Like Art&Seek, KXT supports North Texas music, so we’re sharing our sister site’s weekly local artist feature with you here. You can catch the Music Minute segment every Thursday on KERA 90.1 FM and KXT 91.7 FM.
Michael Gomez is Late Native. Photo: Jonathan Camacho
After his long-time band, Room Four, decided to call it quits, musician Michael Gomez launched a solo project called Late Native. Gomez says the name is a statement on feeling new to a place where you’ve always belonged- kind of like starting a solo project when you’re used to performing with a band.
“Initially the prospect of having to do everything by myself was kind of scary,” Gomez said. “But I’ve learned to be comfortable with that.
The name’s also a nod to his indigenous roots – his father’s from the Mexican state of Veracruz.
The latest single from Late Native is called “Downbeat on the Daylight”. The song starts calm, with the sound of birds chirping. Eventually, this gives way to the gentle sound of Gomez’s guitar and his voice singing the lyrics:
Quiet air upon my skin
Meeting me before the world and work begin
On a trail the frost has kissed and left alone
Underneath a canopy unclothed
Photo: Jonathan Camacho
Gomez says he has a theory that we’re all most vulnerable when we first wake up and that the window of time before we pick up our screens for the day always tells the truth. He likes to take those first moments of the morning outdoors and reflect in a clear way. That is what Late Native’s new single “Downbeat on the Daylight” is all about.
“This particular song is just describing that process… just telling the world ‘Hold up. Time out.’ This is my personal time out to go out and let me process things in the natural beauty and letting those ordinary things speak the truth to you, and kind of turning around and then facing the day with it,” Gomez said.
Gomez looks forward to releasing more singles throughout the year as Late Native. Keep up with Late Native and connect on social via the Late Native website.
Nilufer is a KXT weekend host and the Technical Director for Think with Krys Boyd on KERA 90.1 FM. She’s also the voice of the Art&Seek Arts Minute.
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