After the pandemic hit, time started to move differently for L.A. indie rock band Local Natives.
“It was really hard for us,” vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Taylor Rice told Revue. “We’ve just been playing music, and creating music together kind of nonstop, and living that life, really, our whole lives. Even through childhood. We really started playing together in high school, and through college, and our adult lives. And to be separated from that, I think was really difficult for us.”
Began back in 2005, Local Natives burst onto the 2000s indie scene with their 2009 debut, Gorilla Manor. Generating buzz at SXSW in Austin that year, they quickly became festival favorites at massive events like Coachella and Lollapalooza, while also frequently appearing on late night TV, and racking up critical acclaim across the next decade.
In 2019, the band released their fourth album, Violet Street, led off by their highest-charting single to date, “When Am I Gonna Lose You,” a signature track showcasing the group’s soaring harmonies and shifting rhythms.
At arguably a career high, things came crashing to a halt when lockdown struck, forcing the band to finally stop and reassess their lives after so much nonstop momentum.
Issuing a public statement ahead of the release of their latest double-album project, 2023’s Time Will Wait For No One – and this year’s companion record, But I’ll Wait For You – they described that period of time as a “metamorphosis” for the band. With some of the members becoming fathers, and others enduring personally challenging emotional periods of loss, isolation, and identity crisis, the pandemic pushed the band to the brink, but also resulted in the most prolific stretch of songwriting in their entire career.
“We all dealt with it in different ways,” Rice said. “It was a really difficult time… But I will say, coming back together was a really amazing time. And it’s one of those things where the distance from it allows for appreciation. Instead of just being in the regular flow of it, you actually get the space that allows for gratitude. And I think we really felt that. And then when we made all this music, and it just felt like way more than one album.”
Over 20 songs and two records, time itself emerged as an even bigger theme for a band that had already grappled with the subject often in its songwriting.
“I think that’s a lot of where our music and inspiration comes from is that sense of time being this very precious thing that you have, and being as present with it as possible, I think is like just a real key to life,” Rice said. “And to me, that’s what music is, right? Like being present is so difficult to do, as we all know and especially in modern society for sure. And being at a concert, or being in a record that you just love, it’s so moving and connecting to the present moment, the present emotions that you have. So I think that’s a huge aspect of what we’ve always been drawn to about making music.”
Local Natives chronicled the completion of the two-album project with a short film, also titled, But I’ll Wait For You. Directed by Jonathan Chu, and currently available on veeps.com, the band has held screenings for the movie ahead of a planned wider release in the coming months.
“There were a couple of key things that inspired us in the direction of making this film,” Rice said. “One is this BBC special from the ‘70s that Harry Nilsson did. And it’s really cool. It’s got a bunch of performance aspects in it, and there’s a live studio audience, but then there’s kind of these skits, and some are funny, and then some are just like surrealist and absurdist and weird, and it had this really cool flow to it. So that was a real inspiration point for us to be able to capture all these different energies. It can be very serious and like in this very sad song, and then right next to it, you can have this very wacky, absurdist bit in it.”
At the moment, that mix of energies continues as the band exists in a kind of bittersweet stasis, with the announced departure of founding member vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Kelcey Ayers after the completion of this tour. Ayers has stated on Instagram that after the tour he will leave Local Natives to give himself time to pursue a solo project, and follow his other personal passions.
“We’re such a tight group, and it’s really like a family situation, but there’s also a lot of acceptance with it, on both sides,” Rice said. “We just wish Kelcey the best, and are happy for him and excited for what he’s going to do. And we’re excited for us. So I’m really able to see it more through a joyful lens, and just be proud of what we have done. Like together with that incarnation, and with Kelsey. So I think it’s going to be bittersweet for sure, but for me, it feels beautiful and kind of a celebration.”
Existing completely outside of conventional time, Local Natives just recently celebrated the gold certification of their song, “Dark Days,” originally featured on their 2016 album Sunlit Youth, as well as the gold certification of the song “Wide Eyes” off debut Gorilla Manor. Both accomplishments are a first for the band, and a complete surprise.
“Those moments are so cool,” Rice said. “But I don’t know, getting a gold record. It’s such a relic of a world that doesn’t really feel like it exists anymore. It’s cool, but it really just makes me feel a feeling now, which I’m quite used to. It takes a while, I think, in a musician’s career to feel this way sometimes, but once you put the song out and release it, it’s not yours anymore. And it sort of just really lives this life of its own. And you can very rarely predict how that’s going to go… ‘Dark Days’ and even really ‘Wide Eyes’ are two songs that were not really singles, and have had lives of their own, and have their own way in the world. And it just feels so awesome to get to have that, and to play the songs live is really fun, when people connect with them.”
After Local Natives finishes the current tour, Rice said the band has already started writing their next record and plan to begin recording in the new year.
Local Natives
Time Will Wait For No One, But I’ll Wait For You Tour
Wsg. Krooked Kings
The Intersection, 133 Cesar E. Chavez Ave. SW, Grand Rapids
Nov. 22, 7 p.m. doors, 8 p.m. show, $30 Advance, All Ages
Sectionlive.com, localnatives.com
