The trio Natural Child is a force, known as much for their onstage banter as their pure rock attack. For this interview, they chose to speak with LEO via speakerphone, which was entertaining, though a challenge to properly document. Because we were never quite sure who was saying what, we assigned a number to each after the fact for your reading ease and enjoyment.
LEO: I heard your new record —
NC1: We’re proud of it, we made it all ourselves. Yeah, we think it sounds great.
LEO: You made it all yourself, but there is a cover song, Tom T. Hall’s “That’s How I Got to Memphis.” Why did you include that?
NC1: We were just listenin’ to it a lot, and we thought it’d be cool to cover it.
NC2: Yeah. It’s a great song. We just dug it. We were just playin’ it at practice, I think, and just decided our version sounded really good to us. So we covered it.
LEO: It’s interesting, because it’s a country song about Memphis, and you’re a rock band in Nashville, a country town —
NC1: We’re a country band! (laughs)
NC2: Yeah, a little bit. We dabble. We cover Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson — we do it all.
NC1: We’re kind of a country band, too.
LEO: You’ve played Louisville recently.
NC1: Yeah, we’ve played there a couple times.
NC2: We’ve played there twice.
NC1: Twice, yeah. We’ve done all this touring but only been to Louisville twice.
LEO: That’s weird.
NC1: That last place we played was awesome, though — the arcade bar, the one with all the arcade games.
LEO: Zanzabar.
NC1: Yeah, yeah, Zanzabar. That was it, am I right?
NC2: I think so.
LEO: Yeah, you are.
NC1: That place fuckin’ rules. It’s very cool.
NC2: Hell yeah!
LEO: Do you have any advice for young producers?
NC1: Just take your time to make it how you want it to sound. Just turn the knobs, push the dials and … yeah.
NC2: Not try to make it sound like …
NC3: We try to make it sound like what we listen to.
NC1: Yeah.
NC3: Which is a bunch of really warm 8-tracks.
NC1: We record other bands in Nashville, too. We can make anybody sound that good (laughs).
LEO: (laughs) Is that your slogan?
NC1: Yeah, yeah: “We’ll record shit. We can make anybody sound that good.”
NC2: It’s true.
LEO: Before we go, do you want to say something to Louisville?
NC1: We’re comin’ to git ya! (laughs)
NC2: Our neighbors to the north …
NC1: We’re comin’ to git ya, our neighbors to the north! (laughs)
LEO: That sounds kind of threatening.
NC1: No, it’s positive! Like when you call your mom and you’re 8 years old, and you’re, like, “I need to be picked up.” And she’s, like, “OK, I’m comin’ to git ya!” Like that.
NC2: I didn’t really mean it like that. I meant it like, when you call your mom and you’re like, (threatening voice), “I’m comin’ to git ya …” (laughs)
NC3: We’re comin’ to git ya, Louisville.
Natural Child with
The Ladybirds
Saturday, March 31
Zanzabar
2100 S. Preston St. • 635-9227
zanzabarlouisville.com
$6; 9 p.m.
This article appears in March 27, 2012.