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Formed from two bands with one mutual member, Josh Bertram, and living in different parts of America, Our Brother The Native began working on tracks via email in 2005. The band's experimental psych-folk has been creating a stir on both sides of the Atlantic and, while they are still a relatively young band, they are making some of the most interesting and far out, yet accessible music around.
FatCat Records picked them up after discovering them through MySpace, leading to the release of debut album 'Tooth & Claw' in 2006. The three of them - Bertram along with John Foss (who left the group in 2007) and Chaz Knapp - actually only played for the first time all together at a FatCat festival in Hasselt, Belgium later that year.
Following their debut came 'Make Amends, For We Are Merely Vessels', which was released in February this year, while their latest EP, 'Parting Marrows' was released on 20 Oct.
Here Josh answers the SSQs, while you can read Chaz's answers on the CMU Music Network website.
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Q1 How did you start out making music?
My mom started giving me some piano lessons when I was in my early teens and I started taking banjo lessons as well, but before that I just had an electric guitar and was just trying to learn Nirvana songs. So, those were my first attempts at starting to play music, but it wasn't until I saw Oh Boy! Oh Boy! Commander (my friend Joe's band) that I wanted to start actually writing and recording my own music. He gave me some recording software and from then on I just started experimenting with samples off the internet and weird field recordings I recorded around my home.
Q2 What inspired your latest album?
Our new album, 'Sacred Psalms', has probably the largest and most diverse list of influencing ideas, environments and sounds. Out of all our albums this new one is the most eclectic as far as sounds and genres go. I was experimenting with all different spectrums of western and eastern music; I was going from Talking Heads to recordings of young boys singing the Qur'an. But mainly the biggest change came from our good friend Joe Akers who had been encouraging me to sing in my normal register rather than falsetto. So it definitely still sounds like Our Brother The Native, just on a whole different level.
Q3 What process do you go through in creating an album?
I like to take a couple months off before I start recording, to collect some ideas and some sounds that I know I'll want to start incorporating in the new songs. The time away from the recording equipment is good too because it is easier to come back with a fresh outlook so the new album will be its own person with its own unique personality. I also like to try and get a new instrument or two to try and branch out and get out of my comfort zone, I never want to get in the habit of making recordings that sound stale, or feel like I've done them before.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
One of my all time favorite visual artists, Egon Schiele, has always been an influence; I have always hoped that the music I make kind of resembles the beauty and creepiness of his work. His paintings are so intimate and yet the awkward, gaunt figures that are the subjects just scream intensity.
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
I would probably say, "I'm sorry... uhhh do you want to take some acid, you might like it more then". Haha.
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album/single, and for the future?
I would love it if we could just get to keep having the wonderful opportunities we've already been so very blessed with. And as long as people get to hear the stuff I am content.
published october 2008
