Our Brother the Native

"In his sophomore year of high school, Josh met John Michael, who was then a senior. Realizing that they had similar musical tastes, they quickly became great friends, went to a lot of shows and listened to music non-stop together, eventually starting to play together.  Later they found a cool D.I.Y label in California (Chaz’s Delude Records), which they really liked.  Chaz and Josh quickly became friends, overcoming the geographical distance via frequent phone conversations.  Chaz and Josh began working together (under the name Moses Grandy), but felt they were missing something in the percussion department. So John and Josh decided to just have Chaz join Our Brother the Native.

Their first album was recorded by exchanging tracks vial email across the internet.  Only after the album was recorded, the band actually met for the first time at their first live show, a FatCat curated Festival in Hasselt, Belgium."

"Joshua Bertram was born in Michigan, February 8th, 1989 and started playing guitar in 6th grade. In 2004 he bought a banjo and has been playing it non-stop ever since. In his first year of high school he experienced a “life-changing revelation” when he was introduced to noise music through a couple of friends. They fed him CDs, and inspiration through the noise unit they played in – jamming in a basement and using circuit-bent instruments. After seeing them put on a show, he knew he wanted to make music that was different, “became a music nerd” and from then on continually sought out new experimental music.

Chaz Knapp was born in Moreno Valley, California, May 27th 1988, picking up guitar when he was 9 years old. By 11, he was playing in blues clubs throughout Riverside, MI. Attending blues jams every Thursday night (at the Mission Tobacco Lounge - a 21 and over joint), he played with many 40 - 50 year old musicians. At 14, he joined the Riverside Community College guitar ensemble, playing, learning and even teaching classical guitar. A year later, a job at the Public Library saw a friend take him under his wing, introducing him to stacks of new music – freak-folk, hip hop, cumbia, noise, electronica, and much more. His ears newly opened, Chaz began experimenting with this new music, and with other instruments like piano, drums, and trumpet."