Post by Zapp Brannigan on Feb 6, 2011 21:18:23 GMT -5
www.lifessweetbreath.com/interviews/7-daniel-evans-of-native-interview.html
Native is an up and coming post-punk/post-hardcore band from Northwest Indiana. In three short years, they have come from the local music scene of Indiana and Illinois, to being signed with Sargent House, being fellow label mates with the likes of Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, RX Bandits, and Zach Hill, and drawing critical acclaim from the music press from all around. Recently I got the opportunity to talk to the band’s guitarist, Daniel Evans, and ask about the future of Native.
Life’s Sweet Breath: Just looked at your Myspace page and saw that you currently only have 6 shows in the next three months, which by your standards is taking it easy. Are you guys planning on any more shows or tours in the near future?
Daniel Evans: Yes, by our standards six shows is staying super low key. We thought it might be nice to take it easy and write before Ed and Bob finish up school. Ideally this means writing our asses off and finalizing songs, getting them ready to play live and record. But taking time off also means just working at our jobs and being unhappy letting Netflix ruin our lives.
So we're fairly excited to leave on our next tour in January with RX bandits and Fake Problems. We will be escaping the Midwest cold and heading west for the second time ever as Native. One of the shows we're most excited for thats coming up is playing the Beat Kitchen in Chicago on November 27th. Our favorite Chicago bands will be joining us for one of the bests shows ever. Shout out to Castevet, Noumenon, and Cloud Mouth.
LSB: You have toured with the likes of This Town Needs Guns, Castevet, and La Dispute. Are there any other bands you have toured with that more people should know more about?
DE: The last tour we were on was with Former Thieves. This band has a way of pumping us up like no other band does. They hit our hard/soft spot. We can't say enough about Former Thieves. If you are unfamiliar then you should change that. I feel the same way about all the bands we have been out with thus far. This Town Needs Guns were so cool, we learned so much from them. They taught us any bit of professionalism we have, even though thats not saying much.
We are bffe's with Castevet and Los Angeles (La) Dispute. Between Nick from Castevet and us we have probably single handedly kept all of the Flattop Grills in the greater Chicago land area in business. La Dispute and us go as far back to the days of touring with our old bands so we have magic together, the kind of magic that makes Criss Angel look like phony.
LSB: Are there any bands that you would like to tour with in the future?
DE: Bands that We're looking forward to touring with are Balance and Composure, and Slingshot Dakota. The list goes on but these two bands are on our must tour with asap list. Oh and Dragon Force, and a handful of local band that existed when we were preteens. shout out to I, Heart.
LSB: To say you have caught the attention of a few of music publications and sites would be a massive understatement. What has it been like in such a short time to receive the critical acclaim from the people of Punknews.org, Alternative Press, Absolute Punk, etc.?
DE: What a nice compliment/question. We often discuss many aspects of our band, press being one of those things. All of it is really amazingly flattering including the bad stuff. We read Absolute Punk, Punk News, and AP even before Native was a thought in our heads, Absolute Punk being our favorite. It's completely special that they say anything about us let alone how often they do. We met Adam (from Absolute Punk) who works there and he is one of our top favorite dudes. So to actually get around to answering the question, it's hard to think about. It's as if someone hacked these websites and faked the magazines. It's nice to hear nice things, but when bad things are said we make fun of the idiot who says stupid wrong things. Just kidding! We honestly enjoy any press about us.
LSB: It's getting to close to a year since 'Wrestling Moves' came out. Are you currently working on a follow up to that? If so, what can you tell us about it?
DE: We are in the early stages of writing our next album. I wish there were things to talk about, but we only have one song that were playing live/ talking about. Its called "Word City"; we wrote it to be a banger. Some things I can say are that it will be recorded well. It will brush on topics that are more socially driven, topics that the world can relate with. Wrestling Moves was about giant hurtles and friendships. So the new stuff will be a more mature Native. Musically it will borrow and elaborate on the thoughts and feelings of both of our previous releases. But I may be getting ahead of myself. Thats the plan anyways.
LSB: Earlier this year you got to perform at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas. What is the band's mindset in performing a show at a large festival like that (albeit performed at local venues), than it is at a regular Native show?
DE: Festivals are just like any show, but different too. Just like any show in the sense that some go good and some don't. SXSW went rather well for us, but we also played a festival where the sound guy looked like Beetlejuice and we blew the power. Needless to say us standing in the dark, with our dicks in our hands, was the best part of our set that night. So some go well, and some make you want to die. We grew up playing basements, so thats our definition of a normal Native show. Although we enjoy playing almost anywhere as long as its inside. We hate playing outdoors.
LSB: Sonny Kay, who works with your label, Sargent House, won a couple of awards recently for the artwork he has done for the label. Have you guys considered letting him do the artwork for future albums? And who is the person who currently does the artwork for the band?
DE: Fantastic question. This gives us the opportunity to plug all of our friends that do things for us.
Our friends currently working on things for us:
Stacy Kline (she is working on a website right now. She is up to incredible things keep them peepers peeled)
Ashton Lorraine ashtonlorraine.tumblr.com/
Ben Sears bensears.tumblr.com/
Our friends who have done things for us in the past for the exception of Ben Sears:
Adam Vass adamxvass.com/
David Summers www.summersphotography.org/
LSB: When I first saw you guys at Swayze's in Marietta, it really took me aback to see you and La Dispute play right on the floor with the crowd surrounding you, as opposed to the local bands who opted to played on stage. Only because around here, you hardly see bands do anything like that. What is your guy's motivation and reasoning to do that?
DE: There are many reasons for playing on the floor. Part of it is like framing a painting in a more appropriate frame. Instead of us being framed by a stage were framed by people. It makes for a more intimate setting. We like having people so close we can't move. Some of our first shows were with Lion of the North who hated playing stages, PA systems that worked, and turning down. They were super low maintenance, and I feel as if it rubbed off on us.
LSB: Since you have been on the road almost non-stop for a few years, have there been any crazy happenings or people that have stood out to you guys?
DE: There are a ton of things that have been awesome. There is one thing that we have mentioned in interviews before and its the best thing any of us have seen.
We were on the way to a show in South Bend Indiana, and there was a guy who was test driving a red convertible from what we gathered a shitty used car lot. The dude pulls up to us at a red light, puts the car into park, and hops out and runs away. He left the car running and ran fast and hard. To our recollection he was wearing either a polo, Hawaiian shirt, a brown blazer, or a trench coat. We're not completely sure. But we have been asked in interviews who would we like to meet and this man was listed.
LSB: I have noticed that Bobby currently writes for a Soda blog called budsnsuds.org. Is there really a large community for micro-brewed soda? If so, what are some lesser known sodas out there that people should know about?
DE: This is funny because it started out as a pot on beer blog that was way successful. It was probably so successful because Bobby devoted massive amounts of time to it. Long story short, he ended up smoking himself clean, And although he felt dishonest blogging about a pot and beer, he thought the URL budsnsuds.org would make too cute of a soda blog to just throw away. That is the true story of how buds and suds came to be.
#1 soda of all time according to Bobby is............. Diet 7-Up.
LSB: Last question. As one who absolutely loves a well made pun, is there any story behind the song 'What Are You Dylan In My House' from your debut EP, 'We Delete; Erase'?
DE: ...Dylan... Honestly we were watching Degrassi one night and Marco's boyfriend was this really dumb dude named ...Dylan... So we ended up making really stupid jokes about him not having any scripted lines in the show. all he says is ...Dylan... in a really dramatic way. This very stupid joke evolved into some other joke where we swapped doing with Dylan in normal everyday sentences. The best thing we came up with that night was what are you Dylan in my house. As far a song titles go we could have gone with a Dylan pun or we also have a plethora of jokes in poor taste about Page or Wheelchair Jimmy. Drake is the worst rapper ever by the way.
-Jordan Leman, November 18, 2010
Native is an up and coming post-punk/post-hardcore band from Northwest Indiana. In three short years, they have come from the local music scene of Indiana and Illinois, to being signed with Sargent House, being fellow label mates with the likes of Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, RX Bandits, and Zach Hill, and drawing critical acclaim from the music press from all around. Recently I got the opportunity to talk to the band’s guitarist, Daniel Evans, and ask about the future of Native.
Life’s Sweet Breath: Just looked at your Myspace page and saw that you currently only have 6 shows in the next three months, which by your standards is taking it easy. Are you guys planning on any more shows or tours in the near future?
Daniel Evans: Yes, by our standards six shows is staying super low key. We thought it might be nice to take it easy and write before Ed and Bob finish up school. Ideally this means writing our asses off and finalizing songs, getting them ready to play live and record. But taking time off also means just working at our jobs and being unhappy letting Netflix ruin our lives.
So we're fairly excited to leave on our next tour in January with RX bandits and Fake Problems. We will be escaping the Midwest cold and heading west for the second time ever as Native. One of the shows we're most excited for thats coming up is playing the Beat Kitchen in Chicago on November 27th. Our favorite Chicago bands will be joining us for one of the bests shows ever. Shout out to Castevet, Noumenon, and Cloud Mouth.
LSB: You have toured with the likes of This Town Needs Guns, Castevet, and La Dispute. Are there any other bands you have toured with that more people should know more about?
DE: The last tour we were on was with Former Thieves. This band has a way of pumping us up like no other band does. They hit our hard/soft spot. We can't say enough about Former Thieves. If you are unfamiliar then you should change that. I feel the same way about all the bands we have been out with thus far. This Town Needs Guns were so cool, we learned so much from them. They taught us any bit of professionalism we have, even though thats not saying much.
We are bffe's with Castevet and Los Angeles (La) Dispute. Between Nick from Castevet and us we have probably single handedly kept all of the Flattop Grills in the greater Chicago land area in business. La Dispute and us go as far back to the days of touring with our old bands so we have magic together, the kind of magic that makes Criss Angel look like phony.
LSB: Are there any bands that you would like to tour with in the future?
DE: Bands that We're looking forward to touring with are Balance and Composure, and Slingshot Dakota. The list goes on but these two bands are on our must tour with asap list. Oh and Dragon Force, and a handful of local band that existed when we were preteens. shout out to I, Heart.
LSB: To say you have caught the attention of a few of music publications and sites would be a massive understatement. What has it been like in such a short time to receive the critical acclaim from the people of Punknews.org, Alternative Press, Absolute Punk, etc.?
DE: What a nice compliment/question. We often discuss many aspects of our band, press being one of those things. All of it is really amazingly flattering including the bad stuff. We read Absolute Punk, Punk News, and AP even before Native was a thought in our heads, Absolute Punk being our favorite. It's completely special that they say anything about us let alone how often they do. We met Adam (from Absolute Punk) who works there and he is one of our top favorite dudes. So to actually get around to answering the question, it's hard to think about. It's as if someone hacked these websites and faked the magazines. It's nice to hear nice things, but when bad things are said we make fun of the idiot who says stupid wrong things. Just kidding! We honestly enjoy any press about us.
LSB: It's getting to close to a year since 'Wrestling Moves' came out. Are you currently working on a follow up to that? If so, what can you tell us about it?
DE: We are in the early stages of writing our next album. I wish there were things to talk about, but we only have one song that were playing live/ talking about. Its called "Word City"; we wrote it to be a banger. Some things I can say are that it will be recorded well. It will brush on topics that are more socially driven, topics that the world can relate with. Wrestling Moves was about giant hurtles and friendships. So the new stuff will be a more mature Native. Musically it will borrow and elaborate on the thoughts and feelings of both of our previous releases. But I may be getting ahead of myself. Thats the plan anyways.
LSB: Earlier this year you got to perform at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas. What is the band's mindset in performing a show at a large festival like that (albeit performed at local venues), than it is at a regular Native show?
DE: Festivals are just like any show, but different too. Just like any show in the sense that some go good and some don't. SXSW went rather well for us, but we also played a festival where the sound guy looked like Beetlejuice and we blew the power. Needless to say us standing in the dark, with our dicks in our hands, was the best part of our set that night. So some go well, and some make you want to die. We grew up playing basements, so thats our definition of a normal Native show. Although we enjoy playing almost anywhere as long as its inside. We hate playing outdoors.
LSB: Sonny Kay, who works with your label, Sargent House, won a couple of awards recently for the artwork he has done for the label. Have you guys considered letting him do the artwork for future albums? And who is the person who currently does the artwork for the band?
DE: Fantastic question. This gives us the opportunity to plug all of our friends that do things for us.
Our friends currently working on things for us:
Stacy Kline (she is working on a website right now. She is up to incredible things keep them peepers peeled)
Ashton Lorraine ashtonlorraine.tumblr.com/
Ben Sears bensears.tumblr.com/
Our friends who have done things for us in the past for the exception of Ben Sears:
Adam Vass adamxvass.com/
David Summers www.summersphotography.org/
LSB: When I first saw you guys at Swayze's in Marietta, it really took me aback to see you and La Dispute play right on the floor with the crowd surrounding you, as opposed to the local bands who opted to played on stage. Only because around here, you hardly see bands do anything like that. What is your guy's motivation and reasoning to do that?
DE: There are many reasons for playing on the floor. Part of it is like framing a painting in a more appropriate frame. Instead of us being framed by a stage were framed by people. It makes for a more intimate setting. We like having people so close we can't move. Some of our first shows were with Lion of the North who hated playing stages, PA systems that worked, and turning down. They were super low maintenance, and I feel as if it rubbed off on us.
LSB: Since you have been on the road almost non-stop for a few years, have there been any crazy happenings or people that have stood out to you guys?
DE: There are a ton of things that have been awesome. There is one thing that we have mentioned in interviews before and its the best thing any of us have seen.
We were on the way to a show in South Bend Indiana, and there was a guy who was test driving a red convertible from what we gathered a shitty used car lot. The dude pulls up to us at a red light, puts the car into park, and hops out and runs away. He left the car running and ran fast and hard. To our recollection he was wearing either a polo, Hawaiian shirt, a brown blazer, or a trench coat. We're not completely sure. But we have been asked in interviews who would we like to meet and this man was listed.
LSB: I have noticed that Bobby currently writes for a Soda blog called budsnsuds.org. Is there really a large community for micro-brewed soda? If so, what are some lesser known sodas out there that people should know about?
DE: This is funny because it started out as a pot on beer blog that was way successful. It was probably so successful because Bobby devoted massive amounts of time to it. Long story short, he ended up smoking himself clean, And although he felt dishonest blogging about a pot and beer, he thought the URL budsnsuds.org would make too cute of a soda blog to just throw away. That is the true story of how buds and suds came to be.
#1 soda of all time according to Bobby is............. Diet 7-Up.
LSB: Last question. As one who absolutely loves a well made pun, is there any story behind the song 'What Are You Dylan In My House' from your debut EP, 'We Delete; Erase'?
DE: ...Dylan... Honestly we were watching Degrassi one night and Marco's boyfriend was this really dumb dude named ...Dylan... So we ended up making really stupid jokes about him not having any scripted lines in the show. all he says is ...Dylan... in a really dramatic way. This very stupid joke evolved into some other joke where we swapped doing with Dylan in normal everyday sentences. The best thing we came up with that night was what are you Dylan in my house. As far a song titles go we could have gone with a Dylan pun or we also have a plethora of jokes in poor taste about Page or Wheelchair Jimmy. Drake is the worst rapper ever by the way.
-Jordan Leman, November 18, 2010