It can be hard to be in a band, or really, in any kind of group where there’s creative collaboration, and you’re supposed to act like it's a democracy. Because what do you do with an idea that you love, if nobody else believes in it? That question is a big part of this episode with Local Natives.
Local Natives is a band from Southern California. Their first album came out in 2009, but the three vocalists and songwriters in the band, Taylor Rice, Kelcey Ayer, and Ryan Hahn – they’ve been playing together since they were in high school. The lineup also includes Matthew Frazier on drums and Nik Ewing on bass. They’ve put out five albums, including their most recent, Time Will Wait For No One, which came out in July 2023.
But for this episode, I talked to Taylor, Kelcey, and Ryan about an older song of theirs: “Dark Days,” which came out in 2016. It’s their biggest song to date; it has over 100 million streams, and it's been certified gold. It’s a duet with Swedish singer Nina Persson, from The Cardigans. In 2020, they put out a new version of the song, featuring Amelia Meath from the band Sylvan Esso.
I talked to the guys here in the studio, and to Amelia Meath remotely. And together, they told me the seven-year story of how “Dark Days,” was first made and then eventually remade.
For more, visit songexploder.net/local-natives.
Imagine Dragons - Follow You
girl in red - Serotonin
Porter Robinson - Get Your Wish
Lianne La Havas - Can't Fight
Jon Batiste - We Are
Glass Animals - Heat Waves
Sasha Sloan - Until It Happens To You
PJ Morton - Say So (feat. JoJo)
HAIM - Summer Girl
Yusuf / Cat Stevens - Father and Son
Common - A Riot In My Mind
Jewel - You Were Meant For Me
Billie Eilish - Everything I Wanted
Re-issue: Phoebe Bridgers - Scott Street
Deftones - Ohms
Run the Jewels - JU$T
Dua Lipa - Levitating
Selena Gomez - Lose You to Love Me
Re-issue: Ludwig Göransson - Black Panther
Kelly Lee Owens - On
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