Recently signed to rock ‘n’ roll tastemakers This Feeling, Plymouth-based quintet, The Native recently completed an incendiary headline tour, graced arenas as guests to Bastille, and packed the tent during their Isle of Wight set.
Factor in airplay at Radio X, BBC Music Introducing and BBC Radio London, and all the evidence indicates that The Native are destined for a big future.
The next step on the ladder comes today as The Native share their brand new single ‘20 Something’. As with their recent tracks ‘Changes’ and ‘Blindside’, ‘20 Something’ will feature on the band’s forthcoming EP – their first for This Feeling.
Kicking off with an elastic bassline that recalls prime New Order, ‘20 Something’ is indicative of The Native’s growing ability to meld immediately anthemic hooks with towering melodies and jagged guitars. Frontman Charlie Noordewier’s vocals possess both an engaging personality and the class to appeal to a broad audience, while his lyrics hone in on a common twentysomething experience. Living for the weekend is an escape from the drudgery of the 9-5, but for some there’s a danger that they’ll become locked within that hedonism 24/7. Those themes are reflected in the accompanying video, which was directed by Charlie’s brother William Noordewier.
This song is about a person who is ruining their life with addiction. It started as self medicating at weekends trying to escape from their job and slowly declined into more drink and drugs. They’re working a hard job all week and then blowing all their cash at the weekend to distract themselves from their unhappiness – rather than escaping from the rut they have created.
Charlie Noordewier
‘20 Something’ was recorded in Airfield Studios, Cornwall, with John Cornfield who is best known for working with some of the UK’s most influential guitar bands: Oasis, Muse, The Stone Roses, Supergrass and many more. It was then mixedby the Grammy Award-winning Adrian Bushby (Foo Fighters, Muse, Everything Everything).
Completed by Ben Andrew (guitar), Tom Booth (bass), Harry Youngs (keys) and Fergus Segrove (drums), The Native are all in their early twenties but have already experienced so much as a band. They first came to attention when they were still in secondary school. Their earliest self-released music started to go viral, they played a huge MTV show as guests to Bastille, and headlined their local venue, the Pavilions in Plymouth. Rather than rush out to capitalise on that early interest, they instead took the time to cultivate their own style, the reward being the immense potential that they now show.
The Native’s upcoming summer festival schedule was recently boosted with the confirmation of their first shows at Reading and Leeds, where they will hit the Festival Republic stage. Next up is Truck Festival, where you can catch them at 8:15pm on the This Feeling stage.
JULY
- 21st – Truck Festival (This Feeling stage)
- 22nd – Leopallooza Festival
- 23rd – Chagstock Festival
- 24th – Gateways Festival
- 30th – Y Not? Festival
AUGUST
- 11th – 110 Above Festival
- 26th – Leeds Festival
- 28th – Reading Festival
SEPTEMBER
- 10th – Little Orchard Cider & Music Festival
OCTOBER
- 15th – Live At Leeds