In January this year LA based, Local Natives released their second album ‘Hummingbird’ to critical acclaim and a very respectable number 12 in the American charts. With an Olympia date this coming Thursday, we sent David Dooley to catch up with vocalist/guitarist Ryan Hahn for a quick chat on everything from songwriting to writing your own path in the music industry.
Its been nine months since ‘Hummingbird’ has been released and bar the occasional day or two at home they’ve been on the road non-stop. So how do they keep their sanity? “Yeah that’s assuming we’re not already insane. You’re right, from the moment the record came out we’ve kinda been on tour. For the most part its been non-stop but its been good; it’s all been really good.”
With three lead vocalists and three main songwriters you can imagine there’s some good-natured competitiveness between the guys when it comes to songwriting. “Yeah I guess there’s a little bit of healthy competition”. So do egos ever get in the way? “We’ve also kind of realised that everyone’s voices are stronger at different things. Then hopefully, put egos aside and do what’s best for the song.” but then at the same time, “You definitely want to have as many babies on the record as you can but at the end of the day, I think we want the record to be as good as it can be.”
Despite ‘Hummingbird’ only being released in January, it seems that Local Natives are making the most of their time on the road and have started writing the follow-up. “I think the good thing about having done this before is being able to write on tour. We’re all writing with our laptops now so that kind of helps when you’re on a plane. You can write anywhere, using soundchecks to get through ideas.” So have they a rough idea of what shape the songs will take? “A few of them have quite a bit of tempo to them and there’s a fair bit of electronics on them, but I don’t think it’s going to be a synth pop record.”
Rising from playing Whelans to headlining The Olympia in a matter of months is no mean feat (there’s also that main stage slot at this year’s Longitude festival). So what aspirations do Local Natives have and are there any bands they’re looking up to. “It’s tough cos’ you have to write your own story. I think we’re realising that. You can’t really mould yourself after any one band or anything like that.” Meanwhile, Ryan is also keen to add that “when you meet a lot of different bands you realise that everyone’s had some really rough patches and some hiccups along the way and it hasn’t been as smooth of a ride as you expect it to be.”
So is it not as much of a fairytale as we’re lead to believe? “No it totally is. In saying that we get to play music together and these are my best friends. Like how many people can say they love what they do, we’re so stoked that we’re able to do it. I guess the story arc or whatever isn’t always as clean as you would expect it to be.”
During our interview Ryan noted that he was in Atlanta, Georgia in the States about to play a “really old, cool looking theatre” so he got a quite excited when we told him that Thursday’s Dublin gig would take place in a very similar setting. “Oh yeah, everyone’s always telling us about the Olympia when we’re there so I’m stoked that we’re finally playing it.”
Local Natives play the Olympia October 24th and Hummingbird is out now.