Local Natives

Local Natives place face-to-face songwriting and musical interplay at the core of their fourth full-length, VIOLET STREET, where a classic studio approach is juxtaposed with modern production and visuals to create a timeless album. The band’s signature soaring 3-part harmonies are augmented by loops of tape, physically spliced and transformed by hand, the result of experimenting in the studio with producer Shawn Everett is a band renewed.

In essence, Local Natives [Taylor Rice (vocals, guitar), Kelcey Ayer (vocals, keys), Ryan Hahn (vocals, guitar), Matt Frazier (drums), and Nik Ewing (vocals, bass, keys) return to the methods of their 2009 debut Gorilla Manor, but with the bonds of their union fortified and with the growth of wisdom accrued in the studio and on stage in front of millions of worldwide fans.

“The record is about us reconnecting to playing off each other,” states Taylor. “We didn’t go into separate corners, produce our own songs, and bring them to the group. Back when we made Gorilla Manor, we lived together in one house and made a frantically creative environment. This time, we were in a massive warehouse with Shawn, jamming, and relying on each other often until three or four in the morning for several nights straight. It was fun, but also pushed us to outdo each other. We got back to our strengths. We’ve always been super collaborative and democratic, as we have three songwriters and singers, and all five of us have a lot of creative input. This was the most collaborative and open we’ve been. We were raw and vulnerable. It’s the first time we didn’t do any pre-production, we went in and built the record out of nothing.”

Named after the Downtown address where Shawn operates his studio, the album encapsulates the spirit of the city. “Los Angeles is an important character in the music,” explains Kelcey. “Everything came to life in this place. All of our emotions and ideas were represented by VIOLET STREET".

Local Natives and FabFilter

Ryan Hahn: "The producer of our last record seemed to use the FabFilter equalizer on everything. I'd watch over his shoulder while he kept pulling up that plugin over and over again and finally asked him about it."

"I obviously love the Pro-Q and I use it on everything. I also use it to sidechain and balance mid/side info. I've also started using Pro-C 2, Pro-MB, Pro-G and Pro-DS a lot and it's made my workflow super streamlined. During quarantine I've also started experimenting with the Twin synth and Saturn."

"I think the plugins standout for their clean, design forward aesthetics and for how intuitive they are."

Other featured artists

Tom Lord-Alge

Tom Lord-Alge, a three-time Grammy Award winner, owns one of the industry’s most prolific discographies, with diverse credits spanning U2, The Rolling Stones, P!nk, Peter Gabriel, Dave Matthews Band, Blink-182, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Avril Lavigne...
→ Read more

Tom Elmhirst

Tom Elmhirst is a multi Grammy Award-winning mix engineer. Elmhirst’s experiences at SARM studios and with Trevor Horn have clearly influenced his current workflow. Toms most notable recent works include artists such as Amy Winehouse, Adele, David Bowie, Beck, Frank Ocean, Florence and...
→ Read more

Kevin Madigan

Kevin Madigan "I’ve had a love of music and sound since an early age. I can remember listening to the Beatles on the Walkman which was the latest greatest new thing then back then. My uncle and aunt brought one over to Ireland from the US when I was about 10 years old. I was being astoni...
→ Read more

Ian Dowling

Ian Dowling is a Grammy Award winning engineer and mixer. Notable previous clients include Adele, One Direction, Catfish and The Bottlemen, Birdy, KT Tunstall and Bombay Bicycle Club. Ian started his career at Strongroom in London before striking out on his own. Since then he has worke...
→ Read more

Neal Avron

Neal Avron is a multiple Grammy-nominated producer and mixer based in Hollywood, California. Neal has produced and mixed hits and acclaimed albums from a wide array of artists ranging from Sara Bareilles, Twenty One Pilots, Walk The Moon, Bleachers, Linkin Park, Disturbed, Fall Out Bo...
→ Read more

Noisia

Noisia (who took their name from the word VISION inverted on an upside down VHS tape) are Nik Roos, Thijs de Vlieger and Martijn van Sonderen, hailing from Groningen, The Netherlands. Influenced by an eclectic range of artists, from The Prodigy to James Brown, Miles Davis to Konfl...
→ Read more

DJ Nu-Mark

DJ Nu-Mark ignited his career as a member of the legendary Hip-Hop group Jurassic 5 while simultaneously releasing Kanye West’s debut production on Correct Records circa 1996.Solo acclaim occurred for Nu with the drop of his celebrated Blend Crafters EP featuring his timeles...
→ Read more

Julia Borelli

Julia Borelli is a Berlin-based producer, mixing and mastering engineer.Originally from Brazil, she made her first experiences working as assistant engineer on latin Grammy-award winning recordings including Anavitoria and Tiago Iorc. She got her credentials from Point Blank in London an...
→ Read more

Kevin Killen

Kevin Killen is a long time veteran of the music industry. During that time he has received eight Grammy awards, numerous nominations and the respect of his peers. His passion is making timeless records and has done so on occasion with the likes of U2, Peter Gabriel, Elvis Costello, Dav...
→ Read more