Echoes of Spirit: A Deep Dive with Nate Garrett of Spirit Adrift
Hailing from the sanctum of Spirit Adrift, a man whose strings weave tales both dark and lit. With a guitar in hand and a voice that commands, Chort and Chern proudly stand to welcome the legendary... Nate Garrett.
Nate visited The Citadel after we recently had it fumigated and answered all of our questions. Find out more about Spirit Adrift's latest album: Ghost at the Gallows (out on August 18th), some of the intricacies in the creation of the album, the art of not giving a fuck, Nate's podcast Big Riff Energy, his movie preferences, philosophy, and more!
Thanks for coming to The Citadel, Nate. You’re an epic dude.
Listen to the full episode below or on Spotify or read the transcript below.
[00:00:00] Chern: Okay, so on this blistery rainy day, we've got a special guest joining us by the fireside. As always, Chernoglav and...
[00:00:11] Chort: Chort, my name is Chort. ...
[00:00:13] Chern: Are here to bring you the tastiest, and tightest verbal riffs together with your favorite metal artists. Super excited today as we have someone we've been wanting to talk to. He's making his way across the Atlantic on the hushed wings of an owl. It's Nate Garrett, mastermind of Spirit Adrift. They've got a radical new album on the way called Ghost at the Gallows. That will be unleashed on your unsuspecting ears on August 18th, 2023. No frills, no gimmicks. Just pure sweet heavy metal.
[00:00:45] Chort: Pure metal.
[00:00:46] Chern: We were lucky enough to have this album worm into our skulls a bit earlier and lemme tell you, it blasted the shingles off the Citadel and a couple of songs that will obviously kill live. It'll become future classics in the catalog, no doubt. We're really excited, Nate. Welcome to the Citadel.
[00:01:05] Chort: Welcome man.
[00:01:06] Nate: Thank you. What an introduction. I'm flattered. Thanks so much.
[00:01:11] Chern: Cheers. We'll kick this off with a little bit of a rapid fire around. So, the point of this is you'll have to choose between one of the two options, pick your gut feel, and then, we'll get on the interview. Let's loosen it up first. So here we go. Type O Negative or Carnivore.
[00:01:29] Nate: Type O Negative.
[00:01:30] Chern: That's good. Topo Chico or San Pellegrino?
[00:01:33] Nate: Topo Chico. Easy. That was easier than the first one.
[00:01:38] Chern: A hundred squats or a hundred deadlifts?
[00:01:41] Nate: Oh my God. I can't really do, uh, either of those heavy. So, I would say maybe a hundred, a hundred deadlifts.
[00:01:49] Chern: A hundred deadlifts. Also, that was within one hour, by the way, so…
[00:01:53] Nate: Oh, yeah. I could do that for sure.
[00:01:56] Chern: Georges St. Pierre or Francis Ngannou.
[00:01:59] Nate: Oh my God, man, I gotta say Francis. Just 'cause of what he came from, the challenges that he came from. George was kind of lower middle class. Francis was like working in a mine, so I'll say Francis,
[00:02:12] Chern: I guess it's the story behind it. Sabotage or Paranoid. We're talking albums.
[00:02:17] Nate: Sabotage.
[00:02:18] Chern: Sabotage. And finally, UK tour with Wytch Hazel or UK tour with Poison Ruin. But you also have to stop at our house.
[00:02:29] Nate: Wytch Hazel.
[00:02:32] Chern: He doesn't wanna stop by. Alright.
[00:02:34] Nate: We can stop by with them, but yeah. Wytch Hazel's really cool. I think that would, Poison Ruins cool too, but I think Wytch Hazel would make more sense for us, and we can come by the house. It's all good.
[00:02:44] Chern: They're fantastic. Thank you. Well, that's good.
[00:02:46] Chort: All right, well, let's jump into some album stuff. New albums coming out. Assuming that, shades of Black Sabbath, Slayer, Crowbar, you said they're automatically sort of in the new album. Where else did you draw inspiration from? Anything outside of music, maybe even martial arts spin? I don't know.
[00:03:04] Chort: Not so much martial arts. No, although, you know, doing physical stuff can unlock some creative doors, mentally, I think. But the big thing was like moving back to the south. I grew up in the Southern United States and a lot of the music that I grew up with was a product of the Southern United States, you know, the blues and old country.
And, I grew up pre-internet, so hearing FM Rock Radio, all the guitar harmonies, you know, Boston and Thin Lizzy, and even stuff like Tom Petty, stuff like that Blue Oyster Cult. So yeah, moving back to the Southern United States and back to sort of a more isolated rural forest kind of environment, that was that was the biggest influence on the new record, I think. And that is a non-musical influence.
Yeah, I think just, Southern music in general. Metal kind of came from the blues, which is a product of the American South. I think some metal came from like classical music, but I think I tend to lean more towards stuff that maybe you could trace back to the blues. You know, I do like Uli, John Roth and Scorpions and stuff. They have a little like neo-classical stuff going on. But yeah, you can all trace it back to the blues. You guys are not going to fucking believe this. I'll show you my phone, Kirk Windstein just texted me. You just said his name and he just texted me.
[00:04:29] Chern: Amazing. Well, there, it was meant to be.
[00:04:32] Nate: We had a conversation the other night for like 45 minutes and it was, it was amazing. Very surreal. Very surreal. But yeah, he's always a, you mentioned him, he always an inspiration for sure.
[00:04:44] Chern: And you said, you dropped the name Tom Petty, you know the master?
[00:04:48] Nate: Mm-hmm.
[00:04:48] Chern: Opening lines there. Let's talk about onward the mountain is the way, uh, following the eagle. I carry the flame. I'm not gonna sing the rest of that. But I mean, you ask people about the inside joke there with a little prize. Did anyone actually guess the inside joke? My guess was that, you're talking about the Hobbits going to Mount Doom and they really should have taken the eagles. But did anyone get that?
[00:05:13] Nate: A few people, a few people guessed that. That's not it. And I keep, like every episode I'll mention actually the making of Forge Your Future episode just came out today. This is July 26th. Yeah, it just came out today and I've like, I got as close as I could to just giving it away. So, if somebody doesn't get it, off of the latest episode, it's probably not gonna happen.
[00:05:37] Chern: Any other fun lyrical moments on this album? Or was it, you know, quite dark lyrically? Is there any kind of other moments that you can tell us about? Just in terms of writing the lyrics?
[00:05:49] Nate: Yeah, I don't know if fun would be a word. I do get excited when the words or the riffs or the arrangements just sort of naturally work themselves out how they are supposed to be. It almost feels like a passive process when it's done Right.
It's very fulfilling. I would say fulfilling. The lyrics are mostly like really trying to exercise a lot of the negative stuff I went through the past couple years, you know, a lot of death and a lot of, a lot of challenges that we all face, you know. So, there's some, like Hangman's Revenge has some, like pretty angry stuff. I guess that was bordering on fun, like writing, getting out some violent, homicidal thoughts. It's just kind of like an old school.
[00:06:39] Chern: Music is therapy.
[00:06:40] Nate: Yeah. Metal tradition, you know? Yeah. I don't know if fun would be the right word, definitely meaningful.
[00:06:50] Chern: Yeah, absolutely, 'cause the themes of the album are really much more about. I think you said it was more grieving process. Obviously there was some death as well. Is this something that you've kind of always wanted to write about that was pent up or was it just recent events?
[00:07:05] Nate: Yeah. Whatever I'm experiencing in the moment in life is what gets what gets written about in Spirit Adrift songs. And it's been that way since the beginning and that wasn't really an intentional process or anything like that. That's just kind of how it's always been, 'cause I'm always experiencing something intense. Like, you could say a lot of things about my life. It's definitely not boring. That is the defining characteristic of it is it's not boring. And so whatever I'm going through in the year long period normally, this one was more like two years.
Whatever I'm experiencing in real life over that period of time is what ends up on the record more often than not. And sometimes that can be like very specific day-to-day things, or sometimes that can be like questions, metaphysical questions that I've been thinking about my whole life, you know? So, there's a combination of, and then sometimes it's both of those things at the same time. So yeah, it was just, it was really a direct response to what's been going on the past couple years.
[00:08:14] Chort: Okay. And in terms of when a song is done or if it ever is done, do you have that feeling that you're like, "yeah, okay, this is the best possible thing I can churn out right now. Boom, slap a label on it, or are you like, “it's never really done." You're that perfectionist. You wanna go back and be like, “oh man, I should have tweaked this, I should have done this slightly differently”.
[00:08:34] Nate: That's a good question. There's a couple different like road signs or indicators that I get to. One of 'em, I don't ever really get to the point where I'm like, oh, that song is finished, finished. Because you start to learn that even once you've recorded the album, once you start playing the songs live for like a year or two, you're gonna start changing stuff here and there partially 'cause you get bored or you figured out better ways of doing something.
What I will say during the writing process is I think a pivotal moment with a song is when I'm sure deep down, all the way to the unconscious and subconscious mind that there's nothing wrong with it. I think it's more of a matter of like knowing when there's an internal voice that tells me even when I don't want to hear it, if there's something not right with a song.
And so, when I fix all of that I can kind of like set it aside and at least a little bit. Or then the process becomes not what do I need to fix with this song? But then it becomes like, what can I add to or take away from this song to make it even better? Like there's nothing wrong with it now, but what can I do to make it even better and better and better and better? And that continues on into the studio and into the live realm.
[00:09:59] Chort: Okay. Well you just touched on that in terms of the process, but how difficult was the process for Enlightened in Eternity versus now, sort of this time around? Is it a little bit more streamlined, a little bit harder?
[00:10:14] Nate: The writing process for Enlightened was pretty easy because I made it that way. That was part of the deal I made it to myself to start working on another album because I didn't really wanna start working on another album because Divided by Darkness was so hard, and that one was hard because I made it that way.
So Enlightened was easy, but then I wonder sometimes, should I have been harder on myself throughout that whole process? I'm glad I wasn't because although the writing process was really enjoyable, I was going through a lot of difficult stuff when we recorded it. So, I was kind of glad that I hadn't been torturing myself for like a year already up to that point. This record, it's the longest and the hardest I ever worked on a record for sure. Divided was like very intense.
That whole process was intense. Partially because I was like intentionally invoking some negative, dark, crazy stuff. This one was just really intense, like me trying to write and arrange the best songs and the best music that I could and get the best performances that I could. And it was just a really long, long process, partially due to COVID. You know, we didn't wanna, we put out three releases in COVID pretty much.
And we didn't want to put another, full length album out in COVID. So, I just, I really took my time and worked and worked and worked and worked. You know, I wrote and demoed probably like 20 songs for the album, probably around 30 total, but three of them got used for Forge Your Future and two of them got used for 20 Centuries Gone. So, it was a lot. Yeah, it was a lot of work. I would say it was definitely the most work that I've put into a Spirit Adrift album, which is saying something for sure.
[00:12:01] Chern: Yeah. And I gotta say having heard some of the songs that it really paid off and from what you've said, you could probably also see it in the entire presentation of the album. You know, you have that booklet with all the artwork and everything, so it's like the total cohesive package. So, I can't wait to get it in my hands.
[00:12:17] Nate: Thanks. Yeah, me too. The label actually just emailed me this morning and said that they're shipping out the free band copies from Germany, so I'll finally get to see it soon.
[00:12:26] Chern: Very nice. And so, on Enlightened In Eternity, the Cosmic Conquest I think was double harmony guitar solo with the harmonisation bit, which is apparently super grueling 'cause you have to map out each individual note. You said that was pretty much a one-take wonder. You sat down. Absolutely nailed it. So that's pretty cool. Is there any kind of unique moments like that on Ghost at the Gallows that the usual listener wouldn't necessarily pick up on?
[00:12:57] Nate: Yeah, there was a big one in the studio actually. So, the opening track Give Her to the River, I had a very simple melody written for the chorus, vocal melody. The chorus riff in that song is one of my favorite Spirit Adrift riffs. It really reminds me of like our version of something that would be on our Master of Puppets, just like really epic and cool. And so I wrote a really simple vocal melody, but in the back of my mind I knew that eventually I would want to layer up a bunch of vocals on the chorus. I've always, since the beginning, I've always kind of done these pseudo choirs. Devin Townsend does it too.
He's got a video actually about how he does that in the studio. But you just layer up your own voice. You sing four of one note and then find a harmony and sing four or six of that and find another harmony and sing four of that. And it sounds like a choir, you know? But what I've never really done is do that, but do like movements.
Usually, it's just one big note altogether. So, I knew for the chorus of Give Her of the River I wanted to do that choir thing, but have it move around. And like have it be sort of a call and response thing. And I just sort of vaguely described that to Jeff Henson who was producing the album at this point in Texas. And it was at the end of the day of like a really, really long day of tracking.
And we were just gonna lay down like scratch vocals there at the end of the day, just so we had something to think about and come back and do it proper some other time. And it was one of those like really, really manic, like you get sucked into this manic state when you're like on the right track of something. And I laid down all the choir harmony vocals, without having really thought it through beforehand or arranged it or planning it or anything like that, just sort of did it and we listened to it at the end of the day and you're fried. It's kinda hard to tell if something's good or not at that point we're like, okay, that's cool. Yeah, we can do it for real when we come back, we came back and listened to it and we just kept it. It's on the album.
[00:15:15] Chort: Oh, amazing. Wow. That actually segues into my next question, 'cause you've been in a bunch of bands. You're this large sort of creative force and how do you not burn out? But maybe what you just told me is; near that burnout stage is when you get even more creative for some reason. How do you keep doing it, man? How do you keep like pushing sort of these boundaries of creativity and what can you tell us? For two dudes with a podcast?
[00:15:42] Nate: Yeah, I don't know. I'm just like on the line of being perpetually burned out for 20 years, you know?
[00:15:49] Chern: It's at the edge where the creativity comes from, probably, you know.
[00:15:52] Nate: Yeah. Uh, no man. I feel myself getting older, like every day. And I used to have a lot more stamina for everything. One of the things that I've noticed that my stamina waning is just like, arbitrary human interaction. Like I'm fine with human interaction at shows 'cause that's kind of like my environment. That's where I feel like I belong. But just like leaving my house and going and interacting with people, I feel my stamina definitely waning there.
But the creative stamina is still there. It's just, if anything, it's getting stronger, you know? And like my physical stamina and my mental stamina is not what it used to be at all. But I have to do the same things that every other human that's ever aged does, which is like, you really have to start thinking about what you're putting into your body, what you're putting into your mind. You have to really like, take action to maintain and improve your physical health and your mental health. And for me, also, like spiritual, I do a lot of meditating and things that I look at as like maintaining my spiritual condition. Yeah. Just taking care of yourself, you know.
But, yeah, picking it up a guitar, that doesn't ever really seem like, like sometimes practicing our live set seems like a task that I have to complete. But picking up the guitar and doing something creative with it never seems like a task. It almost more kind of seems like medicine or therapy. So, it's like something that, that is great. Every time that I really look forward to, like I've been writing. I've got about, I've got the skeletons of like three songs, and they all just came out within the last week.
And anytime that happens, it instantaneously makes me feel better no matter what's going on in my life. So, the creative drive, I think has always been there 'cause it makes me feel better. It's never like, ugh, never like a schlep to fucking pick up the guitar and play something. It's, it's always like rejuvenating.
[00:17:52] Chern: And that's what I love about Spirit Adrift. Yeah. Just going for it. Just, whatever's inside, get it out in songs and, you know, it comes out into these. I love what you mentioned before, it's like you have these kind of who gives a fuck moments as an artist. And I think one of example you gave was you had the two beautiful dogs on the cover of the last album. I think one of them was yours.
[00:18:17] Nate: Yeah.
[00:18:18] Chern: And I think that's brilliant. Just going for it. Who cares what everyone else thinks. This is your vision. And it's the right choice. Is there any kind of, who gives a fuck moments on Ghost at the gallows as well?
[00:18:32] Nate: A ton. Yeah. I mean, it's the whole thing. That's the whole, that's what separates an artist from a person that wants attention and accolades. I don't think the two should ever intermingle. I don't think that an artist should ever be a person that wants attention and accolades, 'cause then it's not, there's something like, it's prostitution. It's not art anymore, you know?
But, yeah, I mean, the vocal thing I just mentioned from Give Her to the River, there's not a whole lot of metal bands that would be like, yeah, we should put like a - it almost sounds like something a band like Churches would do. Def Leppard did it way back in the day, but they sample their voices and then they trigger their own voices on a keyboard. So, it's like very cut off and they can write like arrangements and movements a little bit easier that way. Def Leppard did that way back in the day.
So, it's kind of something like that, but, most metal bands would - there's gonna be somebody in there whose ego is fragile as they're worried about what this guy, or this person's gonna think, oh is so-and-so gonna want to take us on tour if we put like this choir vocal moving around a riff that sounds like it could be on Master of Puppets. It's like, who gives a fuck? All the best bands had that attitude of who gives a fuck?
Or it's like, I don't know, is somebody going to judge me for intentionally trying to write a song that would sound like it would fit in with the stuff that I heard on FM Rock Radio growing up? That's I Shall Return. It's like early Ozzy, Tom Petty, Blue Oyster Cult, Boston. But it's me writing it and I'm writing it like from my heart. I meant every word and every note of it, you know? Did I think people are gonna be like, well this motherfucker's ripping off Crazy Train. Who cares man, I don't even,
[00:20:20] Chern: I was just say that, I didn't wanna mention it, but thank you.
[00:20:23] Nate: Yeah, well no, it's like the most boring, the notes aren't the same.
[00:20:25] Chern: But it's only four millisecond that I thought that.
[00:20:27] Nate: Yeah. The notes aren't the same. The chord progression really has more in common with Refugee by Tom Petty. So, it's like, yeah, I don't give a fuck. If it sounds like Crazy Train to you. Cool. It does to me too. 'cause I wanted to write a song that have made me happy the way that, you know, FM Rock Radio made me happy.
And if you don't like it and if you think I ripped off Crazy Train, you're a fucking idiot, you don't know how to play guitar. So yeah, it's every second of every song I'm like this is what I want to do. And the second you start thinking about what's somebody else is gonna think, like I do wanna make music that our fans like, but our fans like the same shit I like, so I don't have to think about it, you know?
[00:21:06] Chern: Yeah. That's great. Fair enough. Alright, so now just pretend we're on tour with you. Uh, I'm cleaning the toilets. Chort is doing a run for bagels.
[00:21:15] Chort: I'll do bagel runs.
[00:21:16] Chern: And we just assume cream cheese and we're sorry if that's not what you want.
[00:21:20] Chort: But yeah. But in terms of a Spirit Adrift show, what would that look like for the next sort of touring cycle, assuming there's no monetary limits, zero for stage setting and at sky's the limit. You can do whatever you want, man. What would you do?
[00:21:33] Nate: Yeah.
[00:21:33] Chort: What are we looking at?
[00:21:34] Nate: My favorite stage setups are like pretty straightforward. I think Metallica and the Master of Puppets, when they had the crosses going back into the album artwork. Even Justice, like the Seattle 87, no, 89, Seattle 89 show, or they have Lady Justice just like falling apart. So, there's a little bit of production, but it's not covering up. It's not overcompensating for a weak ass band. You know, like you could put Metallica 89 on a stage with no lights and no nothing, and everyone would leave happy. You know? So, I think even if, budget was of no issue, it would be pretty simple, you know? Full stacks, obviously.
We already have full stacks. We just need to get a bigger trailer. But yeah, black and white. I think we got a black and white thing going on stage, which is cool. I play black guitar. Tom plays white guitar. Mike's kit is black and white. Sonny plays black bass. We have black and white cabs and black and white logo. Fog is cool. Lights are cool.
You know, our artwork, we've had a lot of really talented people contribute visually to this band. So, this is all stuff that I'm planning too, by the way, you know. And yeah, keep it straightforward. I like explosions and stuff like that too. Maybe one day. But I think you can do a lot just with fog and maybe a couple of little props here and there, and that's it. I mean, like you said in the intro we don't have a shtick, so.
[00:23:06] Chort: Exactly. Yeah.
[00:23:07] Nate: Metallica 89 is as far as I would want to take it. I mean, even Metallica today, they're not doing too much, you know, they're just playing their songs.
[00:23:15] Chort: Let the music speak for itself. Yeah. Well, having said that, you wrote a list recently, I think it was after the Midnight tour, which, yeah I fucking love Midnight, but you wrote a list of the bands that you want to tour with. Can you give us an insight into who they are and why?
[00:23:33] Nate: Yeah, A lot of people have written me at the podcast, actually, and pretty much guessed like every band on the list. Obviously, there's some big, huge ones. You know, like Iron Maiden they only ever take their kids' bands on tour, but if they ever decide to stop doing that, that would be cool. We'd love to tour with Priest or Metallica or Megadeth or, anybody like that, which isn't entirely outta the question, but there's a path to get there.
I've realized that my life is not the type of life where you're just gonna get like, boom, some big moment, and you're, you know, everything's taken care of. It's always like a grind and there's always steps that you have to take, and I think that's better in the long run. Yeah, there's some obvious ones, like we've already toured with Crowbar, but I'll tour with them anytime. I know that, you know, I mentioned speaking to Kirk.
Eventually Down's gonna start doing stuff again. Pretty tight with like three of the guys in that band. So that would make sense. Uh, what else? Like High on Fire is puiting a new record out next year. We've played with them. We're friendly with them and I think there's not a whole lot of bands in this current generation that are like actually out there touring and stuff that I would say are just straight up metal bands without some like tag or subgenre thing or whatever. And also, not a lot with clean vocals, and I would call Matt Pike's vocals clean, technically. They're not really, but he's singing melodies.
So, I mean, I consider him to be like a real actual singer. Yeah. So, I think that would be cool. And there's a bunch of others, like Tribulation would be fun. You know, you guys mentioned; Wytch Hazel. I think that would be cool.
[00:25:07] Chern: Well, I can cross Baby Metal off my list.
[00:25:09] Nate: Yeah, you can.
[00:25:11] Chort: Oh man.
[00:25:12] Nate: You guys know anything about the, uh, Japanese idol industry?
[00:25:16] Chort: Oh, sir. We've just got back from Japan, and we know all about it.
[00:25:20] Nate: Okay.
[00:25:20] Chort: I refuse to go down in there.
[00:25:22] Nate: It's scary. I didn't know anything about it until, like, a couple weeks ago and I went down the rabbit hole and man, don't think that, that way of thinking has not infiltrated certain music industry types over here too, even in the heavy metal realm, you know, scary stuff.
[00:25:39] Chern: That is true. There's a lot of image over everything nowadays. I see it quite often.
[00:25:44] Chort: And how they package that in Japan for Japanese men and women, by the way. It's just, it's..
[00:25:49] Chern: But mostly men.
[00:25:50] Chort: I mean, mostly men, but the women are like, no, it's fine.
[00:25:53] Nate: It's predatory. Yeah. It it's very predatory.
[00:25:56] Chort: Yeah. Right. So, you, you started a channel a few months ago, called BIG RIFF ENERGY! Tell us a little bit more about that. You know, was it to make this interview really difficult by answering all the questions beforehand, so I literally had to grasp the straws or what was the reason?
[00:26:16] Nate: I mean, yeah, partially that was part of it. Like in the back of my mind I was like, okay, there a lot of people get, like even today, man, I got a call out the Lamb Goat thing. I did the Lamb Goat podcast, and in the description, it was like: Nate Garrett started a solo project, Spirit Adrift after having been in Gate Creeper. And I'm just like, dude, I started Spirit Adrift first and everybody gets that wrong and I was just kind of like, uh...
[00:26:46] Chort: That's just due diligence. It's online. You should know that.
[00:26:48] Nate: Yeah, man. Well, you guys are like a different calibre.
[00:26:51] Chort: Well, thank you. Thank you.
[00:26:52] Nate: Yeah. No, you really are.
[00:26:54] Chern: Well, we'll cut that out and save Lamb Goat.
[00:26:56] Nate: You really are. But yeah, part of it, not the main motivation, but part of it was frustration from like people getting a lot of shit wrong and having to repeat stuff all the time. So, I was like, well I feel like it would be helpful if that information was just out there straight from me, unedited, like no weird spins or anything like that. I will say the main motivation for that, you know, I had my friend Daniel, the Pit Forge on Instagram, make the logo for the podcast in like early 2020. And then I just put off doing it.
I had a podcast before this one, around the time of Curse of Conception that I guess was a lot more popular than I realized because people kept asking me like, when are you gonna do another podcast? When are you gonna do another podcast? You know, hearing that all the time. And then 2020 had a little more time on my hands, just didn't get around to it. And honestly the main motivator was the fact that we have a new album coming out. I was like, what can I do to try to like help push that album a little bit more? So, it started off as that just like a means to an end to get people to hear our music and it. It sounds corny, but it's like really a lot more than I bargained for in like the best possible way.
It's been a really cool experience and it's been, a real eyeopener for like, okay, this music that I'm making is actually like reaching people and having like a pretty significant impact on people, which is awesome. That's like the main goal. Dude I really love doing it, and I didn't see that coming.
[00:28:32] Chort: Yeah, dude. I love fucking watching it. Not even just like the musical parts which are awesome, like the history, you going into Sabbath and all that stuff. That's super insightful, but at the same time, there's just like fucking moments of clarity that I need to hear from another individual, like hitting the nail on the head. You know?
[00:28:47] Chern: Nobody talks about books either. Metal books. I think that was, yeah, that's the coolest part for me.
[00:28:52] Nate: Thanks guys. Thanks. Yeah. Well, I listened to a few podcasts, like pretty religiously, and that's what they do for me. It's like just hearing from somebody else [say], like, it's gonna be okay. You know?
[00:29:03] Chort: Yeah, absolutely man, I needed that today. I fucking got it there. No, thank you Nate, dude. For real.
[00:29:11] Chort: Going down that personal route when you were young and just a little squirt, what did you want to be when you grew up?
[00:29:18] Nate: Man, that's so funny. I was about to do a podcast about Arkansas. And you like, you pre-emptively...
[00:29:25] Chort: Now we gotta go live with this early. Do not post it!
[00:29:28] Nate: Yeah. It's funny, man. When I was a really, really little kid, I remember my folks, I was raised by my grandparents. I remember them laughing 'cause we were out somewhere, and somebody asked me, I was like, tiny. And they asked me what I wanted to be, and I said, a screenwriter. All the adults were like laughing because I thought it was insane that a kid that age even knew what a screenwriter was.
But I actually like, I went to college under like a lot of pressure. I didn't want to go to college. I somehow got good grades in high school despite, like, not even being there half the time and being fucking outta my mind when I was there. But I applied to USC, to go to film school and I didn't get accepted, but I was like, if I can't be in a rock band, I want to be a screenwriter. And that didn't work out. So, I'm a rock band.
[00:30:21] Chort: Wow. Dude. I had another question, which is gonna be your biggest impact when you're growing up that isn't musical, but I gotta ask now, but what are your go-to in terms of cinematic genres or even like if you have, I know it's really hard, especially if you love films, but like a top five or top three movies of all time.
[00:30:39] Nate: Well, what I could say is I feel the same way about films that I feel about music. The genre doesn't really matter to me and most of my favorite stuff, you can't really like pigeonhole it. I am like a horror fanatic. I think there's more of like a community there.
You don't see conventions around the world dedicated to like comedy movies. You don't really see conventions. I mean, there's Comic-Con, but even the horror, even like worms, its way in there. It's kind of more like sci-fi and stuff. But horror movies for sure, from a young age had a huge impact on me. But yeah, I think my favorite movies kind of defy genre. I would say like I had my favorite bands that all sort of defy genre and evolve and stuff like that.
[00:31:20] Nate: I have like favorite filmmakers too, so it would be like, William Friedkin. And if you look at his movies, you know, he made The Exorcist, which he didn't think he was making a horror movie somehow. But then he made, you know, The French Connection, which is like sort of the first like gritty documentary style like cop movie where the cops aren't, the lines are kind of blurred.
[00:31:42] Nate: And then he made Sorcerer, which is like, I don't even know what you would call that. And then like, I love the Cohen Brothers, you know, all their movies. You could tell it's them, but they're all kind of different. I would say my favorite movie ever made is probably No Country for Old Men, honestly.
[00:31:59] Chort: Oh, fucking Josh Brolin. Get the fuck outta here.
[00:32:01] Nate: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, he's great. And yeah, just John Carpenter. I love most of his stuff.
[00:32:07] Chort: Yeah, the music in those films as well is like so fucking phenomenal. They make half of the film, the music of John Carpenter.
[00:32:15] Nate: Yeah, I agree, man. So yeah, just stuff like that. Super heavy, crazy shit. I don't really like, just like eye candy and ear candy, so it's usually like something real heavy and dark. Even the comedies that I like are like super fucked up stuff that you can't really even say anymore, you know?
[00:32:32] Chern: Yeah. Speaking of film, have you seen the film Coda?
[00:32:37] Nate: I haven't. I did see that question. I mean that I was, I'm the product of two deaf people having a baby. You know, I did see the Sound of Metal where the drummer loses his hearing.
[00:32:48] Chern: Loses his hearing. Oh yeah. That was a good, yeah.
[00:32:49] Nate: And I was pretty amazed at, how you know, I grew up around a deaf father and I think they really nailed, how isolating it is to have that kind of disability. That's something that not a lot of people acknowledge, and I think.
I think your average person has a little bit of fear or hesitation interacting with people with disabilities or like, elderly people or people that are different. And I think a lot of it is like fear of awkward interactions and a fear of like, uncertainty of how to just chill the fuck out around people that are a little different, you know?
[00:33:26] Nate: And I didn't see, Coda, but I thought Sound of Metal really nailed that, you know?
[00:33:31] Chern: Yeah. I mean, I highly recommend it. I was only thinking about it because, yeah, it was the, it was the daughter of deaf parents, but she wanted to go into music. And she really wanted to pursue this musical dream and like her parents didn't quite get it.
[00:33:42] Nate: Yeah.
[00:33:43] Chern: They wanted her to stay in the fishery. 'cause they were fishermen. So, yeah, check it out.
[00:33:49] Nate: I've had my family members telling me that it's great to check it out. Maybe I'm, maybe I'm like scared to watch it. I don't know. I should watch it though.
[00:33:56] Chern: It could be. Yes, it's a pretty emotional film well. So yeah, those are some of your top films. You showed off also your top albums of 2023 in one of your recent podcasts. So, tell us, how does a musician as, as gifted as you, how do you listen to new music? Is it vinyl only with a nice fizzy drink in the darkness? Is it in a park with your Bluetooth speaker? Like how do you approach albums now when you listen to new music?
[00:34:24] Nate: Man, it just depends. Like, I've got the new Church of Misery album right behind me. And I've loved that band for a very long time.
[00:34:32] Chern: Japanese, aren't they?
[00:34:34] Nate: Yeah, yeah. Japanese. All, every song is devoted to a cult leader or serial killer, real life cult leader or serial killer. English is not their first language, but they sing in English, so it's like really special. Yeah. Okay. The back of the album says, "Worship Riff or Die", so that gives you an idea.
[00:34:51] Chern: That's fair.
[00:34:51] Nate: Yeah, but I heard that one driving the other day. I was driving a tractor supply to get some deer feed for our deer feeders out here. So yeah, I like vinyl. I, the experience of sitting down in this office or like creative hub, whatever you wanna call it, and listening to vinyl on big speakers is really cool, but most often I don't have the time to do that unless it's something I really, really, really want to hear. I also have a process. I take really, really hot Epsom salt baths sometimes, at night…Yeah, before I go to bed and I get a lot of - I'm giving away too much.... yeah.
Intense heat or intense cold, I get some of my best ideas. I don't know why. Like I get a lot of really good ideas when I'm half asleep or under intense, like cardio, you know, or intense heat or intense cold. And a lot of times I'll listen to music on a Bluetooth speaker in there, like all the lights off and stuff. So, it just depends.
[00:35:55] Chort: Wow. Hot and cold balance of life. Speaking of balance of life philosophies, which I think you are very philosophical. You could write a book, I think, on philosophy based on what I've just listened to on the podcast. But in terms of philosophy it looks to be a very important part of your life. And stoicism in general. Is that what drives you to sort of calm down when things are getting too much? And if so, how do you practice it? Because I am like, I'm a rageaholic.
[00:36:23] Chern: You're on edge.
[00:36:23] Chort: I'm constantly on edge and I will not admit it. 'cause that's the first step to recovery.
[00:36:27] Chern: You broke our doors at the Citadel.
[00:36:28] Chort: So, like how do you manage all that and your life dude is I'm million times more stressful than ours. I can only imagine. Like I'd fly off the handle every single second.
[00:36:37] Nate: I do still. Yeah, it was just, the stoicism was strictly out of necessity. You know, getting sober back in 2015. The program of recovery that I'm in, it has a little bit of all kinds of different philosophies and religions, and it seems like these guys just pick like the shit that actually works for people on a day-to-day basis. Like, forget all these weird details about this one begat that one. And then there was the flood and this shit and all that bullshit that is like, if you think about it for two seconds, that's not possible.
There are some great teachings in some of those holy books and what's cool to me is like a lot of these guys like Marcus Aurelius and then even Confucius way before him, these guys that had really cool lives and managed to find some semblance of peace. They all sort of arrived at the same conclusions. And those are the parts of Christianity that I like, or Islam or mysticism or Buddhism or stoicism or whatever. So yeah, it's all just the stoicism seems to be the most practical for me. And yeah, I just wanna feel good. And when I was getting fucked up for 15 years on drugs and alcohol, I just wanted to feel good and that stopped making me feel good.
[00:37:54] Nate: So now I'm like, what makes me feel good and trying to practice the stoicism stuff seems to reduce the amount of suffering in my life.
[00:38:06] Chort: Fair enough. Yeah, that's really interesting I couldn't agree more. While I don't subscribe to organized religion whatsoever, and I'm an atheist, but there is a lot of wisdom in there and I think it gets bastardized a lot of the time. You know?
[00:38:17] Nate: Yeah, people ruin everything. People fucking ruin everything, you know? Like it's, those teachings, there's cool stuff in there, and it's the people in Oklahoma teaching Sunday school that ruined it for me. You know, it's the people, [like] fucking Greg Abbott here in Texas who's like banning abortion 'cause of Jesus. Fuck off man. I think Jesus would have compassion for a young woman that desperately needed an abortion due to some really terrible circumstances. That's what Jesus would do; I think. But yeah, people ruin fucking everything.
[00:38:52] Chern: Young Chernoglav here when I was little. I was going to church; I think I was maybe nine years old. And it was an Orthodox church, and I was Catholic or something at the time. And then I got denied communion in front of the whole church. And it was like, the worst experience of my life. And I said at that moment I said, fuck this, I'm gonna start a podcast.
[00:39:14] Chort: And here we are.
[00:39:15] Nate: I don't think Jesus would've denied you communion according to the book that these people claim and believe in. So, it's, fuck people, dude, forever.
[00:39:23] Chort: Amen to that man. You just mentioned them, but Aurelius, Seneca, two great, great thinkers. Who in your opinion, do you think though, would write better lyrics?
[00:39:35] Nate: Better lyrics?
[00:39:36] Chort: That's right.
[00:39:37] Nate: Okay. See I did glance at your questions, and I read it as who would write better riffs. Isn't that funny?
[00:39:43] Chort: Yeah, that is probably what we wrote. But then I was like why would they write riffs? It's not like they had a fucking amp.
[00:39:50] Chern: Well, they had a lute.
[00:39:51] Chort: That's true actually.
[00:39:52] Nate: Well, so I don't know much about Seneca, honestly. I've read Marcus release's book and I don't know a ton about him. You know, I've seen Gladiator and shit, but that's about it.
[00:40:01] Chern: Yeah. Based off Gladiator alone, I mean...
[00:40:04] Nate: Yeah. But from what I can tell, I glanced at simply [on the] Wikipedia page, which is how I think Bruce Dickinson wrote Alexander the Great. He's just like reading off his Wikipedia page.
[00:40:15] Chort: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:40:16] Nate: but so, Seneca seemed to be like more of a drama kid. And Marcus Aurelius was a boxer and a wrestler and went to war a bunch of times. So, I think Marcus Aurelius would write better riffs and lyrics. Probably.
[00:40:30] Chort: He's seen some shit. Yeah. It's like that dude from Predator: "It's in the tree." Alright, how do you navigate the balance between artistic integrity and external recognition? Something you touched on recently, but, how important is it for you sort of to, to be recognized for your work? I'm already thinking probably not. It's the fact that you love the music and that's what gets you pumping?
[00:40:52] Nate: Yeah. Well, I think artists are just as prone as anybody, if not more prone to like vacillate between bouts of egomaniacal mania. I guess I should say egomania, right? Or just like, feeling completely worthless. So it is tempting, I think to wanna get outside approval, but outside approval will never satisfy the ego, ever, ever, never, ever, ever. And I'm not a huge deal. And even at the point I'm at right now in my artistic career or whatever, I've already made myself aware of that, the only way that you can feel satisfied is to figure out how to counteract that, the ego's desire for approval or recognition or whatever.
[00:41:43] Chern: Ego is the obstacle.
[00:41:44] Chort: Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, that guy has a bookstore like in the downtown of the town that I live in actually I believe.
[00:41:51] Chern: Oh really? Ryan Holiday.
[00:41:53] Nate: Yeah. Ryan Holiday. Yeah. Like Randy from Lamb of God was down here a while back 'cause I guess he read all that guy's books when he was in prison. Yeah. Heavy stuff going on down here, but the only way all my favorite artists have all come to this conclusion too.
All of the artists that are worth their shit, they maybe had like ups and downs in their career, but the only way that they've ever been satisfied is by knowing internally that they made something that they really wanted to make that was unaffected by any sort of, outside influence, you know?
[00:42:27] Chern: Yeah, no, that's true. We're getting back to the last few questions here. Again, you talk about this kind of recognition, obviously being recognized by the fans is hugely important. I saw that you also, interact with them on some of the music videos that you put out. I think you had.
I saw a really nice one on barn burner where you had that cool Tipton comparison as well, and yeah, I think you were, you know, you saw "Oh yeah, it's great comment." how do these comments influence you? Do you look at them often? Do you sometimes take fan suggestions into your music? So how does that work?
[00:43:04] Nate: Usually within the first couple of days of something coming out. You know, I try not to look at 'em at all, but it's, you know, we're all human. It's just the temptation is overwhelming sometimes. I do want to know if what I'm doing is like successful by certain metrics, so I want to see the amount of views and stuff like that, just to get a feel because, you know.
I'm basically the manager of the band and always have been. I wear a lot of hats and it can be complicated sometimes because a band manager is all numbers and all, you know, oh, this is how this is trending and this one trended this way, and this, you know, so I try to do a little bit of that, just getting a gauge of like, where Spirit Adrift might fit in on like a tour or like what demographic we're resonating with or whatever.
[00:43:57] Nate: As far as like the music videos, usually within the first couple days, I'll just kind of go through and if there's a really cool comment, I'll just let the person know that I saw it. You know, I think that's, I think that's nice if you're a fan of the band and you're commenting, like what's funny is a lot of dudes in bands will pretend that they're not paying any attention, and they are, but they don't want, they don't want anybody to know that, you know, I don't really care. I try not to pay too much attention, but yeah, I'll focus on what I like and ignore what I don't like. But at the end of the day, you know, good feedback is bad for you and bad feedback is bad for you. If you're a real artist, they're both just like bad.
[00:44:40] Chort: Stay away. Yeah. All right. Okay. Well, what can we expect on the next tour?
[00:44:48] Nate: Playing some new songs. Yeah, as good as we can. Yeah. That's it. Just like putting on the best possible show that we can. We're announcing stuff.
[00:44:56] Chern: Is it World tour or is it….
[00:44:58] Nate: You'll see we're working on stuff man. We're working on stuff.
[00:45:02] Chort: Okay. Well, if you're in London.
[00:45:06] Nate: Yeah, I'm sure we'll be back in London at some point for sure.
[00:45:08] Chort: Hell yeah. Okay. All right. Well, what's the best way we could support Spirit Adrift? Obviously get the new album August 18th!
[00:45:17] Nate: Yeah. Go to spiritadrift.com, buy some merch, buy the new album. Really, what's most important to me is albums. Making albums, like physical albums and the best way to support us is to buy our album. Yeah. And the best way for people to find out about our album isn't really through like big metal sites and stuff like that. None of that stuff really matters.
Like there's like two interviews I've done in my whole life with those bigger metal sites where I actually like noticed an uptick in fans and stuff like that, and people would talk to me. So, really like what you guys are doing is the most important, I think, which is just like grassroots, fan-oriented, word of mouth. So yeah, best way to support us is to tell some friends of yours or some people that you talk to about the band, if you think that they would like it and buy our record and. If you stream our record, if a million of you stream it, I'll probably see like a couple bucks over the course of my life.
[00:46:26] Chort: Yep.
[00:46:26] Nate: So, buy the CD. Buy the album. Yeah. Our stuff's on Bandcamp as well. That's a good way to support us and obviously come see us on tour. Definitely come see us on tour.
[00:46:38] Chort: Yeah. Fuck yeah. Absolutely get the album. And don't listen to it on Spotify. No, but I mean, you get the vinyl.
[00:46:49] Nate: Yeah. If you buy the vinyl or CD, you can listen illegally. I don't care. That's, that's always been my MO. Like if I buy the vinyl or the CD, then I feel like I got the right then if I want to download it illegally on my computer, I'll go ahead and do so, and I don't have a problem with that, if that's what you wanna do.
[00:47:09] Chort: Awesome man. Well, dude, thank you so much. We're cutting it really on the line here. I know you got other stuff to do. So, we appreciate you coming on, man and talking with us. It was absolutely fucking phenomenal to have you on.
[00:47:21] Nate: Thank you guys. Yeah, that was a lot of fun, man.
We’d like to thank Nate for visiting the Citadel. Make sure to head over to the Spirit Adrift website and pre-order the upcoming album Ghost at the Gallows, set to release on August 18th!
