Native Sun

When we asked Native Sun frontman Danny Gomez if he had anything to promote, as we always do at the end of an interview, he replied: “Stand up for what’s right, it starts today. Apathy is dead.”  This is the kind of attitude that transpires through their music. There is no apathy to be found, quite the opposite: there is a lot of passion and energy. Native Sun write honest, Rock’N’Roll songs without bothering with outside factors such as public expectations, current trends or which subgenres they fit in. We asked singer/guitarist Danny, guitarist Jake and bassist Mauricio to talk about some of their favorite music. Check out their new EP, Always Different, Always The Same, that just came out on Papercup Music!

Name five songs that you consider “perfect songs” and explain why or what they mean to you.

Danny:

1. Leonard Cohen – Death of A Ladies’ Man; Go listen to it with the lyrics in front of you and you’ll understand. It’s truly transcendental. This is also to be played at my funeral.
2. Rolling Stones – Rocks Off; The sound of letting it all for the open road and embracing the madness.
3. Bob Dylan – It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding; An existential explanation to all your questions.
4. Caetano Veloso – Nine out of Ten; Everyone needs some flavor in their lives in order to strive for happiness. This track transports you to the streets of Rio with the wildest nylon stringed guitar solo you’ve ever heard.
5. Lou Reed – Street Hassle; A downtown rock opera. On paper sounds like it shouldn’t work, but Lou made it work and that’s why it’s so alluring.  

Mauricio: I’ll just explain one.

Jimi Hendrix – A Message To Love (Woodstock)

This song is perfect entirely. When he sings the solo while playing it it’s just nuts. He changed my perspective of seeing guitar music.

Iggy Pop – Don’t Look Down

CAN – Oh Yeah

The Velvet Underground – Heroin (Live 1969)

Unwound – Message Received

Jake:

1. Black Sabbath – “Paranoid”

Short and sweet. Written last minute. Done quickly. Lasts forever.

  2. Minor Threat – “Out of Step (With The World)” (7” Version)

This song symbolizes that you aren’t the only one that feels the way you feel. 7” version because it is unrevised and has the guitar solo.

3. The Beatles – Abbey Road’s Side Two.

“Polythene Pam” into “She Came Into The Bathroom Window” is the most insane musical moment probably ever.

4. Black Flag – “Nervous Breakdown”

The greatest riff ever of all time period.

5. Neil Young & Crazy Horse – “Down By The River”

It’s gentle. It’s heavy. It’s nine and a half minutes long.

Which music genre do you listen to the most? List your five favorite albums in that genre.

Mauricio: Right now probably jazz and hardcore. This are def not necessarily my favorite albums, but the ones I’m listening a lot right now. It’s impossible to have favorites.

Yussef Kamal – Black Focus

Unwound – Repetition

Sun Ra – Outer Spaceways Incorporated

Morphine – The Night

Don Cherry – Where Is Brooklyn?

Jake: Punk.

1. Black Flag – Slip It In
2. Minor Threat – First Two Seven Inches
3. Ceremony – Rohnert Park
4. B-52s – Wild Planet
5. The Stooges – Fun House

Danny: Yeah I don’t really care for categorizing down. I’ll just name five albums I’ve been listening to recently:

1. The Band – Music From Big Pink
2. Iggy Pop – Lust For Life
3. Scott Walker – 4
4. The Who – The Who Sell Out
5. Blaze Foley – The Lost Muscle Schoals Recordings

Name your five favorite musicians in a specific category (eg. 5 best guitarists, five best drummers, etc.)

Danny: I’ll do inspirations in general:

Leonard Cohen

Lou Reed

Eric Rohmer

Joan Didion

Baudelaire

Mauricio: I’ll do the best 5 writers of all time.

Jack Kerouac.

Allen Ginsberg.

Nick Cave.

Patti Smith.

Bob Dylan, duh.

Jake: Gonna do five best guitarists

1. Neil Young
2. Johnny Ramone
3. Tony Iommi
4. David Gilmour
5. Greg Ginn

What’s the album you’ve listened to the most in your life? Do you still listen to it?

Danny: A record I always see myself listening to constantly throughout the years is Nashville Skyline, there’s a sort of comfort in it. If not probably Exile on Main Street, it’s the bible right? Got everything in that one.

Mauricio:

Definitely between LED ZEPPELIN – IV or RAMONES – Rocket To Russia. Hell yeah I listen to them.

Jake: GREEN DAY – Dookie. That record made me pick up a guitar.

What are some of your favorite song lyrics? Lyrics that have been important to you or that had an impact on you?

Danny: It’s the soul of the song. The songs I write are just vessels for the words that I need to get down… I’m not going to go into lyrics because it all loses its mysticism.

Mauricio:

YO LA TENGO – Last Days of Disco, it’s crazy beautiful. The music is perfect for the lyrics and the idea behind it. Definitely one of the bands with amazing lyrics.

BOB DYLAN – Boots of Spanish Leather, that’s gonna be my funeral song. The whole song is just perfect.

Jake: I’m honestly not much of a lyrics guy. When I listen to music, I primarily listen to instrumentation and melody and the words come to me much later. That being said, I identify largely with the lyrics of hardcore and punk music because they are direct, deal with social and political issues in an unfiltered manner, and are delivered aggressively. The lyrics of HENRY ROLLINS and FUGAZI come to mind right away.

Do you have an absolute all time favorite band or musical artist?  What makes them so special to you?

Danny: There’s a good amount, depends on the day. There’s been a lot of MIGHTY, INSECURE MEN, on this planet so far.

Mauricio: Every day I have a different favorite band. I guess I have to say BOB DYLAN made who I am, and I’ve said he’s my favorite for a long time, but I mean.. some days MILES DAVIS and some days SLAYER. It’s hard to have a favorite.

Jake: Yes. They are special to me because their body of work inspires me in ways not directly associated with music. For the sake of how special that artist is to me personally, I choose not to name them.

What are your ten favourite albums of all time (all genres)?

Danny: This list shouldn’t be taken seriously as very quick but…

 The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground

 Ornette Coleman – The Shape of Jazz to Come

 The Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers

 Leonard Cohen – Songs of Love and Hate

 Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited

 The Beatles – Revolver

 Caetano Veloso – Transa

   Van Morrison – Astral Weeks

  The Kinks – Village Green Preservation Society

 John Cale – Fear

Mauricio:

I’m not sure if I’m able to say 10.. but something like that?

Art Blakey – A Night In Tunisia.

Bob Dylan – Live Royal Albert Hall.

Can – Tago Mago

The Velvet Underground – White Light/White Heat.

Stephen Malkmus – Pig Lib.

Sonic Youth – Dirty.

Ramones – Rocket to Russia.

Pavement – Brighten The Corners.

Nick Cave – Let Love In.

This will definitely change tomorrow, haha.

Jake:

Just gonna rifle through this without thinking

1. Black Sabbath – Paranoid
2. Black Flag – Slip It In
3. The Beatles – Abbey Road
4. Devo – Freedom of Choice
5. Green Day – Insomniac
6. B-52s – Wild Planet
7. Ty Segall – Manipulator
8. The Stooges – Fun House
9. Minor Threat – First Two Seven Inches
10. Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin I

Do you remember the first time you really appreciated an album or a song?

Danny: Yeah I think the first two records I bought together were Nevermind and Sgt. Pepper so an interesting combination from the start. Ever since I’ve had an obsessive nature over music and songwriting, I love to keep digging deeper and deeper to the root of it all.

Mauricio: Yes, it was SUPERTRAMP – Live in Paris. That’s my mom’s favorite. Fantastic album.

Jake: When I was a kid and heard American Idiot in full for the first time, maybe because it was so heavily marketed as a concept record or a “Rock Opera” or whatever, but that was the first time I saw a record as a whole and not just a collection of songs. Since then I’ve become wholly obsessed with records that are cohesive wholes, be it sonically or thematically.

What were you listening to in elementary school? then in high school? How have your musical tastes evolved since?

Danny: I’ve always been into bands with strong songwriting. Sometimes I feel like I just have been listening to the same records that made me fall in love with music and analyzing what makes them great. I’m constantly expanding and adding variety but there’s definitely a consistency to it all as well.

Mauricio: I feel like my music taste has evolved for sure. I’ve gone through so many phases musically speaking, but at the end I always come back for the same stuff. My brother taught me THE DESCENDENTS and THE RAMONES and all that jazz when I was really young, then all the Classic Rock. I stopped listening to that for a while and came back to it.

Jake: In elementary school I was way into GREEN DAY, BLINK-182, all that MTV punk rock stuff, then got VERY into technical and heavy stuff as I got close to middle school: MASTODON, PANTERA, BEHEMOTH, I think I even had a brief CRADLE OF FILTH phase. Those two early eras greatly informed the way that I play guitar. In high school I got into more Hardcore Punk and Pop Punk records. Bands like THE ERGS, DESCENDENTS, EVERY TIME I DIE. That all feels like 200 million years ago. I have always been a fan of contemporary music because I like to be able to go see bands live now and appreciate them while they are creating.

What beloved music do you share with your parents (or children if you have kids)? Any specifics memories?

Danny: Me and my dad really like THE STONES and later on he’s gotten really into some things through me like TOWNES or TOM WAITS and COHEN.

Mauricio: SUPERTRAMP and CHICAGO with both my parents. All the vacation trips where always blasting those two. Also ZEPPELIN and NEIL YOUNG with my dad. We now drink beer till the sun comes out listening to them. It’s amazing.

Jake: VAN HALEN and FOO FIGHTERS with my dad. We actually got to see 75% of the OG Van Halen lineup together when I was in high school when they did a reunion tour with David Lee Roth with Eddie Van Halen’s son playing bass.

Most memorable show you’ve ever seen? What makes it stand out?

Danny: IGGY POP in Austin was just what you’d expect it to be. So much class and danger. Also, FAT WHITE FAMILY at Bowery Ballroom; I was very intoxicated and you felt real intimidation/confrontation from a real fucking Rock N Roll band – it was genuine.

Mauricio: ROGER WATERS when he did The Wall Live In 2005. I had to sell all my METALLICA CD’s to buy the ticket. I felt amazing.

What is the most impressive band you’ve toured with?

Danny: I toured with my buds in WHITE REAPER once and you truly learn to have fun with it as well as respect the craftsmanship so you can try to do this for a very long time.

Mauricio: Haven’t toured with a specific band, but I know touring with WHITE FENCE or with METZ could be cool, haha.

Is there any classic / universally acclaimed artist that you missed out on when they first came out and discovered way later? Any artist that you didn’t like at first and learned to appreciate over time?

Danny: Nah not really…maybe the GRATEFUL DEAD.

Mauricio: I guess NICK CAVE was like that for me. When I heard him for he first time I thought it was horrendous. His voice and the music was horrible for me. After like 5 years I heard a song without knowing who he was and my friend told me it was Cave. I haven’t been the same person since that moment.

Jake: When I was in my metalhead era I hated the idea of THE BEATLES. I’d see kids at my school wearing their logo on a t-shirt they sold at Target and Walmart and thought they had to be the cheapest band, and no band that could ever sell out that much could be remotely good. Now I’m 25 and understand that at one point on this planet, four gods created music together and we get to listen to it forever.

Is there any band that you’ve always wanted to see live but never had the chance to catch them? Any classic show that you wish you could have experienced?

Danny: WARHOL’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable

Mauricio: I mean, could you imagine seeing CAN or THE VELVETS Live?

Jake: This list could go on forever. THE BEATLES. SABBATH. THE STOOGES. THE RAMONES. PANTERA. LED ZEPPELIN. THE STONES. JIMI HENDRIX. NIRVANA. THE DOORS. BLACK FLAG. MINOR THREAT. DEVO. Literally every classic artist I have named so far. NEIL YOUNG.

Do you have any controversial/unpopular music related opinions that you would like to defend?

Danny: Can’t be bothered

Jake: WEEZER is not a good band. They have released 2 good records and 9 awful ones.

What band or artist do you believe has achieved the most flawless sequence of 3 records in a row?

Danny: Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main St

Mauricio: Such a hard question, I can’t answer that. I love lots.

Jake: I’ll do ya one better man. I’ll name TWO bands that have released FOUR flawless records in a row. LED ZEPPELIN and BLACK SABBATH.

What albums have been on heavy rotation lately?

Danny: I’ll do things to check out since I guess I did this above:

The Monks – The Monks

Todd Rundgren – Something/Anything

John Cale – Vintage Violence

Television – Adventureland

Tom Waits – Rain Dogs

Mauricio:

Swell Maps – Jane From Occupied Europe

Badbadnotgood & Ghostface Killah – Sour Soul

Jennifer Lara – Studio One Presents.

Jake:

1. The Pixies – Doolittle
2. Pantera – Vulgar Display of Power
3. The C.I.A – The C.I.A
4. Rudimentary Peni – Death Church
5. Dominant Force – We Don’t Want The Last Laugh

What are some up and coming artists that you would recommend?

Danny: I don’t know I get bored easily. My buds in THE NUDE PARTY write some fine tunes. Check out INSECURE MEN as well.

Mauricio: The east coast is killing it right now. GNARSSISISTS, MUCKERS, MAX PAIN AND THE GROOVIES, lots of exciting bands! Come to Brooklyn for a weekend and you’ll see!

Jake: DOMINANT FORCE.

Is there a band that you’ve discovered live recently that blew you away?

Danny: Not too recent but a bit ago and once you discover you understand why, THE FLAMIN GROOVIES.

Mauricio: YUSSEF KAMAL. Amazing jazz collective. Super clean but crazy!

Jake: MALAIKAT DAN SINGA

What are you listening to right now, while answering these questions?

Danny: BOB DYLAN & THE BAND – Don’t Ya Tell Henry (The Basement Tapes)

Mauricio: THE FALL – The Wonderful and Frightening Word of The Fall.

Jake: THE BREEDERS – Pod