From Not Advised to Natives (2012–2013) The band was initially formed by Jack Fairbrother, Andy White, and Greg Day when they started jamming together at school. Jim Thomas and Ash Oliver, both originally from different bands, soon joined their group. Prior to becoming Natives, the members played together under the name Not Advised. Feeling like they needed a fresh start from their Not Advised days, they soon renamed themselves Natives. This was shortly after flying to
Los Angeles to begin recording their debut full-length album with
platinum-selling
producer John Feldmann.
Indoor War (2014–2015) On 13 November 2013 the band announced they had signed record and publishing deals with
Transmission Recordings and Notting Hill Music. On 21 January 2014, Natives announced the release of their debut full-length album
Indoor War. The album was released on 17 March 2014 on Transmission Recordings.
Indoor War tells the story of a character named Alvima, who suffers from a huge loss and cannot deal with the pain. He then decides that he will live his life making decisions based on
logic and
science rather than emotions—a resolution of struggle between love and logic. The first half of the album lyrically talks about the tragic low points, where Alvima logically embraces his fate. The second half of the album talks about Alvima giving into embracing his emotions. There is a shift of balance from darkness and logic to feelings of positivity, love, and life. On 22 February 2014, the band performed at the
7107 International Music Festival in the
Philippines on the main stage alongside
Empire of the Sun and
Red Hot Chili Peppers. On 27 February 2014, Natives officially premiered the
music video for "Can't Say No".
Second studio album (2016–present) On 28 February 2016, the band posted a video to their
Facebook page. The video explained that the band had been working on new material for the past 18 months and announced the departure of Ash Oliver for personal reasons. On 1 March 2016, Natives released their first new material in almost two years. The track "Chasing Lions" premiered at The 405 with the site describing it as "sonically fearless". "Chasing Lions" received worldwide blog support and reached number 4 on blog aggregator
Hype Machine's
Twitter chart. An official music video followed on 11 March. The video features three people communicating the lyrics to the track in different ways; one through
sign language, one through
interpretive dance and one through song. The band posted the video on their
social media sites with the message: "We gave Hannah, Sheldon and Tori our lyrics and through sign language, dance and song they each, in their own way, helped tell the story of Chasing Lions. Music is the one language the whole world can understand." The following single, "Stop the Rain", was released on 11 July 2016. Several months later, they released a free download single, "Passion", on 16 November 2016. ==Critical reception==