LOCAL NATIVES
HalfNoise

MON, 11 SEP 2023 at 07:00PM EDT
Ages: All Ages
Doors Open: 07:00PM

OnSale: Fri, 12 May 2023 at 10:00AM EDT
Announcement: Tue, 9 May 2023 at 12:00PM EDT

Face-to-face songwriting and musical interplay put to tape: the classic studio setting isjuxtaposed on Local Natives’ fourth full-length, VIOLET STREET [LomaVistaRecordings] with modern production and visuals to form a timeless album. The band’ssignature soaring 3-part harmonies are augmented by loops of tape, physically splicedand transformed by hand, the result of experimenting in the studio with producer ShawnEverett [Alabama Shakes, Kacey Musgraves, The War On Drugs] is a band renewed.In essence, Local Natives [Taylor Rice (vocals, guitar), Kelcey Ayer (vocals, keys), RyanHahn (vocals, guitar), Matt Frazier (drums), and Nik Ewing (vocals, bass, keys)] return tothe methods of their 2009 debut Gorilla Manor, but with the bonds of their union fortifiedand with the growth of wisdom accrued in the studio and on stage in front of millions ofworldwide fans.
“The record is about us reconnecting to playing off of each other,” states Taylor. “Wedidn’t go into separate corners, produce our own songs, and bring them to the group.Back when we made Gorilla Manor, we lived together in one house and made a franticallycreative environment. This time, we were in a massive warehouse with Shawn, jamming,and relying on each other often until three or four in the morning for several nights straight.It was fun, but also pushed us to outdo each other. We got back to our strengths. We’vealways been super collaborative and democratic, as we have three songwriters andsingers, and all five of us have a lot of creative input. This was the most collaborative andopen we’ve been though. We were raw and vulnerable. It’s the first time we didn’t do anypre-production, we went in and built the record out of nothing.”
“Not only was the band at its most collaborative, we’ve never collaborated alongside aproducer so closely,” adds Kelcey. “Shawn became like an unofficial sixth member. It wasamazing to go that deep with him.” Everett did what the best producers are supposed to,getting the best Art direction: Public-Library dynamics out of a group of musicians whohave been together a long time. "Taylor, Ryan and I worked together on the songwritingand lyrics, but Nik and Matt also contributed so much to this record," Kelcey says. "Nikhas beautiful lines and textures all over the album, and Matts drumming has never beenbetter."
In many ways, all paths converged upon VIOLET STREET. Prior, the group progressedtheir soundover the course of three full-lengths, the aforementioned Gorilla Manor,Hummingbird [2013], and, most recently, Sunlit Youth [2016]. The latter received praisefrom The FADER, Consequence of Sound, The Guardian, and more as “Dark Days”exceeded 45 million Spotify streams followed by “Coins” with 23 million Spotify streams.In between countless sold out shows and festival appearances-including a standoutCoachella 2017 set-they’ve graced the stages of Austin City Limits, The Tonight ShowStarring Jimmy Fallon, The Late Late Show With James Corden, and more. And theytested new sonic waters, recording a cover of Kanye West’s “Ultralight Beam,” whichComplex called “beautiful.”

After the tour cycle concluded in support of Sunlit Youth, the musicians decided to goback to square one in 2018. Rather than separately write, track, and contribute parts viaemail, they congregated in person at Shawn’s studio and warehouse, rekindling theirchemistry and nodding to a tried-and-true tactic employed at the start of their career.“Writing and touring Sunlit Youth was pretty tumultuous for a lot of reasons,” admits Ryan.“We needed to come home and figure out how we relate to each other again. We talkedabout our relationships very candidly. Making new music together was a reset and a wayto feel grounded in all the chaos around us.
That brings us to the album’s key question of “What keeps us grounded?” It comes to lifein the swooning delivery, shimmering keys, and airy strumming of “Café Amarillo,” whichspeaks directly to the central theme of VIOLET STREET. “With all of the chaos in theworld, where do you find your shelter?” asks Kelcey. “For me, it’s the shelter I share withmy wife when we’re together. It’s our love.”
“Lyrically, the one thread between all ten tracks is shelter,” Taylor elaborates. “Of course,we have relationships with our significant others, but we also find shelter in community,friendships, and the band. They are at the heart of VIOLET STREET.”
Sonically, shelter assumes many different forms. Powered by a healthy helping of slideguitar courtesy of Ryan, “Someday Now” channels the energy of “a haunted Hawaiianfilm noir party.” Then, there’s “Shy,” which swings from “swampy jungle” drums into adanceable groove punctuated by a “wild Tusk-inspired horn section like a Marching bandfreaking out.” Three part harmonies take flight on “Garden of Elysian,” while the finale “TapDancer” culminates on resounding piano waltzing towards a heavenly and hypnotic send-off punctuated by otherworldly voice transmissions. Lyrically, “It’s about tapping into thosepure feelings and emotions, before the noise of the world distracts you,” says Ryan.“You’re getting back to a simpler place and having perspective and childlike joy.”
With Shawn as the “total genius mad scientist” at the helm, the musicians pushedthemselves to refine their vision like never before. Widening the sonic palette, they playeda series of avant garde and classic films in the background to draw inspiration, choosingranging from Kurosawa samurai films, Drive, and Citizen Kane to Endless Summer andthe work of Alejandro Jodorowsky. As a result, “it elevated the songwriting,” according toKelcey. Ryan laughs, “We took some pages from the Brian Eno playbook”.
The music evokes an expansive scope introduced by the lush guitars, iridescentharmonies, and paranoiac pop vocals of the single “When Am I Gonna Lose You.”
“I got married last year, and ‘When Am I Gonna Lose You’ is the zig zagging, arduousjourney for me to get there,” says Taylor. “I found myself in an amazing relationship, butI always felt like it was going to go away, fall apart, and crumble. A never-ending loopingfeeling in the back of my head that things can’t last, and the final leap it takes to get pastthat. It’s set in Big Sur on the coast, which was an important part of our story. I’m divinginto murky emotions of anxiety and doubt in the middle of love and joy.”

Named after the Downtown address where Shawn operates his studio, the albumencapsulates the spirit of the city in all of its widescreen splendor for the quintet. “LosAngeles is an important character in the music,” explains Kelcey. “VIOLETSTREET embodied the space where we were able to make the songs and harnessenergy. Musically, we were both looking forward and experimenting, but leaning on timehonored techniques as well. Similarly, the LA is growing and expanding culturally rightnow, but remains classic. Everything came to life in this place. All of our emotions andideas were represented by VIOLET STREET.”

There is a strict 6 ticket limit per show. Additional orders exceeding the ticket limit may be cancelled without notice.