Hailed as “a songbook for our time,” indie folk producer and songwriter Nathan Leigh’s 2012 album A Life In Transit explored the highs and lows of touring life. Splitting his time between the life of a touring musician and a theatre composer, Nathan Leigh has performed in venues across the country, and had his music featured in over 300 plays from South Africa to Greece. With former Super Mirage bandmate Kyle Jarrow, Nathan co-created the musicals Big Money (WTF Boris Segall Fellowship 2008) and The Consequences (World Premiere 2012 at WHAT). Collaborating with Jason Slavick and the Liars and Believers ensemble, Nathan Leigh composed scores for adaptations of Song of Songs and Icarus (NYMF 2013). He is the composer and co-lyricist for The Mad Scientist’s Guide to Romance, Robots and Soul-Crushing Loneliness (NYC Fringe 2015) with book writer Megan Sass. Since 2010, Nathan has worked for AFROPUNK as staff music reviewer and producer for the monthly AFROPUNK Mixtape series. Nathan is a founding member of the Peoples Puppets of Occupy Wall Street, now in its 5th year of radical street theatre and puppetry. His latest full length solo album, Ordinary Eternal Machinery, is due out January 2017.
In this interview spotlight, we chat with Nathan about his influences, the new project, the digital music world and much more.
Full Q&A along with links and a video are below.
Let’s dive a little deeper into You, the artist and your music. What attracted you to this genre(s) or style(s)?
I grew up with that 60’s folk revival sound. We didn’t listen to kids music when I was growing up, we listened to Arlo Guthrie and Paul Simon, so that’s always been a pretty core element of who I am as a musician. I started playing in indie and punk (and yeah, emo) bands when I was in high school and college. When I got out of school and wanted to tour, trying to wrangle bandmates onto the road when everyone had conflicting work schedules and obligations became a nightmare, so I started going out by myself. I’d just try to find ways to create music that has the power of a punk band with just an acoustic guitar and a voice, and then circle back around and make full band recordings that benefited from being stripped down. I think playing shows with my friends Nate Allen (Destroy Nate Allen) and Greg McKillop (Speaker For The Dead / Ruune) helped me figure out how to perform a lot. I owe both of them a lot.
It’s funny, I don’t really listen to a lot of what we call “folk punk” outside of my friends’ bands. I get lumped in with it, and I suppose it describes me as well as anything. I don’t put a lot of time or energy into getting specific about genres or genders. Those are things that are external to who you are that help other people understand you. You can call me whatever you want if it helps you get it. I just like folk music and I like punk rock. Stumbling into folk punk for me was more of a practical decision than an aesthetic one. Traveling the country with an acoustic guitar in my PT Cruiser is a hell of a lot simpler and cheaper than cramming 4 people and a full backline into a conversion van. Plus no-one argues with me when I decide on the spot to pull off the highway in search of the world’s largest ball of twine or Captain Kirk’s birthplace.
What led you into this journey with music? And further, what drives you to push it out to the public?
Music is pretty much my window into the world. Listening to, sharing, and creating music is the best method of communication I have. I really don’t have an option not to create. I’ve taken long breaks from performing here and there when I’ve been burnt out from traveling, or when a theatre or puppetry project has taken over my life. But even when I’m not writing or producing music for public consumption, I’m still writing and producing constantly. I probably write 3 times more than anyone ever actually hears, and that’s not even counting the music I compose for theatre and film and stuff. The music I push out to the public is the stuff that I think might mean something to other people.
You know, if I get in a fight with someone or I’m just having a bad day, I might write a song about it to work through the emotions, but that’s about me. But if it feels like what I’ve written might resonate with what other people are going through or dealing with, and help them work through it, then it’s worth putting out publicly. Music’s biggest value is its ability to foster community and help people work through their experiences of the world, so I try to make sure what I’m putting out is part of that. I’m sure I have put out a lot of “woe is me” kinda songs, I mean I already admitted to playing in an emo band in college, but I try to filter that stuff out these days.
Who or what influences your creativity? Have your tastes in music changed over time?
The biggest influence on me is my community. I run in a few different circles, and I’m constantly being exposed to new ideas and new ways of making art. Pretty much once a week I’ll see some performer totally blow me away and make me rethink something I’ve been doing. That’s the best, when you watch someone perform, or your hear a song, and immediately realize you need to step up your game.
I think the biggest way my tastes have changed over the years is that I’m more critical of lyrics than I used to be. Especially when I was young and listening to really screamy shit where you can’t hear the lyrics half the time anyway. I used to make excuses for a lot of the artists I liked whose music would have really awful misogynistic or homophobic overtones, a lot of the pop punk I was into in high school especially, and I just can’t anymore. I definitely pay a lot more attention to “what are you actually saying with this song” rather than just “oh it’s got a solid hook and a cool sound, who cares what they’re saying.” My favorite artists these days tend to be ones who put lyrics first and have that perfect blend of poetry and commentary. It shouldn’t be preachy, but it should have some depth. I’ve been on a serious Saul Williams kick lately.
Were you trying to accomplish anything specific with Never Be Normal? Creatively or otherwise?
I wrote “Never Be Normal” about getting beaten by the NYPD during an Occupy protest and suffering a collapsed lung. It was definitely one of the darkest days of my life, and something that continues to define my life in a lot of ways. Especially by the time I wrote the song in 2013, Occupy had sort of become something of a national joke. Between bad press, some internal mistakes and power struggles, and the trauma of police violence, people were distancing themselves pretty hard, and it was really disheartening. It’s kind of funny now, seeing Bernie’s candidacy and even politicians on the right talking about the corrupting influence of money in politics, it’s like “where were you guys 5 years ago?” But I’m still proud of what we tried to do. My affinity group still meets twice a week and continues to make art for protests around the country. We just put out a video about the AIM pipeline running under the Indian Point Power Plant last week that got 20,000 views on Facebook. We’re still here. We’re still fighting. So I wanted to create something defiant, something that said “you can dismiss me, you can slander me, you can beat me, and all of that shit hurts, but I won’t stop standing up for what’s right.”
What was the last song you listened to?
I just finished listening to New York Fascist Week, the new record from the Austin Afropunk band BLXPLTN. So I guess “Auf Wiedersehen.” That’s the last track on the album. It’s one of my favorites of the year for sure. Some of the smartest anti-fascist social commentary in punk right now. It’s a very surreal time, especially as an American Jew, to be witnessing this crypto-fascist movement suddenly gaining traction. It’s like “I thought we already agreed as a species that this kind of xenophobia and ultra-nationalism and hatred of ‘the other’ was wrong? Didn’t we already fight a whole war about this? Have you not watched the History Channel in the last 20 years? It’s pretty much their whole deal.” So for a band like BLXPLTN to put out a record right now that’s smart, well-written, and just all around dope is really important. It’s upsetting how important it is. But it’s important.
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
Either vinyl or digital. Nothing beats the sound quality and tactile experience of vinyl. I love sitting down and putting on a record. I got my first record pressed this past year. I produced my friend James Barry’s Express Yourself Tonight, and that was really cool. But listening to a record is an activity. If I’m just listening to music while I do something else, it’s MP3s. CDs occupy too much of an uncanny valley for me. I guess that’s a weird thing to admit as someone who travels around the country selling CDs to get gas money. Don’t waste your money on CDs, but buy my CDs please? Uh, I never said I wasn’t a hypocrite!
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
It’s all about Bandcamp. Spotify and Apple Music are both pretty terrible, both as an artist and a user. I’m not against streaming from like a moral standpoint. I think the economics of it still need to be negotiated, but the idea isn’t inherently bad. But I just don’t think Spotify or Apple Music are good to either users or artists. They’re good for established acts on major labels and they’re good for themselves but that’s it. There’s a lot of talk about the internet democratizing music, but it really hasn’t. It’s mostly just shifted who the empowered middlemen are around a little. Bandcamp is one of the few tools out there to actually successfully do much to democratize music. As both an artist and a fan, it’s a well designed platform that really has its heart and its wallet in the right place.
Other than the digital era overwhelming us with access to an abundance of music, what is the biggest challenge you face when trying to connect with or find new fans?
The circle of hype is really hard to escape. I’ve seen a lot of artists who frankly aren’t that great get elevated to star status for a week and then totally forgotten a week later, while artists who are doing amazing work in the underground get ignored because their narrative or their image isn’t as marketable. And that’s a shame. I think we’ve lost the concept of a middle class of musician. You’re either a star or you’re starving, and I’m shooting for something in between. I don’t want to play stadiums. I just want to make enough to get by playing music. And I’ve been doing that successfully for a few years now, and I’m still baffled by it! So for me it’s been about learning patience. I’m going to keep doing my thing, touring constantly, producing theatre, and putting out new music whether folks are paying attention or not. It ebbs and flows. I’ve had periods where I was headlining and packing venues and periods where I was playing to 3 people and sleeping in my car. I get frustrated when things slow down, but I’m in it for the long haul. The biggest challenge is not letting myself care about what people think about what I’m doing and just keep moving forward.
Where is the best place to connect with you online? Purchase your music?
Facebook (nathaleighmusic) and Twitter (@nathanleighsays) are where I’m most active. And all my music is always on Bandcamp (nathanleigh.bandcamp.com). I’m going on tour this month, and will be posting dates and info this week. This tour’s going to be mostly DIY spaces, which I’m really looking forward to. Connecting online is good, but connecting in real life is better. So check the various accounts for updates this week and then come say hi in person.
Anything else you’d like to add before signing off?
I want people to get more involved in their local DIY scene. Go see terrible bands play in basements. Then start a terrible band and play in some terrible basements yourself. Make art that you’ll be embarrassed about in 5 years because probably in 10 years you’ll circle around to being proud of it again. And even if you’re not, at least you were part of a community. There’s nothing more important than that.
