They’re on the road with their best mates, working with music legends like John Cornfield on the weekends, and releasing an EP with a rock’n’roll heart. In short, The Native are making this brave new world their home.
The name ‘The Native’ is a fount of endless possibilities. Sitting between being boys and men, the indie rock band seem to speak the language of teenage angst as well as they do love, loss, and life. After their first headline tour – in which they stayed in friends’ university accommodations up and down the country – it is obvious that they’re as at home singing in a pub to well-worn fans as they are to packed London stadiums, where they supported Bastille earlier this year.
While they hail from Plymouth – a place they describe as “beautiful, because it’s so quiet” – it is clear whenever The Native are around, noise is going to be made.
I spoke with Charlie Noordewier (vocals and guitar) and Tom Booth (bass) of the band as they await their debut at Reading and Leeds Festival later this month. Their new EP, ‘Looking Back’, is released on 19th August, and features the three previously unreleased songs ‘Looking Back’, ‘All or Nothing’, and ‘If Not Now, Then When?’
While the band are still young – they’re all twenty or twenty-one – their more recent success has been a long time coming. Charlie explained that he and Ben Andrew, the guitarist, “started writing when we were fifteen, sixteen, in GCSE Music, when we were meant to be doing our coursework.”
The bandmates – who are rounded off by Harry Youngs (keys) and Fergus Segrove (drums) – have known each other for years, and they can attest that it is this, in part, that has made touring such a wonderful experience. Tom remembers how, during the tour, they’d “live in a van for two or three weeks together”, while Charlie chips in that it’s made them “almost too close.”
There is a boyish charm to the way they seem to enjoy the night out after the show as well as they do the gig itself; they describe how, in Brussels, despite a concert being cancelled, having what Charlie called “one of the best nights” they’d ever had. Perhaps it has something to do with their ethos, which Tom describes as just “seeing where the night takes us.” It’s what you’d hope for of a band in their twenties; they’re as dedicated to writing new material as they are to exploring new cities, guitar in tow.
It’s easy to forget, when they’re talking about travelling Europe with Bastille – one of the most well-known English bands of the 2010s – that The Native have the real-world commitments of any other young adults. Easy, that is, until Charlie explains that when they get back from a festival on Monday, they’re working shifts Tuesday morning. “It’s a killer.”
The new EP, ‘Looking Back’, is recorded live. Charlie explains that while they used to record their music by doing “the drums first, then the bass, and building it up”, with the last two EPs they’ve just “got in a room and played, like it was a gig.” The pair describe this method as giving the recordings “energy”, “a bit more life”, and “some sort of magic”. There’s a small silence, perhaps as the gravity of their sincerity sets in. Then Tom adds that it’s “more engaging” for the band, “because we’ve all got short attention spans.”
The idea to record in this way was that of legendary engineer and producer John Cornfield, who worked with Oasis on ‘Definitely Maybe’ and The Stone Roses on ‘Fools Gold’. They describe him as their “grandad”, their “dad”, and “the most Cornish, normal guy you’ll ever meet. He comes in in an old transit van and a leather jacket, and a top that says something like ‘SOUND GUYS RULE’.”
While the boys seem sunny and uncomplicated on first impression, there is a darker, more intricate side of The Native which is put on display through the words of the EP itself. Songs like ‘Looking Back’ touch on stories of isolation and feeling trapped in small, dark spaces. Charlie explains that the band as a whole were “going through so much stuff. Everyone was in quite a dark place. It seemed like the band wasn’t really going anywhere.” He pauses. “On the other side, though, we can look back and be proud. I think that’s why we made ‘Looking Back’ the title track, because even though it talks about dark things, it is hopeful, as well. The chorus is about looking back at times when you were going under and realising it does get better. We didn’t want to end it with, ‘We’re all sad, our lives suck!’ We wanted it to be a happy song, in the end.”
As they start to tour the country, it becomes interesting to understand where they come from, and how it’s affected their music. The band have a tempestuous affair with Plymouth; while it’s their home, they describe it as a “place of beauty” and a “warped reality” in the same breath. Tom explains that when you’re growing up there, “you want to be in a city that’s moving a little bit faster. That’s what’s good about being in a band; you get to go to these cities, experience those spaces. We’ve got the best of both worlds, really.”
The boys in the band may be native to Plymouth, but with the trail they’re blazing, they’re welcome everywhere. The Native’s EP ‘Looking Back’ is released 19th August, and they play Leeds and Reading Festival on the 26th and 28th, respectively.
Interview by Katie Jeffrie @katejeffrie