me, and their careers were
so long, like it's so hard to judge them at
different different points. But kind of I don't know, maybe
Leonard Cohen's the best. When like when you pass away
enough time passes, people start viewing it as a workup
thing and not like what your concert was like when

(58:59):
you're seventy six. Like that's that's kind of a not
a good way to like cement your legacy, you know.

Speaker 5 (59:05):
Yeah, from from from a guy who's from such a
harmony driven band, I'm surprised that you picked three guys
there who are definitely not known for being fantastic singers.
It's kind of interesting.

Speaker 4 (59:23):
I mean, I'm really like, I don't like good voices
or like beautiful.

Speaker 3 (59:29):
I'm with you, I'm with them.

Speaker 4 (59:30):
I'm saying that, like I feel like everyone in my
band besides myself, has an amazing voice. Uh, Like I
get I just sing the high notes like I'm really
good at hitting the false settle anyways, Like I'm saying that,
and I know our music is so beautiful and a
lot of that's driven by the voices, but I don't
I'm not if someone can sing like very good and

(59:55):
this is so unfair, like Jeff Buckley singing hell yah
SIUs Leonard cohensing like one is clearly better. But like
I'm gonna gravitate towards Leonard like just I do too.
You're not even a knock on Jeff and maybe it's
more a knock on, like I feel like he created
worship music or something, so maybe there's something else there.

(01:00:16):
But anyways, I just I don't, I don't really like.
But also Frank and Justin Vernon have beautiful voices, so
they're on the list.

Speaker 3 (01:00:25):
But that's true.

Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
By the way, Neil Young has an album coming out
next week.

Speaker 4 (01:00:32):
You could say that. You could say that, like every month.

Speaker 5 (01:00:37):
I'm still waiting on my I'm still waiting on my
shipment for my player.

Speaker 4 (01:00:41):
So yeah, you might be waiting for a while. I mean,
I respect the work ethic and yeah, feeling, I don't know,
it's just touring like crazy. I guess there's mad respect.

Speaker 5 (01:00:55):
Oh, absolutely absolutely I would. I would love to see
Neil Young live. I have not seen him yet, but man,
I saw Bob Dylan a few years ago, probably almost
ten years ago, well more than ten years ago now, Jesus,
time goes by quick. He is hard to listen to now,
I'm not gonna lie.

Speaker 4 (01:01:14):
Yeah I can. Yeah, I've heard that. I haven't seen him.

Speaker 2 (01:01:18):
Yeah, Timothy would be more listenable at this point doing so.

Speaker 5 (01:01:23):
Yeah, I mean, I would say Bob Dylan's voice is
dropped at least two total octaves.

Speaker 4 (01:01:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:01:30):
I don't know if this is all the cigarettes in
marijuana he smoked, but I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:01:34):
But man, but like I feel like Lennard, it got sick,
it got cooler. When it draw he.

Speaker 5 (01:01:41):
Got he got better. Yeah, same thing with same thing
with Johnny Cash.

Speaker 3 (01:01:45):
Johnny Way American albums.

Speaker 2 (01:01:48):
I like his I like his voice more on those
American albums than his early stuff.

Speaker 5 (01:01:51):
Me too, because it's not it's not always uh, it's
not always there too. Sometimes sometimes his voice fades off
and it's like, oh man, that's a human good luck
a I try to replicate that absolutely.

Speaker 4 (01:02:08):
Yeah, I gotta see them all if I like, there
don't have many more years left. But I also like,
I loved that last Dealing record.

Speaker 5 (01:02:17):
Yeah, it was great.

Speaker 4 (01:02:18):
Thought it was so beautiful, and that somebody that's like
eighty can only make that record, like like a twenty
five yeople could not make that record.

Speaker 5 (01:02:29):
Did you hear his his his Sinatra songs?

Speaker 4 (01:02:33):
No, I skipped that one, but how how was it?

Speaker 5 (01:02:36):
It's actually not too bad. It's it definitely feels like
a more folksy Sinatra, which is kind of hard to imagine.
But he did it, he did it off, he pulled
it off. Yeah, it's fun.

Speaker 2 (01:02:50):
Well, good list, great singer songwriters on every single one
of them, so which I would imagine so with a
band like Local Natives and the fact again like all
all of you were basically primary songwriters to the band,
Like it would make sense that you that you all,
I would imagine the entire band loves good songwriters.

Speaker 4 (01:03:10):
Yeah, I mean, and I bet our lists are wildly
different and that's what makes us a band.

Speaker 5 (01:03:16):
Yeah that's cool.

Speaker 3 (01:03:18):
Well, Nick, what do you want to plug?

Speaker 2 (01:03:19):
So it sounds like you guys are writing, uh, and
I'm sure maybe maybe sometime potentially next year, new album?

Speaker 3 (01:03:26):
Yeah, what do you want to plug?

Speaker 4 (01:03:27):
I mean, Local Native stuff is so far away. I
have a record label and a solo project, just chewing.
What's it called? In chewing? This is the music I
make by myself chewing. Okay, I'll put a piano only
album out last year, just solo piano. But Chewing ink

(01:03:48):
dot Com is all like the label and the music
that I'm making by myself, beautiful.

Speaker 3 (01:03:53):
Love it, love it, sick, Nick, what else would you
like to plug?

Speaker 4 (01:03:57):
I think I talked about it earlier, but when I was.
I did a lot of like church stuff. I did
like church plays too. If I talked about that, like
like not shocked at all.

Speaker 5 (01:04:07):
Like like the Heaven like the Heaven and Hell play
that or the Heaven's Gate player or whatever they do
at every church.

Speaker 4 (01:04:13):
Is that is that one that we all did? I
remember I I did like like Jonah and I got
the role of Jonah, Like that was a big thing.

Speaker 5 (01:04:21):
Oh my gosh, looking yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:04:23):
Yeah, So like I was, I was, I was. I
was doing plays, like I was doing the worship stuff
that came later, but like I was doing that stuff.
And then in San Diego, you know, it's not like
I was getting the big parts in these in these
uh church and local productions. And it eventually led to

(01:04:45):
me being on do you remember this serial called Kicks,
like k with the with the X right, yeah, k
I X. So there there's a there's a commercial I
landed in the in the nineties. Maybe you can find
it on YouTube where I I was the kid in
this Kicks commercial.

Speaker 5 (01:05:03):
Really, so what what kicks hijinks? Did they have you
getting up to here?

Speaker 4 (01:05:09):
I mean, it's my memory. I was like a kid,
but it's like it's a lot more boring than you thought.
Like it was just like you're you're doing the same
shot of like the spoon and holding it up and
then they're just shooting it different ways. So it's like
in my mind, I was like, this is gonna it's
gonna ye my parents' mind. I saw home alone like
the tournament to nikolay Culkin. But then it was just

(01:05:31):
like a day in La and you're like just in
this production warehouse and just like holding up a spoon
with cereal and the shooting it three different ways and
you you have like literally three lions, And yeah, they
thought it was breaking.

Speaker 5 (01:05:47):
And see, I never understood Kicks because they always tried
to kind of position themselves as the healthy, the healthy
alternative that kids like.

Speaker 4 (01:05:58):
Yeah, but it was like tricking parents are chicken kid Like,
I don't even know who they're trying to.

Speaker 5 (01:06:04):
Probably I think they were trying to check everybody. I
think they were just as big and bad as the
fruit Libs people, but you know they're they're they were
trying to be like if you if your mom takes
you to the grocery store, she's going to get you
Kicks because it's good for you and you're like fuck that.
I don't want to have something that's good for me.
I want I want the thing that tastes the best
and kicks always tastes like dog water to.

Speaker 4 (01:06:27):
Be Yeah, Big Cereal is not your friend.

Speaker 5 (01:06:31):
Big Cereal is definitely not your friend.

Speaker 4 (01:06:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:06:34):
I just love how Hollywood, Uh, you know, you do
this little commercial and then Hollywood just unanimously was like,
you know what, that guy, that kid has a face
for an indie rock band.

Speaker 4 (01:06:45):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:06:46):
Yeah, So are you an industry plant? Is that what
you're trying to tell us or what?

Speaker 4 (01:06:50):
Yeah? Like h G R Her and me are not
that different or Billie Eilish that's right.

Speaker 2 (01:06:59):
Right, Okay, I do have to I've always wanted to ask,
like child actors this, but did you actually like the
money that you got from this commercial? Did you get
that is sort of like your parents gave you that
money or did they pocket themselves?

Speaker 4 (01:07:15):
I have I had no idea, and this is a
great question.

Speaker 2 (01:07:18):
I mean, you probably got like a few hundred dollars
out of that, right even I remember.

Speaker 4 (01:07:22):
I remember, I imagine I was like a thousand or something.
I remember we got to go to like a good,
a good pizza place, afterwards, like that was like, my
a job well done. We weren't that we weren't there.

Speaker 3 (01:07:36):
Did you get a skip school for the day?

Speaker 4 (01:07:39):
Uh no, because it was on a Saturday.

Speaker 5 (01:07:41):
Oh that's the worst.

Speaker 2 (01:07:44):
Like that would be an epic to be able to
like go to school. I mean it's all already cool
to say, like you know when you when you're in
school and tell kids that you're gonna be on TV,
but it'd be extra epic if you get a skip
a day of school for that.

Speaker 4 (01:07:56):
Yeah. I think I was hoping for that the whole time,
so you could like tell everyone like I'm gone on Thursday,
Like why you've gone?

Speaker 5 (01:08:03):
I've got an acting gig.

Speaker 4 (01:08:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:08:06):
So so when your friend when your friends saw it
at the school, would they would they say?

Speaker 4 (01:08:11):
Uh? It was like it was a big moment, but
like it was also like you couldn't, but you can't,
you can't. I feel like those word of mouth, like
you guys are like thinking of TV today, like if
you missed it, if you were like there was no
way to know when it was on, but a handful
of people saw it. If you're watching Nickelodeon at the
right hour, but it wasn't like you could record it.

(01:08:33):
I don't even think we had, Like that's why I
think I tried to like the thing. Yeah probably no, no, no,
or like you're just like trying to hit record on
the VHS, like you're definitely missing, Like there's no reason
to just record commercials all the time.

Speaker 5 (01:08:46):
Right. My wife was recently at a commercial for her
university that she went to and it played during the
Super Bowl, which is wild and.

Speaker 3 (01:08:58):
So locally, what's that like a local commercial?

Speaker 5 (01:09:02):
Well, it's an STSU commercial.

Speaker 2 (01:09:03):
So yeah, there's no way they're playing in the STSU
commercial in LA or something.

Speaker 5 (01:09:08):
Right, Probably not, I know, definitely not in La. No,
it'd be like it'd be like you're like a regional one, right, Yeah,
you're a regional commercial.

Speaker 4 (01:09:14):
I should say, Yeah, okay from San Diego. I thought
you guys were from.

Speaker 5 (01:09:19):
Oh sorry, South Dakota. So Lakota. Yeah, the better the
one that actually has uh you know, national titles.

Speaker 4 (01:09:30):
We made it to this whole podcast that's not d
two universities against each other.

Speaker 5 (01:09:37):
Come on, now, there're d one. But yeah, So, so
she was getting like she was at work during the time,
and she got like twenty messages during the Super Bowl
and she's like what is going on? And I was
like your commercial displayed. She's like, oh that makes more sense,
Like why it would happen?

Speaker 4 (01:09:58):
I mean super Bowl is prime time?

Speaker 3 (01:10:00):
Hell yeah right?

Speaker 5 (01:10:01):
Oh yeah, one last question for you. You wouldn't happen
to go to the same church or did you go
to the same church as John Foreman.

Speaker 4 (01:10:10):
I did not, but I kind of know him. He is,
how do I I don't remember the connection. I was
in a band and the singer was like a guitar
tech for switch Foot, and so then we were like
open for switch Foot and it was like a really
big thing.

Speaker 5 (01:10:27):
Oh hell yeah. I can actually see you guys working
really well together on the same bill, Like that'd be.

Speaker 4 (01:10:38):
Oh like local natives, Yeah, yeah together not local natives. No,
So this was like a different band, Like.

Speaker 2 (01:10:46):
Right, but you guys, like you guys should play together,
that'd be that'd be a sick Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:10:50):
I know, you guys would work well together.

Speaker 4 (01:10:54):
I could see a crossover. Yeah, but yeah, he he
was always really supportive of my like San Diego bands.

Speaker 5 (01:11:02):
What a dude. I've never heard a bad thing about
that guy.

Speaker 4 (01:11:07):
Yeah, I mean I don't know him super well, so
I can't speak on his speak on him, but he's
been nothing but like super generous and sweet to me.

Speaker 5 (01:11:15):
That's awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:11:16):
Yeah, but yeah, San Diego and music in that time
is not the biggest world, true true. Yeah, I love it.

Speaker 2 (01:11:25):
Well, awesome Nick, thank you so much for chatting more
about Local Natives. Just yeah, big fan of the new album,
excited for the new music that will come out here
maybe the next year or so. But yeah, just really
really stoked about it. And yeah, thanks for thanks for connecting.
I know, it's kind of a little random that we
got connected and and then you know, fortunately I'm a
big music fan and I was like, what in the

(01:11:47):
world this is so cool that Local Natives dude just
followed me. And so yeah, just really really cool to
be connected. And so yeah, thanks so much for chatting
about the band.

Speaker 4 (01:11:57):
Yeah, man, it was a blast. Nice men you all,
and thank you every On the last I you didn't
know how said

Speaker 2 (01:12:11):
It'll know, you know,