The Joe Costello Show: Part 1 - An Interview with Nate Morton, Drummer for "The Voice" (2024)

<iframe width="560" height="315"src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bfzhpE-MG9M" frameborder="0"allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;picture-in-picture"

Podcast Music By: Andy Galore, Album: "Out and About", Song: "Chicken & Scotch" 2014

Andy's Links:
http://andygalore.com/
https://www.facebook.com/andygalorebass

Subscribe, Rate & Review:
I would love if you could subscribe to the podcast and leave anhonest rating & review. This will encourage other people to listenand allow us to grow as a community. The bigger we get as acommunity, the bigger the impact we can have on the world.

For show notes and past guests, please visit If you enjoy thepodcast, would you please considerleaving ashortreviewon Apple Podcasts/iTunes?It takes lessthan 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping toconvince hard-to-get guests.

For show notes and past guests, please visit: https://joecostelloglobal.com/#thejoecostelloshow

Sign up for Joe’s email newsletter at: https://joecostelloglobal.com/#signup

For transcripts of episodes, go to: https://joecostelloglobal.com/#thejoecostelloshow

Follow Joe:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jcostelloglobal
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jcostelloglobal/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jcostelloglobal/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUZsrJsf8-1dS6ddAa9Sr1Q?view_as=subscriber

Transcript

Part 1 - NateMorton Interview:

Joe : All right. I'm super excited to have myfriend Nate Morton. The amazing human being and on top of it, thedrummer for The Voice . And I was lucky enough to become friendswith him. I don't even remember how it happened, but I'm sure gladit did. And we've, we've stayed in contact, I've gone out to the ,he had me there as a guest. We've gone out to dinner and drinksmultiple times. A few of those times we probably can't rememberwhat happened at the end of the night, but it was fun andah...welcome, my friend. I'm so glad you could do this and I reallyappreciate your time.

Nate : Joe, it is a pleasure being here. Thankyou for inviting me. Thank you for having me on and I look forwardto whatever path our chat may go on tonight.

Joe : Yeah, it's gonna be perfect...I know, Iknow this, the capabilities of your storytelling.

Nate : Oh, dear.

Joe : This is amazing and that's why I was soexcited to do this with you finally, so...

Nate : All right.

Joe : So, like I said, you there's no, there'sno strict format, but I think you are super interesting and we'vehad conversations and you've walked me through the beginning ofwhere you started, how you...like, I think, I don't know if we wentback to really young years. I don't know if we went...I know... Ithink there was drum corp may be in there early, but we went backto, like, at least where you decided what you were doing collegewise, but we can go deeper...

Nate : Sure,

Joe : We can go back

Nate : Sure,

Joe : A little further because I knew you wereon a completely different path than where you are now. So just,just like we're sitting down at one of those great meals that we'vehad, just give us give us the scoop...

Nate : So how far back you want to go?

Joe : You can go back, as far back as you thinkis interesting.

Nate : So last week, I was...

Joe : I was afraid of the.

Nate : Recording some tracks at mystudio...that's about as good, that's where it gets it now. Well, Istarted playing when I was very young, just by ear, just listeningto records and playing along and I had a toy drum set after, youknow, building drum sets for however long, I don't know...months orsomething like this. Somewhere on my fifth Christmas, my parentsgot me a drum set and it was a Muppet's drum set from Sears, whichI, oh man it was great. But I remember, I remember feeling reallybad every now and then, I've told this story a few times, but everynow and then, as I tell it, I remember little details and so thisis one of the details that I remember. I felt really bad because Icame downstairs, you know, Christmas, there's the drum set. I wasso thrilled, but I'd just been making drum sets out of garbage. Idon't know what I'm doing and so I walk up to the front of the kickdrum with one of the drumsticks and I whack it. It's a drum setfrom Sears. So the front kick drum head is paper. So I just went[ripping sound], so the very first time I struck the drums, that Ibasically destroyed it.

Nate : So then we tape it all back together.Then I you know, I played it for however long and it wouldn't havebeen very long because I actually, ultimately did destroy it. Butnot through being destructive, like tearing the front head off oropen but more through just playing it till it was dust and so Ijust played it into the ground and played and play and played. Andthen the following Christmas, I guess that was my sixth Christmas,my parents got me an actual drum set, actual drum set, actual wood,heads all that, the real deal, not paper on the front head and thenI just always played. And so that was the, drums were the firstinstrument that I played. Piano was the first instrument thatactually had lessons on. So I took piano lessons from the time thatI was about eight, all the way through high school. So, somewherealong the way, I gradually started to hate piano. I started toreally not like it. I really started to love playing drums. And soI begged my mom one day to give me drum lessons. I said, "Mom, Ihate piano when to quit and I hate it, please give me drumlessons...I don't play piano, I want to play drums." And in one ofthe more genius moves my mother has ever pulled off in her life,her response was, "Sure, I'll get you drum lessons, but you have tokeep playing piano and taking piano lessons."

Nate : So starting from, I'm going to sayaround middle school, that's when I start taking drum lessons. Sodrum lessons, middle school through high school and beyond but overthe course of time, between beginning of middle school and the endof high school, I was studying both piano and drums and I don'tplay piano anymore. Well, I have one in my house and I sit down andI play on it occasionally but I would never say that I play. Butjust the gathering of that musical knowledge helps inform everymusical situation that you're in. If you learn to play, if youspent six months, taking lessons on sitar, if you only played sitarfor that six months, that knowledge that you gained, even if youlost your sitar technique, would remain and would work with you andbe in your in your in your folio going forward. So, what are we upto now? We're somewhere in high school, I guess so call it highschool and I played in, you know, high school, you know, garagebands, rock bands and so on. I played my high school garage bandand we were literally a garage band because we literally rehearsedin the garage of our bass player, Kurt Dutra was called Akamilliand I don't know if any of your listeners are familiar with a bandcalled "TV On The Radio", are you familiar the band called "TV OnThe Radio", Joe?

Joe : I don't think so.

Nate : It's OK. They're kind of a little bit ofan indie band, but very popular, you know, well-known in indiecircles and one of the founders of that band is a guy named DaveSitik. So currently, Dave is, is like a super producer. He'sworking with everyone from Trent Reznor to Jane's Addiction andjust lots of really amazing people. And, you know, amazing, amazingartists, many, many of whom you've heard of, some of whom you maynot have heard of, but all amazing nonetheless. I was in the bandroom one day and I'm just playing drums, just playing the drums ofthe band room and this dude pops his head in the door and he goes,"Hey man, you should come over to my house and we can jamsometime." I was like, "Oh, OK, cool!" Like, I'm, I'm like I don'teven know if that is right? I've spent my whole life up to thatpoint, just playing in my closet or something with the drums andlong story short, many, many of my friends, by the way, Joe and youmay join this listen, have banned me from saying, long story short,because it never is.

Joe : That's alright...that's theNate Morton Ilove...

Nate : It's long story long...

Nate : I'm sorry. So anyway, let me let me tryto bring this in for a landing. So so the person who popped theirhead in and said, come, come to my house was Dave Sitik and so Davewas actually the first other musician I ever played with. He wasthe first other dude that it was, I'm playing drums and there'sanother musician there, it this guy Dave and so that was Akamilliand that was what I did throughout high school. So you alluded tothe fact that I was on a particular course and then my life, mylife went a certain other way. So let's rewind for one second backto my early piano experience. OK, so my life with Akamilli and Davewas much of my life through high school in terms of my playing andI was still playing piano. But now you you alluded earlier to theidea that my life was on a particular course and then it kind ofwent a different way. Just for context, I just want to, I want tospeak to that. So I want to flashback to my early piano days. WhenI was around eight or nine, I started taking piano at eight, so Iguess this would have been about 10 or so. At one point we wererenting a piano and at one point the piano just needed to, to goaway I don't remember the reason why. But at the time I was livingat my grandmother's house and my grandmother told me subsequentlythat all she could remember about that day was that when they cameand took the piano, I threw myself on the ground and was crying andscreaming "There goes my career!" So, so, so, so pretty much.

Joe : Oh, my gosh!

Nate : I was born a musician. I was born I wasborn wanting to be a musician. Now you you remember, obviously,that I said I eventually grew to hate piano, but that was partlybecause I grew to love drums. So flashing forward somewhere in highschool while studying with the esteemed Grant Menefee, who is my,he was my instructor then. He's gone on to be a very dear friend ofmine, and I consider it like a family member. So, Grant, I wouldhave been, I'm going to say I would have been a sophom*ore or ajunior in high school somewhere in that neighborhood and Grantsaid, "You know, I don't say that to a lot of guys but if youpractice really hard at this and you were really, really dedicated,there's a chance you might be able to make a living doing this."That was it. That was it. So there's a chance..."So Grant, could Ibe a professional drummer?" "Well, if you practice harder thanyou've ever practiced and you dedicate more time and more energy toit than you ever have, there is a point five percent shot you canmake it.

Nate : So you're saying there's a chance

Joe : Please tell me he gets a Christmascard

Nate : So you're saying. So

Joe : Please.

Nate : You're saying

Joe : So you're

Nate : There's

Joe : Saying

Nate : A chance.

Joe : There's a.

Nate : That's what I got, so that's what I gotfrom it and so that was all I needed. So, yes, he is a dear friend.I, I um, yeah, so anyway, as I veer along my little road here,coming out of high school, I thought to myself, I know I want to bea drummer but I also know I want, like, guaranteed employment.Like, I want something that I know I can fall back on. So to fallback, I went to school and I studied engineering.

Joe : Yes,

Nate : To fall back.

Joe : The back,

Nate : Right.

Joe : The dreaded

Nate : I thought I

Joe : Fall-back.

Nate : Just thought I just thought I'd justchoose a, you know, a real just cream puff. Major

Joe : Right.

Nate : Like mechanical engineering. Stupid

Joe : Right.

Nate : In retrospect.

Joe : Yes.

Nate : Eight a.m. calculus, three mornings aweek, Monday, Wednesday, Friday,

Joe : Like

Nate : Eight a.m. engineering

Joe : Gosh!

Nate : Calculus. And like so, so I'll tell thecalculus really quickly. I took calculus in high school so intheory, I was like, I got this thing. So, so, yeah, so like thefirst whatever, four weeks or whatever, we get a quiz. I fail it D,I get like a D minus. So I'm like, Oh, OK. I guess I should know,put more effort in. So then then I started going to class morefrequently, I didn't cut classes like so I went and then the nextday that we got for like the next little unit or whatever like, Dplus. I'm like, OK, so I went from totally, barely showing up to,like, busting my butt and I didn't even improve a letter grade. Sothen I was like, I am really going to hunker down. I'm really gonnahunker down. I can do this. I can do this. I took this in highschool. This is math, I can do this! Went to study halls, actuallyput the time in, actually took the effort, next test, 52percent...F!

Joe : Oh, really?

Nate : Yeah! So I was like, OK, maybe maybethis isn't my my chosen course. So that was one thing that sort ofhappened that made me start to realize, like, "I don't know, man, Idon't know if you're gonna complete this major to fall back on."And...

Joe : And where was all this because where itwas engineering

Nate : Right.

Joe : School,

Nate : Sure.

Joe : Where

Nate : This

Joe : Where

Nate : Was

Joe : Did you go?

Nate : Good. University of Maryland, I went toUniversity

Joe : Ok,

Nate : Of Maryland

Joe : Ok,

Nate : In College Park, Maryland, just outsideof D.C., Maryland

Joe : Ok.

Nate : Terrapins and like I said, I'm trying tobring this in for a landing, but I'm just not good at it. I'mso

Joe : It

Nate : Sorry...

Joe : This is perfect!

Nate : So...engineering, So I...

Joe : So

Nate : Spoke

Joe : You sucked

Nate : To

Joe : at calculus.

Nate : My

Joe : That's where

Nate : I

Joe : We're

Nate : Suck.

Joe : At right now.

Nate : Precisely. And I and I, and if you canbelieve this, if you can believe this, I was actually on anengineering scholarship because I'd done halfway OK in math andscience in high school. So I had a scholarship adviser and I can'tremember her name now. I wanna say it was Sharon something orother, I can't remember. She called me one morning and she said,"Hey,Nate!" actually, she wouldn't have said "Hey,Nate!", she wouldhave said, "Hey, Nathaniel!". Because

Joe : Right.

Nate : I'm still Nathaniel then. "Hey,Nathaniel, I just want to talk to you a little bit." "Okay. Hey,what's up?" "Yeah, are you gonna make it to the Young EngineerSociety breakfast on Sunday morning?" I was like, "You know what Ihave ah, I actually have a church gig." "Oh OK, well, I just wannalet you know that, you know, so and so who designed the so and sois giving a speech on Wednesday at seven o'clock." And I was like,"Right!, I think I have a band rehearsal." And then there's anotherthing or something that had a gig. So she says to me, I will neverforget this conversation. I can't remember her first and last name,but I remember the conversation she said to me, "Hmmmmm, it reallydoesn't sound like you're very well rounded, everything you'redoing has to do with music." And I said to her, every now, as akid, I said a bunch of stupid stuff but every now and then I saidstuff that I look back on as an adult. I go, "Huh? that was kind ofmore insightful than I would have given you credit for at the time,Mr.

Nate : Morton." But I said to her, I said toher, "Well, you know", I said "there's a fine line between beingnot well rounded and simply being focused" and in that moment, Irealized, OK, you are focused just not on anything having to dowith engineering, you're focused on music. So that was the that wasthe thing, so what you're referring to, which is the conversationthat I had with my father, where I called them up and I basicallysaid, "Hey, I need money for a chemistry book that I'm never gonnaopen" and he said, "Why aren't you going to open it?" and I said,"Because I hate being an engineering major" and after a long pause,he said, "OK, change your major tomorrow!" and I said, "OK!" Andthe rest is history, I change from nature to music and Itransferred a semester later to Berklee College of Music and whichwas the, which is tied for number one, number one,[holds up twoindex fingers] well, this is this is two things tied for numberone.

Joe : Those of you who...

Nate : Number

Joe : You

Nate : One.

Joe : Who are those who have

Nate : Number

Joe : You

Nate : One.

Joe : Are listening. He's holding

Nate : Yes.

Joe : Up two fingers and saying the

Nate : Yes.

Joe : Word number one...

Nate : Yes, exactly, well now, well now I'mholding up one finger in each hand and I have number one

Joe : They got.

Nate : Left

Joe : Ok.

Nate : And right. Number one's, the two numberone's, of the two...

Joe : This is

Nate : No

Joe : A man that

Nate : One's.

Joe : Plays on national TV and plays some ofthe hardest songs in the world.

Nate : Stop that...

Joe : And

Nate : That

Joe : It's

Nate : No, no, no, I count to four over andover

Joe : Yeah

Nate : And over

Joe : Right...

Nate : And over again. So the two things that Iconsider most important in my musical career are, number one, goingto Berklee College of Music and number one, moving to Los Angeles,California. So in a tie

Joe : Ok.

Nate : For first place,

Joe : Ok.

Nate : Those two things.

Joe : So this is the, these are the littlethings that I have to pull out for the listeners/eventually viewersthat see this on YouTube is, doesn't Berkley have an auditionprocess that's not like necessarily the easiest in the world or ifyou just have the money, you can go? And I honestly don't know, I'masking this like

Nate : Oh,

Joe : A sincere.

Nate : You're good, you're good! I'll be honestwith you at the time that I went, getting in was easier thanstaying in. So in other words, there were players who got inbecause, you know, mommy or daddy said, oh, you know, Joe, you'reso good at guitar in his bedroom, let's send him to music collegeand so there’s Joey and then you find out, like, what that lookslike and then Joey is gone a semester later. That's what it lookedlike when I was there about two and a half decades ago. Flashforward, it's become much more competitive to even get in now andso yeah, so that aspect has changed.

Joe : I mean, did you have to do anaudition

Nate : I did have

Joe : On

Nate : To audition. Yes,

Joe : Snare

Nate : I

Joe : Drum,

Nate : Did have

Joe : Timpani,

Nate : To audition.

Joe : Marimba?

Nate : No,

Joe : All

Nate : No,

Joe : Of that stuff? OK.

Nate : My my audition was only on because it'snot because Berklee doesn't center around classical music, Berkleecenters around a variety of genres but it's not like going to astate college where your primary playing experience is going to bein the orchestra of that college, right? So, you know, Berklee, somy audition was on drum set. And I'm probably not going toaccurately recall, but my vague recollection is sight reading,maybe soloing, maybe time, and maybe versatility, maybe those arethe four categories, I'm a little hazy because it was a littlewhile ago. But basically you've got a number one to seven, this isthe way they worked while I was there. Like, with many things thathappened when I was younger, it's completely different now. Butwhen I was there, that was what you did and you got a number foreach of those categories and so you might come out of there three,four, five, four, right? Which means you have three in reading, afour in improvisation, a five in, you know, time and a three inversatility...whatever I said, you know.

Joe : Yep, yep.

Nate : So then you take those four numbers andyou are able to sign up for the ensembles based on what yournumbers are, based on what your audition level is. So and ensembleswhere levels one through seven. So if you wanted to be in a levelseven ensemble, you had to have the majority sevens in thosecategories. So in my sense, I went in and I came out with I don'teven remember what fours, something like that. So then the processis that you go back a semester later and you audition again foryour ensemble ratings, you know and that was part of theauditioning process to get into the school and also part of theauditioning process to get into the ensemble is that you want toget into it. And

Joe : Was

Nate : So

Joe : Your

Nate : That's

Joe : Major

Nate : The way that.

Joe : Performance or.

Nate : My major with performance of

Joe : Ok.

Nate : The reason is because I was perhapsfoolishly but it was my attitude at the time was I was dedicated toplaying and the way for you to get the most private lessons, themost ensembles, the most playing experience as a student, there wasto be a performance major. You got twice as many private lessonhours, you know, twice as many allowed ensembles to go towards yourmajor, all of that. And the reason why I say perhaps foolishly, isbecause I could have studied songwriting, I could have studied morecompositional things like that but I was a little bit, what's theword looking for? I mean, I hate to say old school, because that'ssuch an overused term, but I was a little bit old school as verymuch like I'm dedicated to playing. I want to be a player, I wantto be playing, I'm not concerned about sitting around and writinghorn, you know.

Joe : Charts and arrangements.

Nate : Yeah. Horn

Joe : Yeah,

Nate : Charts and transcribing and transposingto all

Joe : Yeah.

Nate : The different registers for all thedifferent words and all of that. So I, I spent the majority of mytime playing. I was I was in a practice room many, many, many, manyhours for my first couple of semesters and then my subsequentsemesters that I was fortunate to be doing a lot of playing. AndBerklee is a kind of college that makes allowances for that sort ofthing. Like if you show up to your lesson and you're like, I'mreally sorry, I'm not quite prepared with this. "Well, why not?" "Iwas playing Philip's senior recital, I had a gig at this place andI had a cruise ship, you know, I had a dinner, brunch thing, youknow, gig this day."

Joe : Yep.

Nate : "Ok." You know, I mean, and that's notto suggest that they were lax. It's just to suggests that theinstructors that I had anyway, had an understanding that I wasgaining hopefully anyway, real world experience, doing real worldgigs and on some level that had value equal to, if not greater thansitting in a practice room learning exercise. 17 B on page thirtyfive, thirty five or whatever. So yeah, so that's my story man. Ifinished Berklee, I hung around Boston, I played a bunch of gigsthere, eventually I found my way to L.A...

Joe : Ok, wait, before I go any further.Couple

Nate : Stop.

Joe : Of questions.

Nate : Yes.

Joe : Did you find Berklee? I don't want to sayeasy, but did you, did you struggle while you were there?

Nate : I had the great advantage, if yourecall, I mentioned my drum instructor, Grant Menefee

Joe : Yeah.

Nate : Grant Menefee happens to be a graduateof Berklee College of Music and Grant's whole intent, unlike a lotof instructors...well, you know, let me not do that because I don'twant to put instructors, I don't want to overgeneralize, but thereare instructors out there, let's put it this way. There areinstructors out there who studied their whole lives, practiced veryhard, were unable to obtain a level that they wanted to obtain as aplayer so then went like. "All right, I guess I'll teach."Right?

Joe : Right? Right?

Nate : Grant was the opposite

Joe : We all know, we've all had them

Nate : You're

Joe : All had them,

Nate : Sure.

Joe : And that's just

Nate : Right.

Joe : That's

Nate : And

Joe : Just

Nate : It's unfortunate.

Joe : Life.

Nate : But it happens.

Joe : It's.

Nate : It's just

Joe : Yeah,

Nate : Life, right?

Joe : Right.

Nate : It's life.

Joe : Right.

Nate : So Grant is the opposite of that. Grantreally wanted to go to Berklee College of Music, learn all that hecould, absorb it all like a sponge, and then move back toCatonsville, Maryland, which is just a little bit outside ofBaltimore, Maryland, and basically become the best, mostwell-known, well-respected drum instructor in all of Maryland,which he has succeeded at doing. And for my dollar, I mean, he'samong the best drummers instructors out there, period. And it'sinteresting because when I studied with him...I'm getting a littleoff track, but I'll, I'll get back to where

Joe : No,

Nate : You were

Joe : It's fine.

Nate : When I studied with him, I rememberthinking to myself, I, like, I remember realizing the level ofknowledge that I was gaining being with him and studying with himand understanding the importance of it and just hoping, like I washoping, please let me obtain some level of success. So that I can,A., tell the world how great this guy Grant Menefee is and B., sortof be a billboard. I want to be like, WOW!, that guy, like the waythat people went like, oh yeah, you know, so-and-so studied withFreddy Gruber, oh so-and-so

Joe : Right.

Nate : studied with this guy, studied with thatguy, Dom Famularo, this guy and it's like, I wanna be the guy whoit's like man, "Who'd you study with?" "Grant Menefee." And at thispoint, you know, I think that it speaks volumes that Grant does agreat job by virtue of the fact that he's got several known nameplayers out there, making a living doing this. So that's a lot morethan than your average drum instructor teaching in a suburb outsideof a city, you know, can and can claim credit to.

Joe : Right. All right, well, so onequestion

Nate : Where the heck

Joe : I

Nate : Does

Joe : Want.

Nate : All that leave us?

Joe : So well, the other question I wanted toask about Berklee is while you were there has...

Nate : Oh, shoot! Hold on, hold on, I didn'teven answer your question. Sorry, sorry. Golly,

Joe : All right.

Nate :Joe.

Joe : Was it hard for you?

Nate : Right.

Joe : That's right.

Nate : Right.

Joe : You didn't.

Nate : So, so, so here, let's pick that up. Sothe whole reason that I gave you that Grant Menefee backstory

Joe : Right

Nate : Is because Grant basically prepared mewith exercises, grooves, fills, you know, all sorts of things, thatwere very much like what he knew I would see when I went toBerklee, if that makes sense. So, you know, whereas there areplayers there who their instructor puts something in front of themand says, "Hey, are you familiar with this? Check this out." Andthey "Go, oh, no, this is the first time I've ever seen that." I'mgoing like, "Oh, yeah, me and Grant, we were up to page 37 of thisbook." I mean, that kind of thing.

Joe : Yeah, yeah, yeah...

Nate : So was Berklee easy? No! It wasdefinitely not easy, I definitely practiced hard, I definitely, youknow, grew a lot,I definitely learned a lot of things that I wouldnot have learned had I not gone there. I learned a lot of thingsthe hard way at Berklee, so I didn't have to learn the hard way inthe real world. So in that regard, no, Berklee was not easy.However, I will say that I felt very prepared for it by virtue ofhaving said he would Grant Menefee.

Joe : Got it. Perfect. OK, cool. So

Nate : So

Joe : Here's

Nate : You can piece

Joe : That

Nate : All that piece, all that together,

Joe : Perfect.

Nate : Make some sort of cogent answer.

Joe : So here's the last piece that I'll askyou about Berklee was, while you were there, now that you're outand these other people that were there are potentially out in theworld, were there any people that were there while you were therethat are now famous out in the world today, which I would assumethe answer is yes, because so many people come through there but Iwas just if you had a couple of names that say, "Oh, yeah, he washe was there while I was there." And...

Nate : Well, when I when I'm asked this, it'soften in relationship to drummers and so just I mean, well, firstlet me preface this by saying when I was there, there were twothousand students, little over two thousand students, and I did notknow all of them. So there is any great possibility that any numberof them have gone off and done amazing, wonderful things. And I'mnot I'm just not familiar because I didn't know them. But

Joe : I mean,

Nate : Drummers.

Joe : Like John Mara wasn't there when you werethere? I don't know. I was just a.

Nate : I feel like he's a little bit youngerthan me, so

Joe : Ok,

Nate : I feel like he would have been thereafter me,

Joe : Got it.

Nate : Right? But for example, little JohnRoberts, drummer, was there when I was there. There's anotherdrummer who's out here now named Steve Hass, who's a killingdrummer. He was playing with Manhattan Transfer

Joe : Yeah,

Nate : And

Joe : I know.

Nate : He was in school when he was there, hewas playing like that. Bass player Reuben Rogers, sax player,Teodross Avery, some other drummers Johnny Rabb was there when Iwas there, John Blackwell was there when I was there, rest inpeace, John Blackwell.

Joe : Yep, yep.

Nate : And there are others. You know, I hatethis question because invariably I forget someone. And then

Joe : No,

Nate : We

Joe : No,

Nate : Finish

Joe : No.

Nate : This

Joe : I don't mean

Nate : And I

Joe : To

Nate : Go,

Joe : Put

Nate : Oh,

Joe : You.

Nate : Shucks,

Joe : But

Nate : I

Joe : I wasn't

Nate : Forgot

Joe : Even

Nate : That

Joe : Trying.

Nate : Guy.

Joe : I wasn't even trying to pinpoint on thedrum thing because I know, like, did you like your drum buddies?Don't want to be you want to

Nate : Well,

Joe : Be sensitive.

Nate : Do you know?

Joe : It was just like maybe some bass player,maybe some guitar player or some

Nate : Sure.

Joe : Piano player or whatever.

Nate : Well, do you know Cheche Alara was, was,was my piano player when I did the Bonnie Hunt Show. And so, yeah,there are definitely my path have definitely repeatedly crossedwith people that I was in school with and there are definitelypeople that I was in school with who have gone off and done many,many wonderful things. I mean, it's hard to point to a, it's hardto point to an institution, musically, that is more successful atputting the volume of contemporary musicians successfully out intothe world. Does that

Joe : Yes.

Nate : Make sense?

Joe : Absolutely.

Nate : So whether whether it's film scoring orwhether it's jazz composition or whether it's beaten on drums likea cave man like I do, or Antonio Sanchez composing Grammy Awardwinning jazz records, Right? So across the board, there are anynumber of people doing any number of successful things in anynumber of sort of avenues and genres, so yeah man, it's, it's likeI said, it's, it's, it was one of the best things I've everdone!

Joe : Call.

Nate : And, and I consider it to be hands down,hands down, I consider it to be the best contemporary music schoolon the planet.

Joe : Awesome, well, and you did fouryears?

Nate : I managed, well because I did twosemesters at University of Maryland, I had a few creditstransferred. So I did about three and a half years. Yeah. But Idefinitely my, my, my both of my parents, my mother, my father arefirst generation college students, right? They were the first intheir and their families to go to college and so, you know, both ofthem, primarily my father was like, "Oh, you're finishingcollege!"

Joe : One way

Nate : That was

Joe : Or

Nate : Not.

Joe : Another.

Nate : That was, oh yeah, "Oh, you're getting adegree! Like, I'm not going to be like the beginning and the end ofthis trend right now." So yeah, I finished, I finished in sevensemesters.

Joe : Ok, cool. And it was cool because thestory I remember is use, that phone call about the book that youwould never use, you know, I don't know if you expected him to beso supportive. Maybe you did, but it just sounded like he's like,yeah, if that's what you're going to do, you want to play music,then...

Nate : I

Joe : Am

Nate : Don't.

Joe : I making him sound

Nate : No,

Joe : More

Nate : No,

Joe : Supportive

Nate : No, no.

Joe : Than he

Nate : Let

Joe : Was?

Nate : To get this right, hold on, I wanna getthis right! I want to get this right! I don't know how much of itwas support and how much of it was concession. [laughter]

Joe : Ok,Ok

Nate : Isn't that the way it was like, allright, you know what? This is just trending this way, so I'm eithergotta, either got a jump on this bus or get run over by it, so, ok,fine, I'll get on the bus...I was like that. And my dad is a hugemusic fan, I mean, he's, he's in great part, the reason why I am amusician, because he doesn't play an instrument at all, but I grewup in a household where pretty much if he was in the house, musicwas playing, basically. If he was in the house, music was playing.And it could have been across all a number of genres or all manner,rather, of genre and so he's in great part why I am a musician. Butlike any parent, there was definitely that like, "Ok so how are yougonna make a living at this?" You know, because for people whodon't know the other side of, of what we do, Joe, you know, it'shard to to understand. I mean, it's hard! It, is, it's, it wasinteresting when I finished college and I walked across the stageand Sting handing me my degree and the next morning I kind of wokeup and I was like, "All right, well, I don't have Art History 201today, what? what do I do?"

Joe : Right.

Nate : Yeah, it is.

Joe : Right, right.

Nate : You know, I mean, so

Joe : Right.

Nate : There's, there's, it's, it's not like adegree where you go four years, you come out with a engineeringdegree and you solicit different companies that do whatever numberof engineering

Joe : Right.

Nate : Situations that there are, right? Youlook in the back of the of the of the help, not the help wanted,but, you know, The Wall Street Journal for employment or whateverit is, I don't, I

Joe : Right.

Nate : Don't know. See how little I knowabout,

Joe : Yeah,

Nate : Actually getting a real job. But youlook in the back of whatever paper, one of those papers that hasjobs in the back

Joe : Right.

Nate : And, and, and, and you see who's hiring.In my dad's case, it was a, my dad was an educator, so in his case,there was this paper called The Chronicle and it was a whole paperabout education and in the back there were all, you know, hiringpositions for Vice Presidents of Student Affairs at campuses andadministrators and, you know, history professors and things of thatnature. So that's, I don't know, that's my experience with that.But I guess my only point is that as a musician, you come out withthis degree or you don't whatever but either way, whenever you jumpinto it, it's kind of like all on you to find your course, youknow? And so there are definitely some mornings early on when Iwas, you know, "Ok, What do I do?" And I adopted this attitude of,I adopted an attitude of, what can I be doing right now to get agig, at this exact moment, what can I be doing to get a gig, youknow, and...

Joe : And this is why you're still in Bostonright after you graduated.

Nate : This is what I'm still in Boston and Ihad just graduated, but, but that persisted, I mean, that persistedfor years, I mean, that's that's been my motivation, I mean, itcontinues to be my motivation. I'm in my studio right now andwritten on my dry erase board says "At this exact moment, are youmaking the best use of your time?" And then under that, it says"Small picture and Big picture." At this exact moment. Am I makingthe best use of my time? I would say "Yes!" I was chatting to youis a very good use of my time, because if it enables me to shareanything that I've experienced or knowledge that I've gained thathelps to influence anyone else or that anyone else gains anythingfrom, then that's a great use of my time. So

Joe : Well,

Nate : The answer

Joe : Awesome,

Nate : Is yes right now.

Joe : Awesome.

Nate : Yeah. Absolutely!

Joe : All right, so you graduate, you're inBoston, I assume you're gigging to make the rent and eat and all ofthat other stuff, right? We've, you've told me this story and thenall of a sudden you decide to go to L.A.?

Nate : Well, there's a few more details inthere. When I finished, I was playing with the top 40 band, I wasplaying with a rock cover band and I was getting around, I was evenplaying in a couple of original bands and I got an opportunity totravel to Hong Kong and play with a Cantonese pop artist named FayeWong, this is 1994. So 1994, I go to Hong Kong, I play with FayeWong. And when I went to Hong Kong to do that gig and I was therefor several months, we were there for several weeks rehearsing andwe came to the States and did several weeks touring, then we wentback to Hong Kong, did several weeks rehearsing and then did a, dida a stint at the Hong Kong Coliseum. I think we played about 35 or40 straight shows at the Hong Kong Coliseum, which that's kind ofthe way that touring, at that time anyway, that's the way thetouring happened in Hong Kong. You didn't travel around, Hong Kongis five square miles, so...

Joe : Right.

Nate : Right? It's the population of New YorkCity, it, is, it the population of New York City in a five squaremile block and so you basically set up shop at the Hong KongColiseum, which had another capacity is probably around seventeenor eighteen thousand and you just

Joe : Everybody

Nate : Play there.

Joe : Comes to you.

Nate : Yeah, everybody comes to you. It's like,it is, it's like, it's like, it's like a Vegas residency, that'sexactly what it's like a residency. Only people aren't flying infrom around the world, it's just that many people live there. So,so after, so my plan was I'll go Faye Wong, when I come back, I'mgoing straight to L.A. And what happened was, when I came back, Irealize that there were some things in Boston that I missed, that,that I wanted to return to and so I wound up back in Boston foranother two or three years before moving to L.A. in 98.

Joe : Oh, I didn't know it was that long afteryou graduated.

Nate : Yeah, I was I was there from, acceptingthe handful of months that I spent in Hong Kong or toured with FayeWong, ah yeah, I was there, I left in late 98 and moved to LosAngeles then.

Joe : How did you get that gig there, where didyou, somebody, somebody see you?

Nate : Faye Wong?

Joe : Yeah.

Nate : So Faye Wong is, I think she's probablystill, I think you're still making records and still current andthose doing things. And so she was kind of the like at the timeanyway, kind of a wild child of, of, of, of Cantonese pop artists,right? And part of being the wild child was, I'm going to havethese, I'm, I'm crazy, I'm going to have these American musiciansin my band. I'm going to diversify and have these Americanmusicians. So she was having auditions and I just heard about anaudition and I, and I wound up at an audition in Montreal, Canada,of all places, and was fortunate to get the gig and wound up, youknow, a few weeks later in Hong Kong doing rehearsals.

Joe : Wow. Wow.

Nate : Yeah. Yeah.

Joe : That's crazy.

Nate : Do you ever, do you ever, do you shareany photos or anything and how you present this? Cause I probablycould find some photos of Faye

Joe : Go,

Nate : Wong

Joe : Yeah,

Nate : And

Joe : I'll

Nate : I.

Joe : Take it. Yeah, sure.

Nate : Ok, yeah, someone asked me for earliestpictures, pardon me. Someone asked me, OK, let's pick up. Someoneasked me for earliest pictures of me playing drum set andliterally, I don't have any because, I mean, think about it, If youflash back further than 15 years, 20 years, Not everybody had acell phone constantly in their hand.

Joe : Right

Nate : Right. So..

Joe : Now you sound like an old man!

Nate : To take a picture

Joe : Like an old man?

Nate : Like? [laughter] So, yeah, so taking apicture was more than a notion, right? You know, so um, so youdon't have really any pictures of that era of me, the earliestpictures I have or like I don't know, probably high school orsomething.

Joe : I would like to see that picture of youtaking the drumstick and just jamming it through the head of thebass drum...

Nate : Yeah, oh, yeah, well, that would havebeen.... yeah, let's see, what was that? [mumbling numbers] Thatwould have been 1977 [laughter] So what was the state, what was thestate of the cell phone development back in 1977?

Joe : That would have...

Nate : I

Joe : Probably

Nate : Think we had we didn't have like a windup [makes funny sound] like, I don't think we had the military windup friggin, you know, "Come in Commander!" phones...

Joe : But wait...

Nate : That

Joe : That might

Nate : The.

Joe : Have been Polaroid time still, maybe

Nate : A

Joe : No.

Nate : Little later, a little later, because Ido

Joe : Ok.

Nate : Have some Polaroid pictures.

Joe : Ok.

Nate : I do have Polaroids

Joe : You see,

Nate : And

Joe : I

Nate : That

Joe : Don't

Nate : Was around

Joe : Like.

Nate : That was when, I was that was about fouror five years later and I only remember this because I recentlycame across a photo album where I scanned in a bunch of Polaroidsfrom

Joe : Ok,

Nate : From, from the era of my life when I wasat about, Four..., fifth grade.

Joe : Got it, ok, so, yeah, I couldn'tremember. Ok! So you're back in Boston, you stayed a couple of moreyears and then I know, I know there's a part of this story thatthere's a girlfriend involved in Boston, but you're leaving andit's, I'm...

Nate : At

Joe : Going.

Nate : That time, I was definitely all aboutmusic. I was definitely like, you know, I didn't, I definitely feltlike, I didn't just spend all this time and energy and effort goingto this music college, I didn't start playing drums when I was sixyears old so that I could finish a music college and stay in Bostonand play, in you

Joe : Club

Nate : know, I

Joe : Dates.

Nate : Mean, cov, cover bands, I mean,

Joe : Our

Nate : With

Joe : Club

Nate : All due respect

Joe : Dates,

Nate : To cover

Joe : Sir.

Nate : Bands.

Joe : No,

Nate : Yeah.

Joe : I

Nate : Don't

Joe : Just

Nate : Get me

Joe : Called

Nate : Wrong.

Joe : It, you know, just.

Nate : Right,

Joe : Yeah.

Nate : Exactly! I was, I definitely, I had eyeson sort of a a bigger level, I wanted to be touring the world, Iwanted to be on television, and I just sort of came to theconclusion that, like the chances of me, of that finding me inBoston, are lower the chances is that I'll have if I go to find it,which to me felt like Los Angeles. And again, I don't mean to, Idon't mean to put down cover bands because, hell, I play in a coverband. But yeah, I definitely knew that like at age, wait when did Igraduate? Twenty two, somewhere in that neighborhood, I wasn'tquite ready to like settle in, I didn't want to feel like Ok I've,I've maxed out my potential now.

Joe : Right! Ok, so then what happened? Whatwas the trigger?

Nate : Well, that was it. I would be I would bewatching guys on TV playing and there's you know, there's a newartist playing that I've never heard of, whoever that new artistmight have been. And there's a guy playing drums and I would thinkto myself, that guy is playing drums on that gig because that guylives where that gig is! Ya know, and there are exceptions, there'sexceptions, there's times when people who live in Duluth, mail in atape of them shedding on drums to some guy in L.A. and then theywind up on the gig. And I wouldn't be surprised if that happenseven more frequently now with the Internet obviously, right becauseit has made the whole world much, much smaller. But at that time,the idea of a manager in L.A. calling me in Boston to do what, youknow, you're going to call me on a Tuesday to fly out to L.A. andaudition for a gig on a Thursday and that's going to work how?Right? So I just knew that I had to be or at least I felt that Ihad to be there. When people call me or text me or message me orwhatever, e-mail me and they're like, you know, I'm the bestdrummer in Topeka, Kansas. I have all the gays in Topeka, Kansas.I'm like, Topeka, Kansas is version of Vinnie Collaiuta, how do Iget to the next level? Get out of Topeka, Kansas, move to L.A. Youknow, I mean and that's, I don't mean to sound callous when I saythat, because

Joe : No,

Nate : I

Joe : No,

Nate : Know that

Joe : No.

Nate : People,

Joe : It's.

Nate : People and not everyone can do that! Andso for me at the time, it was definitely that thing of like,sometimes I meet people or I have that conversation with people andthey say, "Oh, well, you know, I've been married for five years, mywife and I have a three year old, she has a great job." And I'mlike, "Oh, ok, that's not practical." So then let's reanalyze.

Joe : Yup!

Nate : Right? But for me at the time and interms of what you're saying and my and my girlfriend, someone atthe time, it was definitely like, I want to be in L.A. And I wasvery fortunate, too, because I pretty much was like, look, I reallywant to go there, I really want to max this thing out and see, youknow, what, what it can do and it will be great if you would joinme. But if you don't want to, I also understand and she was like,well, literally, she was like, well, "Boston is the only city I'veever lived in in the United States, so, sure!". And then there yougo, that's how that, that's how that went.

Joe : Cool! I couldn't remember she came withyou or not, so now. OK, cool.

Nate : She

Joe : All

Nate : Did.

Joe : Right.

Nate : She did.

Joe : So now this is when we're in L.A. youmove to L.A. up what year?

Nate : We are really, like this is like reallymy whole life story!

Joe : I told

Nate : If I ever

Joe : You.

Nate : Decide, if I ever decide to publish thebook of my life story, I could just put out a transcript of thisconversation.

Joe : And I'll have it done for you because,it, it goes, it's part of the whole podcast thing, so it'll alreadybe done!

Nate : So.

Joe : No, I told

Nate : So where

Joe : You it.

Nate : Are we? So

Joe : Yeah.

Nate : Where are we?

Joe : So,

Nate : What

Joe : You know,

Nate : Are we doing?

Joe : Who's the guy? Who's that? Is it the DosEquis guy? The most interesting man in the world?

Nate : Yeah...

Joe : That is that is who that is?

Nate : Yes.

Joe : You know, the guy with the beard and

Nate : Yes,

Joe : He's like.

Nate : Yes!

Joe : Or

Nate : Yes!

Joe : Is that

Nate : Yes!

Joe : Him? Yeah.

Nate : Yes! yes!

Joe : You're, you're my, you're my versionof, I hold you on a higher pedestal than

Nate : That's

Joe : The Dos Equis guy.

Nate : That's really sad for you, I would notadmit that out loud, I would not admit that out loud. Um, so okay,so what are we doing? So we came

Joe : So

Nate : To L.A. now.

Joe : Where in L.A., you and your girlfriend,it's what year?

Nate : 90, end of 98, near the end of 98, goinginto 99. 99 by the time everything, all the dust settles, in termsof moving out and having a place and settling in and all of that.And my earliest gigs came by way of auditions that I made my wayinto that were held by a guy named Barry Squire. And so Barry isstill on the scene, although like most of us who work in this crazymusic thing, even what he does has been changed by technology. Sowhereas once upon a time, was once upon a time, it was like, oh,Alanis Morissette is having an audition, picking up the CD at thisparticular executive's office, the auditions on Saturday at noon.And so you go there and there's 50 of the CDs and you grab one ofthem, there's three songs and you learn three songs, you show upand there's, you know, twenty five guys on every instrument. Andthey cycle through you all and you play it. Now, you know and youplay it in a room with other musicians, right? Whereas now it'ssend me links. Everything is sending me links. So even Barry nowI'll see that he'll post, you know, "New artists looking forkeyboardist that sings, age, 25 to 37, send links to" and there'san email address.

Joe : Right.

Nate : Right.

Joe : He does

Nate : It's.

Joe : Them on Facebook now.

Nate : He does them on Facebook. It doesthem

Joe : Yeah,

Nate : On

Joe : And

Nate : Facebook.

Joe : It's so funny and, and, when I've heardof his name and what he did and he was the the connector of gettingall of these great musicians on these great gigs for these touringartists, the moment I found his name, I was already above the agelimit on every single

Nate : Right.

Joe : Post. It's like

Nate : Well.

Joe : That, that ship had sailed already.

Nate : Well,

Joe : So.

Nate : One of those things I did, I did thething once where someone called in whenever I was, it was some sortof gig that I was in the running for and then they said, "Are you26 or younger?" And I said, "As far as you know, you!"[laughter]

Joe : Right.

Nate : Know.

Joe : Right, right and it's so funny becauseall his posts now are like, and, and and, be honest about your ageor proof of age or like he's very adamant about when he posts them.If you say you're this, make sure you are that, not that you justlook it and blah, blah, blah. So.

Nate : Interesting. Well, I have it, I youknow, I had lunch with Barry because I have students who, ask me,how do we get a gig? What's an audition like? Etc., etc. and Irealized I hadn't talked to Barry, I don't know, maybe fifteenyears or something. And I reached out to him not too, too long ago,just like "Hey man, I just want to have lunch with you and pickyour brain about what the current state of audition's looks like,what the current state of getting, getting a gig looks like"Because I have students who ask me and all I can do a sort ofspeculate as to what that looks like now, and I don't really know.And so, you know, we, we talked for a while and part of his thingwas, for example, now Ableton is a big part of it. Like, that's abig part of multiple gigs and I don't know Ableton like. If I hadto go and do an audition today and I had to have a knowledge ofAbleton, I'd be sunk.

Joe : He puts up a lot of posts like that. Youneed to be able to run tracks, write tracks, multi instrumental,blah, blah, blah, ah play electronic drums, play acousticdrums...

Nate : Even

Joe : But.

Nate : How about even this, Joe? So currentlythe state of a touring band. So the first audition I did that was aBarry Squier audition was for a young woman named Billie Myers. Andshe had a single called "Kiss the Rain." It was really big, it waslike the biggest single that that summer. And the original band,you'll laugh at this. You, you, you, because we are closer in age,you will laugh at this and people who are younger than us, won'teven be able to fathom it. So the audition and this is for a newartist, this is a new, this is not an established artist. Theaudition, so Billie Meyer's band in the end ended up being, bass,drums. keys. Two guitars. Two background singers. That was ourband, Keith, bass, drums, two guitarists, two background singers,that's a normal band, like for me, that's a normal band for my agegroup, that's a normal band. Nowadays, it's drummer,multi-instrumentalist and the third musician is Ableton.

Joe : Yup

Nate : Right? It's

Joe : Crazy!

Nate : A drummer and a guitarist runningAbleton, or it's a drummer and a keyboard player running Ableton.And it's really, it's interesting, I had a conversation with a guyrecently named Ray because I did a gig and the band was myself ondrums and Ray on guitar. And I was like, Ray and Ray's younger, buthe has a little bit of older school, old school mentality. You knowwhat I'm sayin', ike Ray would love to be on stage with, with, withfive dudes playing instruments. But Ray basically pointed out andsort of hipped me to the fact that, these days, if you can move acrowd with a drummer, I'm going to circle back to Barry, by theway, but if you move a crowd with a drummer and a guitar player,let's say. If the budget does go up, if your record is successfulor your music is successful and you do make money, the first placeto invest money oftentimes isn't expanding the band. It's not oh,we're, we're, we're bass, we're drums and guitar now, let's add abass player. Oh, we're drums, bass guitar, let's add a keyboardplayer. It's let's add video screens, let's add four dancers, let'sadd cooler stage set and it's like, WOW!, OK. So, you know, thereare times, now circling back to Barry, he did point out that inninety nine percent of cases, even though it is only two guys, oneof those two guys or girls is typically a drummer, because ifyou're playing on a bill somewhere and all the other bands have adrummer and you get up there and you're a guitar player and a bassplayer, it doesn't look like there's a live band on stage.

Joe : Right.

Nate : Right?

Joe : Yep.

Nate : Drums are part of that and it's evenfunny, my brain, I'm on, I'm on like a weird like stream ofconsciousness thing right now. It's interesting, too, because thatreminds me of when I was in school and my father would take me tosee bands. He would take me to see, like at the time, George Howardor Najee or Hiram Bullock or Spyro Gyra. And I remember going andhearing those bands and those are all like, they all live in likethat instrumental jazz, I hesitate to say smooth jazz, I won't saysmooth jazz, but they live in that jazz universe. So it's like thekeys are going like, [makes keys sounds] and guitars are going[makes guitar sounds] and the bass is going [makes bass sounds] andthe drums are going [makes drums sounds]. It was like a totallydifferent texture, it was a whole different texture and that's whatdrew my earl I was like, oooooohhhh,

Joe : Yup.

Nate : Now I've played drums earlier than that,but that was so exciting to me, was that, the drums were the onelike aggressive percussive thing, even in that context. So take allof that, flash all of that forward to the knowledge that I'vegained from Barry [Squire] now where he's basically sayingessentially the same thing, which is that if there's not drums onthe stage, it doesn't feel like a live band. So in that respect,drums

Joe : And he's

Nate : Are

Joe : A

Nate : A

Joe : Drummer

Nate : Fortunate

Joe : Himself.

Nate : Instrument.

Joe : So he's

Nate : He

Joe : Also.

Nate : Is a drummer. He is a drummerhimself.

Joe : It's in his heart, right?

Nate : Yeah.

Joe : So.

Nate : Yeah, for sure. So I don't even rememberwhat the question was, Joe, or

Joe : Well,

Nate : Where

Joe : So

Nate : We are

Joe : It's not

Nate : Or

Joe : Ok.

Nate : What time period.

Joe : I'm even, I'm keeping track of it all, sothis, only because these are all the things that I'm selfishlyinterested in. So I'm keeping it on track in my own brain as aswe're talking. So you moved you moved to L.A. with your girlfriend,you get all settled and you go there with no gig upfront? You like,you have no work when you land? No, just the money in your pocketand whatever? Ah, oh...

Nate : It, it sounds very bleak when you put itthat way. [laughter]

Joe : No, hey no.

Nate : But yes. Well, you

Joe : Ok.

Nate : Remind me of the time, so, so my mom, asI said, you know, her genius move was play piano and drums at thesame time. However, you know, there have been times when my mom andI opinion wise or phila...philosophically have been at odds. Gofigure! Side note, I went to see, I used to go see a therapist.That's ok, I'm mental, it's obvious. I need you to see a therapist,of course I did. And at one point they were like, so tell me, youknow, what's going on and I was kind of like, well, sometimes mymom and before getting presents, I went, "It's always the mom."[laughter]

Joe : Yeah, yeah.

Nate : She is at once, she is at once yourgreatest nurturer and at the same time also causes some of yourgreatest

Joe : Yes.

Nate : Anguish

Joe : Yes.

Nate : Ya know...

Joe : Yes.

Nate : So my mom is a lovely woman, she's alovely woman. But sometimes she says things that I'm just like,"Ahhhh" So one of the things was when I was about to leave Bostonto drive across country to move to Los Angeles, she said, "Well,Nathaniel, how long?" How did she say it? I think you saidsomething along the lines of "How long are you gonna...how long areyou going to fail before you give up?" Or something along thoselines? "How long you gonna struggle before you give up?"

Joe : Yeah.

Nate : And that was it, "How long you gonnastruggle before you give up?" My answer was "As long as it takes!"Like, I don't have a plan B and it's important that I emphasize,Joe, that I am by no means encouraging people to, like, diveheadlong into some kind of insane life changes with absolutely noparachute to save them should they fall. Even though that's what Idid. But I'm not, I'm not advising it. I'm not saying it's a greatidea. I'm just saying, like, it's kind of like when I do lessons, Ikind of go, this is what I did and you can take the knowledge fromit and do what, with it, do with it what you will. Right? So forme, moving to L.A., yeah I just jumped and it was like a total leapof faith. And it's that thing, its's that thing it's very funny. Idon't how many people who check this out, will have made such asort of transition, but is definitely funny like. You movesomewhere like that on a leap of faith and you have a lot ofconversations that go like this, "Oh, man, you moved here?, Dude!,I wish you were here last month because I needed a guy for so andso and so and so", and it's like, "OK, well, it's not last month,it's this month, you have a gig for me?"

Joe : All right.

Nate : Yeah, man.

Joe : All right.

Nate : You know, it's like there's a lot ofthose, like before I moved here, it felt like, like, WOW!, it'skind of like, it's kinda like when you're married and you feel likeevery woman wants you, you're like, "Man!!,

Joe : Yes.

Nate : It's a shame, Dang!!, I'm marriedbecause that cute girl really thinks I'm cute."

Joe : Oh,

Nate : And

Joe : My

Nate : Then suddenly when you're

Joe : God.

Nate : Single, crickets [cricket sound] yourlike looking around, "Where is everybody?"

Joe : Oh,

Nate : But

Joe : God.

Nate : I mean, I mean, I'm making a joke butyou understand what I'm saying, right? So, so, so, so when youdon't live here it's like, "Man, I wish you lived here because Ihave so and so and so and so." And then you move here. "Oh man,yeah, last

Joe : Right.

Nate : Week."

Joe : Right.

Nate : So that was my experience, that was myexperience and so I moved here and again to the, to the, to mycredo of "What can I be doing at this exact moment to get a gig?"That was the way that I approached everything. It was verydaunting, it's very daunting when you live in L.A. and you're like,the person at Jamba Juice and you're just like "Hey, can I have arazzmatazz?" and he's like, "Oh yeah, cool!" and maybe you'rewearing a music shirt. "Oh, you're a musician?" "Yeah I'm amusician, I play drums." "What about you?" "Oh, yeah, man, youknow, I just graduated from M.I.?"

Joe : Yeah,

Nate : And

Joe : Right.

Nate : They're giving you your smoothie andyou're like, oh, my God, really? Like, it's very daunting to feellike there are that many musicians here who are not, you know,doing what they want to be, you know, living their best life, asthey say. But at the same time, the flip side of that is, itactually becomes in a way, sort of, very ahhh, the music culturecan be very vital in the sense that, vital is the wrong word,vitality, the vitality. What I'm trying to say is, you get to thispoint where you realize that an opportunity could come fromanywhere. An opportunity could come from the person who makes youyour razzmatazz and hands it to you and they go, "Oh, what do youplay?" "I'm a drummer!", "Dude, I have a band, do you want to comeplay with us sometime?" "OK." And you do, and cut too, and thatband becomes "Death Cab for Cutie" or something and then there yougo. And then you tell the story about how you met a Jamba Juice. Ihave no idea what Death Cab's story is, but I'm just making that asan example.

Joe : No.

Nate : You know what I mean?,

Joe : Yeah,

Nate : It's

Joe : No, that's

Nate : So.

Joe : I think a lot of people miss that they,they, you know, they get down on where they might be at, at themoment and you never know who's gonna walk in the door or what dooris gonna open and it will only happen if you stay super positiveand and expect those things to happen if

Nate : Hundred

Joe : You're.

Nate : Percent.

Joe : Oh, yeah.

Nate : Hundred percent. And I really got to sayto a lot of the gigs that I've done, some of them, some of themwere you go in, you do the audition the next day, there's acallback, they say, "Congratulations, you got the gig!" The vastmajority of them, however, were, "Hey, you did a gig once with aguy who knows my cousin, who used to work at so-and-so and thenwhen they were at Sony Records, they said, this guy." And it's likea connection, after connection, after connection, after connection,that leads you and you realize that that gig that you're doingtoday, came through some gig that you did eight years ago with someguy that you stayed in touch with. And, you know, I mean?, It'sreally, really relationships and I mean, I'm covering, I willadmit, Joe, I'm covering stuff that I've covered before, but it'simportant! It's important stuff, it's important to understand? Ilove this one, "Hey,Nate, when did you realize you'd made it?" I'msorry, what?

Joe : Yes.

Nate : What? Do I, Do I live in Beverly Hills?Is there a Ferrari in my driveway? No! What are you talking about?Made it!? Right? So for me, there was never like a, like there was,I've been working in ProTools a lot because I've been recordingmyself a lot and in, in here, in my studio. And, and, and so youcan do things and ProTools where you create automation, where thevolume is going along and then it just jumps to here and then goeson there or it's a fade. My whole life has been a fade, my wholelife has been a long fade. There was ever a point where it's like,"Oh, this sucks, oh this sucks, wow sucks, wow this sucks. wow thissucks, I made it!!!

Joe : Right.

Nate : Right.

Joe : Right.

Nate : It's like, it's like, ok, now I've got alittle bit better gig, ok cool, Oh, know I'm playing a little, alittle bit higher cal..., caliber of musician. Oh now I'm playing alittle bit bigger venues with this person. Oh now I have a TV show,oh it's canceled though, ok. But here's another TV show that's hereand ya know what I mean, it's always gone like that, so at no pointhave I, at no point have I ever felt like I've quote/unquote "madeit!" Because at no point have I ever felt like, I don't have towork from here on. I don't have to work anymore. I've done it all.I've gotten to a level where I no longer have to work anymore. No,and it'll never happen! It'll never happen! You can ask me if I'mfortunate to be here 30 years from now, 20, 20 years from now,it'll still be the same answer.

Joe : Actually, that would be a really funnyvideo for you and I the time, the next, when you do get to thatpoint where you don't have to work anymore and you're just dancingaround that studio and you just going like this [motioning tothrowing money in the air] would put one hundred dollar bills allaround

Nate : There's a great, there's

Joe : This.

Nate : a great, there's a great, what are thekids call it a gif? I think the kids call it a gif or a gif.What's

Joe : Jeff

Nate : It, what is

Joe : Yeah,

Nate : You.

Joe : Yeah,

Nate : It's a GIF

Joe : Yeah.

Nate : GIF. Oh, friggin'.

Joe : I think it's

Nate : know!

Joe : A.

Nate : But there's one and it's the dude, I'msure anyone who messes with all this junk, it sends goofy gifs orGIFS or whatever they

Joe : I

Nate : Are.

Joe : Do, I do.

Nate : Ok, Right? You may recognize this onebecause like the dude and he's in like the bar and he has onedollar. He goes [motions to throwing one bill out].

Joe : Yes.

Nate : It's like one bill.

Joe : Right, exactly...? Oh, my God!

Nate : So, yeah, so I'm mean every, everything,every, everything is led from one thing to the next? It's been likeI said, it's been you know, a new artist. OK, this next new artistactually had a record that went platinum. Oh, that's really cool!.Oh, this next artist is music that I really, really, really loveand I've been a fan of forever. That's really cool! Oh, this nextartist is actually a nationally known artist that people know,right? Oh, is that so? It's just been a progression. And...

Joe : Yep, so. So start with you land there,right. How do you know Barry Squire is the guy you got to get ahold of? You just hear it

Nate : When

Joe : Through

Nate : I

Joe : The

Nate : First

Joe : Grapevine that he's the guy?

Nate : Look, when I when I landed, I have avery good relationship with my cymbal company Zildjian and I calledKirsten at Zildjian and I said, "Kirsten, Kirsten, I just moved totown, what do I do?" And she said, "Well, there's a guy named BarrySquire, I can give him your name, you know, who knows what willhappen there." And so, "OK, cool!, that's exciting, great!" And atthe time, I was also doing some some teaching work at M.I. And atthe time M.I. had a career resources department and if memoryserves, the guy used to run at the time, his is, this is the namethat's in the, in the brain splinter was his name was JerryCartwright, that name is in my, in my brain. And I went to JerryCartwright and I said, "Jerry, Jerry, I just moved to town, how doI get a gig?" And he said, "Well, there's this guy named BarrySquire and I give him your name." I said, "That'd be rad!" Andthere was someone else, I want to feel like someone that I knew,that maybe that I went to school with that was working at a recordcompany at the time, and I said, "I just moved to town, how do Iget a gig?" They said, what is Barry Squire, I can give him yourname."

Nate : So I get a call from Barry Squire and hesays, "Hey, I got your number from this person, this person andthis person, so I thought I'd give you a call and, you know, I'mhaving an audition for this particular artist, this particular dayand I'm pretty sure we've already got it sewn up but just to meetya, come on down and audition." And I was very fortunate to get thegig and that was an artist named Billie Myers. The audition processwas all day, two back-to-back days. We auditioned, first, firstcall was all day, let's say a Saturday and the second call, thecallbacks, were all day that Sunday and by Sunday, she had a bandin place. And at the end of that night, late Sunday night, 10:00 or11:00 o'clock at night after I'd been there from 9:00 or 10:00 inthe morning, her manager or she or her manager, one of the two saidto the remaining seven people, right? This is the band that waskeys, bass, drums, guitar, two guitars, two vocals said to theseven of us, "OK, ummm, we're playing Vibe tomorrow with Sinbad."Sinbad

Joe : WOW!

Nate : use to have that show Vibe, Yeah!"Congratulations, you're the band, tomorrow we're playing Vibe." Itwas literally that and like, you're going, WOW!, that was, that wasme, that was me having just come from Boston, having just done myfirst audition and the end of the night of the second day of thoseauditions, the manager says, "OK, tomorrow we're playing on anational TV show on network TV."

Joe : Now,

Nate : Late

Joe : How

Nate : Night

Joe : Long

Nate : Network

Joe : Was

Nate : Tv.

Joe : That after you got to L.A., did thataudition come up?

Nate : I was super duper fortunate, Joe. Ithink that that was within a couple of months of being in L.A. ButI was like I said, I was really fortunate and that was not at allsomething that I had anticipated it would happen. I was just very,and, and I didn't really know it at the time but if memory serves,I moved here, either the very end of 98 or the very beginning of99. But it's the beginning of the year, January, February, March,when people are putting together, those summer tours, those toursthat start in late April, May and run through the summer. And so Ijust, I just happened to arrive at a very fertile auditioningperiod in L.A., you know, it just happened to be very goodtiming.

Joe : What were you doing club dates up untilthat audition to

Nate : I

Joe : Just

Nate : Was not

Joe : Pay the rent?

Nate : I was not, I was not.

Joe : Ok.

Nate : I was doing, I was doing well. Well,yeah, I was doing club dates, but it wasn't paying the rent, Imean, paying the rent was the teaching work that I was doing atM.I.

Joe : Ok.

Nate : And my CapitalOne Visacard.[laughter]

Joe : Oh,

Nate : I

Joe : The

Nate : Mean,

Joe : Do you...

Joe : Right.

Nate : That's what I did, that's what I did,you know? So that was it, that was it, so I was doing that. Andthen I was fortunate to get the Billie gig and kind of the ballstarted rolling from there.

Joe : So just, that gig happened for howeverlong, so can you sort of give the bounce from there to what werethe next cool auditions that you did? Were they all through, Barry,or some of these recommendations? I know you, there are otherpeople that I'd rather have you mentioned than me mention of theauditions that you had and how they went and all of that stuff.