Native Speaker

At a super young age of 18 years old, Braids self recorded their debut album in Canada. The result is "Native Speaker", with strong shoegaze, pop, electronic, and a bit experimental overtones it sets the mood for a beautiful landscape helping it stand out in today's Pop world. BRAIDS’ was formed by four best friends in their last year of High School in Calgary, Alberta. Convincing one another to skip university, they stayed in the garage all year and practiced obsessively, even while their fingers froze during the cold prairie winters. Then, at only 18 years old, they took the bold step of moving across the country together to Montreal, where they began crafting their self recorded/self produced debut album Native Speaker.

Promising and fast-rising group brings a sense of drama and lust and elliptical, unexpected arrangements to indie rock.

“What I’ve found is that we are all just sleeping around.” So goes an early refrain on “Lemonade,” the opening cut from Native Speaker, the full-length debut of Montreal-via-Calgary four-piece Braids. Lead vocalist Raphaelle Standell-Preston counters that realization later in the same song with “all we want to do is…

Check out our album review of Artist's Native Speaker on Rolling Stone.com.

Depending on whatever aspect of Braids' music captures listeners at any moment, they call to mind widely varied influences.

Braids - Native Speaker review: The only thing to do is love, and so I do.