Recently, New Forest quartet Natives made their return with colourful new single – ‘Stop The Rain’. It sees the band continue their evolution from pop-rockers towards a more worldly pop sound, embracing a range of percussion. It’s just a taster of the bands forthcoming 20-track concept album and accompanying novel.
Nevertheless, for the video for ‘Stop The Rain’ Natives travelled to North African country Morocco. The trip to the Muslim country proved to be beneficial and inspirational for the four-piece.
We spoke to Jack Fairbrother from Natives as he told us about five lessons the band learnt from their time in Morocco.
The World’s a Big Place – Go and see it!
After a few years of touring you find you play the same cities around the world all the time. Visiting Morocco, somewhere far less travelled by western bands, has inspired us to try to tour places that are normally left out of the touring schedule, particularly those places whose music has been so influential to us.
There are two universal languages – Music and Football!
There were plenty of times on our trip where we found ourselves struggling to communicate with people but we soon learned that there are two failsafes which transcend language – either start playing music or start kicking a football around because everyone on the planet understands both!
Only believe what you’ve seen with your own eyes
We visited Morocco shortly after the Paris attacks. Lots of people told us it wasn’t safe to visit and we were crazy to travel to a Muslim country at a time like this. I can honestly say I felt safer in Morocco than I do in parts of my hometown. Everyone was so kind and welcoming and friendly and I’m so glad I’ve been and learned about a different culture with my own eyes and ears, rather than believing everything which appears on my Facebook feed.
KFC isn’t great in Africa
To call us big fans of The Colonel would be an understatement! We consider ourselves connoisseurs of the eleven secret herbs and spices and always try and hunt down a fillet or two whenever we’re abroad! There are some incredible foods to be eaten in Morocco, but unfortunately KFC isn’t one of them – niché box meals which feel badly thought through, no gravy option as a side (a criminal offence in our humble opinion) and a generally sub-par crispy coating across all chicken left us wishing we’d just gone for another tagine.
Talk to people, you’ll learn something
It’s not an easy thing to approach a stranger and start a conversation. I think it’s in our blood as Brits to be awkward and inward facing and our band is no different, we usually keep ourselves to ourselves and find we’re shy around new people. The nature of our trip forced us out of our comfort zone – we weren’t going to learn anything about music or culture if we didn’t speak to anyone. Once we’d plucked up the courage to put ourselves out there we were instantly rewarded with knowledge, kindness, friendship and insight. People are generally nice, and almost always have something interesting to tell you, you just have to be brave enough to ask!
‘Stop The Rain’ by Natives is released on July 29th on LAB / The Santi Collective.
