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

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

Matthew Burnett

Matthew Burnett is a Grammy-nominated, diamond-selling music producer from Toronto, Canada who has worked with the likes of Drake, Eminem, Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, Chris Brown, Keri Hilson and Kelly Rowland (to name a few) while not even cracking 25 yet. Son of a pastor, his love for music sta...
→ Read more

Damien Lewis

Damien Lewis, producer, mixer and engineer, earned his first Grammy nomination alongside longtime mentor Phil Tanfor Teenage Dream by Katy Perry. To date, his engineering work appears on 15 Grammy-nominated songs or albums, five of which have won a Grammy.Damien spli...
→ Read more

Armin van Buuren

Armin van Buuren has been named number one in the prestigious DJ MAG Top 100 poll four times in a row, as the first DJ in the history of the DJ Magazine and an indication of his prolific output over the more than 14 years he’s been dj’ing and producing. Being the official World’s Most Popul...
→ Read more

Josh Rogosin

Josh Rogosin is a renowned audio engineer, producer, and documentarian, famous for his pivotal role as the lead engineer for NPR Music's Tiny Desk Concerts for over 800 performances. Josh is known for capturing organic, live sound in unique spaces. He started his own YouTube show &...
→ Read more

Miles Walker

Miles Walker is a Grammy-winning mix engineer that has worked on records with multi-platinum artists and producers worldwide. He has studied music at North Carolina School of the Arts for High School before following his passion for recording music at the world renown Berklee College of...
→ Read more

Khaliq Glover

Khaliq Glover (also know as Khaliq-O-Vision) is a Grammy Award Winning Engineer/Author/Producer whose clients include Prince, Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Angie Stone, Herbie Hancock, Christina Aguilera, Marcus Miller, Jeffrey Osborne, Jamie Foxx, Patti LaBelle, Smokey Robinson, a...
→ Read more

Howie Weinberg

Howie Weinberg has spent over thirty years as head mastering engineer at Masterdisk Studios, building one of the most prolific careers in the music industry. With four Grammy nominations, four TEC Awards, over 3000 releases, 200 Gold Records, and an estimated quarter of a billion records...
→ Read more

Koen Heldens

Koen Heldens, originally from the Netherlands, moved to Los Angeles at 19 to start a career in the music business. He is an international muliti-platinum, multi-billion times streamed and Billboard Music Award nominated mixing engineer. He began music school at the age of 6, attending t...
→ Read more