We recently connected with The Native Tongue and have shared our conversation below.

Hi The Native Tongue, thanks for joining us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?

We each started learning music from a young age, and when you’re young you dream of making it big until the reality hits and you realize that it’s not that easy. We’d all been parts of projects over the years that faded for various reasons, so by the time we met we didn’t really have that wide-eyed optimism. That first time we played together though, something just clicked, it felt like we were actually making music instead of just playing our instruments and a bit of that dream came back. Being in the right place and time in our lives to take this seriously made a huge difference and we were able to sit down and say, “let’s give this a shot”.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Three of us (Eliot, Justin, and Sam) have known each other for years but we didn’t start playing and writing music together until about 3 years ago. It wasn’t until a mutual friend introduced us to our bassist, Austin, that we started to kick things into gear and take the band seriously. Since then, we’ve been recording tracks and playing shows around Columbus, Ohio.

Our personal tastes in music vary a bit from member to member but we like to say our sound is the natural evolution of 90’s and 2000’s alternative rock, it’s the genre we all grew up listening to and the bands we idolized. Because of our broader tastes, each of us brings a different perspective and playstyle to the table that blends to create a sound that is uniquely us. We make a point of leaving our egos at the door when we write so that we can give each other the creative freedom to write what the parts that each song needs.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

The biggest thing that society can do is to support the small acts, the local groups and solo artists that are just starting out. With social media and distribution services that put your songs onto streaming services it’s easier than ever to get your music in front of a large audience, but the other side of that is that it’s even easier to get lost in the crowd. There are incredible artists out there that don’t get any recognition because so much of it is left to chance, so when someone takes a chance on an unknown artist and boosts them up they help to make the whole music ecosystem better for all fans. It means so much to musicians that are just starting out to get that kind of support and feedback, we read all of our messages and celebrate every time we get a new listener from a new area so there is a ton of impact in being that one person that supports a new artist early on.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

It might be obvious but we’re all very passionate about music and a big part of that comes from seeing bands live and being a part of the community that a show creates. That moment when you’re on stage and you can tell that the crowd is really feeling what you’re trying to say in your songs, it feels like you’ve synced up and you’re sharing this collective experience. We love those moments as listeners so being the ones to make them happen is an incredible feeling. Music has that ability to tap into a deeper form of communication in a way that nothing else can and if someone listens to one of our songs and feels something that resonates personally with them then we consider that a success.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://nativetongueband.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenativetongueband/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thenativetongue
• Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4djeBNlrmQlsVqFELIMLh1

Image Credits
Megan Tolnar, Lynsey Englebrecht