Native Construct

Handmade Cities

Pastures

U.Y.M.

[Verse 1]
Hello, Mr. Wall Markings
It’s me again, your closest friend
I’m here to talk about the war inside
The pull, the push, the way it bends

I let the wrong voice take the wheel once
Now I’m labeled a public threat
One mistake became a lifetime
They never let me forget

[Verse 2]
Hello, Mr. Breathing Wall
Can you see what I see?
Shapes crawling on the ceiling
Choosing who they want to be

Or maybe I missed my medicine
Or maybe I took too much
Funny how the line between those two
Still feels the same to touch

[Pre-Chorus]
Is this vision
Or design
Am I broken
Or just confined?

[Chorus]
Sing me a psychiatric carol
Tell me how I'm wrong 
Tell me half truths and nonsense and label me the dangerous one.
Sing me a psychiatric carol
See if I will break.
Try to turn me into the monster you expect me to facilitate.

[Verse 3]
Hello, Mr. Doctor
I think you’re worse than me
You hide it behind a doctorate
And call it clarity

You named things I never questioned
Put thoughts inside my head
Then pointed back and called me sick
For believing what you said

[Fx Maniac sounds]
[Chorus – restrained, haunting]
Sing me a psychiatric carol
Sing me quiet, sing me calm
Sing me safe and sane
If you taught me all my symptoms
Don’t act shocked when you get me wrong 
Sing me a psychiatric carol
I figured out your game,
I will make it boring for you and lame so I can regain my reign.

[solo]

[Verse 4]
Hello, Mr. Appeal Board
Out of curses to throw my way?
I jumped through every burning ring
Now you say I get to stay?

Stamped, approved, conditionally free
Like freedom comes with strings
Funny how survival turns into
A checklist of things

[Pre-Chorus]
I don’t think I’m the unstable one
But the system disagrees
Push anyone hard enough
They’ll bend or break like me

[Chorus]
Sing me a psychiatric carol
Soft and safe, approved and neat
They call it progress, call it healing
I just learned how not to speak

Sing me a psychiatric carol
I know how this part goes now
Keep my head low, keep it simple
Be whatever “normal” allows

[Verse 6]
Now I’m an upstanding citizen
Whatever that’s supposed to mean
I avoid original thoughts
Punch clocks, stay routine

Go to work, then go back home
Mind my tone, don’t roam
Build a life that doesn’t ask questions
Leave the past alone

[Bridge – quiet, intimate]
So tell me, Mr. Wall
How do you love without going back again?

[Outro – whispered]
It’s better this way…
Isn’t it?

The Psychiatric Carol

Quiet World

Chromatic Aberration

Come Hell or High Water

Quiet World (Instrumental Version)

Passage (Instrumental Version)

The Spark of the Archon (Instrumental Version)

Mute (Instrumental Version)

Chromatic Aberration (Instrumental Version)

Come Hell or High Water (Instrumental Version)

(The World Covered In) Purple Shrouds

(The World Covered In) Purple Shrouds (Radio Edit)

Who Bit The Moon

Living Room

Robert Edens: Vocals
Myles Yang: Guitar
Max Harchik: Bass

Native Construct is the product of collaboration between several students that began in 2011 at the storied Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Fueled by a desire to breathe new life into the modern metal genre, Native Construct artfully blends a wide spectrum of compositional influences, ranging from classical all the way to prog metal and musical theatre. The result is a wonderfully unique sonic texture, made up of extended-range guitars, theatrical vocals, and a full complement of symphonic instrumentation. Guitarist and composer Myles Yang’s passion for innovation, coupled with his extensive academic study of arranging and compositional techniques, makes Native Construct a truly distinctive up-and-coming metal act.

In 2014, the band’s music caught the ear of Brian Slagel at Metal Blade Records, and led to a recording contract and a worldwide release of the band’s debut album, Quiet World. The album promises to be a rich, vibrant, and aurally engaging musical experience. While following a musically programmatic approach to its storytelling, the album demonstrates a fascinating unification of numerous musical styles and provides an emotional journey through the vast and imaginative world Native Construct have envisioned.

Quiet World was largely self-produced and written between 2011 and 2013 in between the individual band members’ studies at the Berklee College of Music. What began as jam sessions simply for fun eventually turned into a full-fledged musical endeavor. All tracking and programming was done at the band’s home studios in Boston, MA, with the exception of vocals, which were recorded with Jamie King at The Basement Studios in Winston-Salem, NC. The album was mixed by Rich Mouser at The Mouse House Studio in Los Angeles, CA, and mastered by Jamie King.

A brief listen to Quiet World is enough to make it apparent that there is a concept, here. Though it’s best to let the band explain the album in their own words: “Quiet World is about a guy who loves a girl. The guy is a bit of an odd and eccentric person – an outcast. He’s also a mute, and a little unstable, as it turns out. The girl doesn’t return his feelings, but he can’t bring himself to let go. As his unrequited passion for her devolves into obsession and eventual resentment, his mind begins to slip further and further away. He convinces himself that he can’t be loved because of his condition and abnormalities. So he decides to create for himself a new, fantastic world of which he has complete control – a world where there are no oddballs or outcasts. A world where everyone is surrounded by people who are just like themselves: a much quieter world.

“It’s at this point that the first track of the album, “Mute,” begins. And it turns out that many of the subjects of his new world are not as content living this way as he is. In the second track we see a new character, the Archon, rise up and unite his people in the clouds with the once distant people in the sea. He leads an opposition to “Sinister Silence,” as the people come to call him. The rest of the album unfolds with events within the “Quiet World” and manifestations of the enduring struggle between the Archon and Sinister Silence. The lone exception is track number four, “Your Familiar Face,” which steps out of this world for a moment to give a closer look at the events prior to the first track and the tragedy of Sinister Silence.“

What is impressive about Native Construct is not necessarily an involved concept on a debut record, it’s that they wrote, produced, and recorded the album while balancing school work and on a college student budget. It’s the epitome of “self produced.” And what Native Construct wants fans to know is that “the composition process for this album was intensely meticulous from top to bottom. Each note, each lyric, each twist and each turn were arrived at with the utmost care. As such, we were able to weave rich, often subtle layers of meaning into the music and text. We’re very excited for you all to experience the result of our efforts!”

Chromatic Aberration

Native Construct

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