Cherokee Social Is the Only Band In Town Making Indigenous Indie Pop

After forming six months ago, Denver duo Cherokee Social is quickly becoming the latest must-see local Indigenous indie act. Frontman Julian Navarro, who moved here from Baltimore four years ago, started the niche subgenre by initially playing as a solo artist under the name Faceless Ones — a longtime moniker used for his previous pop-punk work.

But a “rebrand” was in order recently, he explains, and Cherokee Social, which also includes guitarist Alex Creighton, represents who Navarro is now, particularly his Cherokee heritage.

“I didn’t really identify with Faceless Ones anymore,” he says, adding that he grew up going to powwows and regularly celebrating his culture. “I wanted to tie something to my Indigenous community, and that’s where Cherokee Social blossomed. ‘Cherokee’ being me, and ‘Social’ being I want everyone to be included.”

The new name meant bringing in other musicians, too. Creighton was booking shows locally, including some Faceless Ones gigs, before linking up and eventually living with Navarro.

“I reached a point where I was at a crossroads, where I was like, ‘Am I going to be a booker or a musician?’” Creighton recalls.

“First day Alex showed up to the space, it was literally like The Dirt movie when Mick Mars walks in,” recalls Navarro, referencing how Mötley Crüe found a great guitarist through a blind call for auditions. “He literally just plugged in, and I played the chords of the first song and was like, ‘Just fuck around.' We did that for a couple hours. I was like, ‘Shit, all right. That dude’s going to be it.’”

Local shows and a “super brutal” fall tour, as Creighton calls it, further solidified the bandmates’ bond.

“That’s where we got really good playing together, but it was really rough,” he says of the cross-country run, which included playing to “completely empty rooms” or driving twelve hours between cities in one night.  Navarro adds that they only had one “fight” (more of a disagreement, the two agree) during the ragged run.

Now back in Denver, and with a debut album in the works, Cherokee Social is playing a release show on Friday, January 5, at Lost Lake to showcase its two latest singles — “Operator” and “Straight to You” — presented by Channel 93.3 Locals Only. BRiNK, Chariots & Charioteers and Alive at Nine are also on the bill. Vinyls featuring Cherokee Social’s tunes will be available, too.

While Navarro is proud to display his Cherokee roots, he explains that the recently released Cherokee Social work doesn’t feature “any underlying political, Indigenous meaning,” but are instead love songs. He adds that he and Creighton plan to play at least six unreleased songs from the upcoming record Friday.

There’s not much Indigenous indie-rock dream-pop — if any — to pull from, but Navarro says he likes to use traditional powwow drumbeats in Cherokee Social. “A lot of the songs have powwow-like drums, with that steady kick beat,” he adds. “When you see me on stage playing, I’ll be playing something along with that.”

Creating a similar ambience is something he’d like to expand on moving forward, too, by curating a “powwow-esque” show or playing Indigenous drums on stage sometime. “Powwow-esque in the sense that there can be vendors, but have some Indigenous kick-back shows,” Navarro shares. “The whole Indigenous movement and cause isn’t supposed to be a force-this-down-your-throat type of thing, but more of a celebration where you can be there.”

Similarly, Navarro encourages Creighton to embrace customary Cherokee dress while playing. “It’s like, ‘Dude, you should definitely embrace this stuff and be a part of it,’ because you want to be inclusive with keeping a culture alive and trading paint, so to speak,” Navarro explains.

He admits that “it’s a weird world to live in when you’re mixed.

“That’s the easiest way to put it,” he continues in discussing his childhood in Baltimore, where his uncle served as the vice president of the Baltimore American Indian Center.

“I’m the idiot in the public school that thought being Native American meant that you were Black,” Navarro adds, noting that he and his sister were two of only a few that identified as Indigenous by the time they were in high school.

“It’s just something that wasn’t ever talked about in the books or anything,” he shares. “We’re sitting here thinking that this is just a religion or some cool thing that we get to be a part of. As you grow up, you’re like, ‘Now I’m an adult, and people look at me a little bit differently.’ And they’re like, ‘What are you?’ I’m Native American, mixed. It’s just super weird.”

Through Cherokee Social, Navarro has been able to “solidify” his identity while carving space for more Indigenous music in Denver at the same time. The band has already opened for Indigenous-fronted acts Mato Wayuhi and Xiutezcatl, and there are plans to bring similar artists to town and hit the road more in the new year.

“We want to be the Indigenous artist from Denver,” Navarro concludes.

Cherokee Social, 7 p.m. Friday, January 5, Lost Lake, 3602 East Colfax Avenue. Tickets are $15.