Interviews

Local Natives Interview

• 4th Jul 2010

We caught up with Local Natives' Andy Hamm to get his angle on Glastonbury, the importance of social networking, living with your band mates & how you keep a perfectly coiffed moustache…

You've just come off playing Glastonbury festival, but not just ANY Glastonbury, the 40th anniversary festival!… What were your highlights?
Glastonbury truly is its own world. We played two shows there. One on the first night and one on the second during the day. Highlights include- Having Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood as the “Special Guests” on the same stage we played and getting lost in the rabbit hole. Everyone in the band seemed to go on their own adventure and we all somehow ended up at the same teepee fire pit at 7am the next day.

Many a collaboration is initiated in the backstage bars of the Glastonbury festival, did you meet anyone interesting that you guys might be keen to do something with (however outlandish they might be)?
We met many musicians at Glastonbury that all of us admire and look up to. All of them I think a little out of our league for any collaborations….but perhaps with time.

I hear you all lived together in a big house in LA, but you no longer do, what made you decide to split up the household?
We now all live together in a Sprinter Van instead of the LA house. It saves us all a lot of money on rent.

Even though you no longer live together at home, is being so close something you'd recommend to other bands starting up, did it benefit you?
For us as individuals and with the writing style, it helped us out tremendously. I think it really depends on how a band writes songs together.

Living so close, you must know things about each other that nobody should know, so who has got the nastiest habit in the band… and what is it?
Placing an order at a restaurant is a very trying and stressful event for Kelcey.

The artwork you guys use is fantastic – is it something you're heavily involved in putting together & if so, what is the inspiration behind it?
All the artwork is done within the band and definitely is something we put a lot of time and effort into. Inspiration comes from muscle men and my pet monster. [Monster?… I don't know if it's better that this is a real monster or innuendo!]

What dates are you most looking forward to this year (UK or abroad)?
We have never had the pleasure of playing any festivals as a band until this year and have never actually even been to any of the festivals we are playing overseas. So far the experiences have been incredible. Getting to meet so many other artists and experience everything that comes with such large productions. I am really looking forward to the remainder of the summer festivals we are taking part in.

You take your social networking pretty seriously, especially your blog, what aspects of doing this benefit you the most do you think?.. and do you feel it's important for other bands to embrace it too?
All of us in the band are products of a generation raised on the internet. That being said, our blog etc is “social networking” we would probably be enjoying and doing it whether we were in a band together or not. I think as long as its something that the band enjoys doing and is genuine then its a good thing to embrace. Otherwise its just another advertisement.

What UK bands have you come across since you've been here that you rate?
Wild Beasts
Peggy Sue
The XX

There's a pretty impressive facial hair display going on between you guys, have you got any tips for maintaining a smashing tash?
no. [Sorry guys, some things will forever remain steeped in mystery!]

Festivals are a really integral part of the British Summer… we love em… if you were given the task of putting a line up together for your UK fans who are the top 5 bands you'd choose to play?
Some of my favorite sets Ive seen thus far this festival season were from Dirty Projectors, Thom Yorke/Johnny Greenwood, The National, Fever Ray and The XX. I like that line up.

Finally, if you could be a local native of anywhere in the world, where would it be?
Colorado and California…

Find out more about Local Natives here: link

With thanks to the honorable Andy Hamm