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First introduced to UK audiences as the frontman of Lionize, in recent years Nate Bergman, the Nashville by way of D.C. singer-songwriter, has trailblazed a new path as a solo artist embracing Americana, blues, rock, country, and soul (as well as a killer MCR cover). Having just completed a memorable UK & Ireland tour as special guest to Amigo The Devil (AKA Danny Kiranos), Nate was on hand to talk about his relationship with Danny, as well as his relationship with the city of Manchester brought on by an 8-week enforced stay during the lockdown. Check-in with Nate, below:
That’s the ATD tour complete now, yes?
Yes, last night in Dublin was the last night…and it was quite an experience.
How did you celebrate the last night of the tour? Did you both tie one down?
Extremely! We tied it so far down that I got about 3 hours of sleep. The sun was already up when I went to bed. Woke up, and got a tattoo. We’ve just been to a Brazilian BBQ for dinner and after this, I’m going to go smoke a cigar with him and wrap up our last few nights. In August we’ll meet back up again in Nashville.
Did you make the pilgrimage to the Phil Lynott statue? You know that it is mandatory…
I did, yes. Of course. When I’m in Dublin I do a couple of things: I go see the statue, and I go out to a place about 15 minutes out of the city called John Kavanagh The Gravediggers, it’s my favourite Guinness in Ireland.
When did you first meet Danny?
I was thinking of moving to Nashville and was on the fence about it, and Danny said “Fuck it, let’s see what happens”. I was at a low point as I had broken up from a very long relationship and Danny called me up and said “Dude, you’re sitting in your parent’s basement, you’re 39 years old, move to Nashville and come hang out”. And within a few days, he had driven up for 15 hours, packed my shit up, and then straight back down to Nashville. And it has changed my life in a serious, wild way.
One of the things that were evident from the recent Glasgow show with Amigo The Devil was that people were not only showing up early to catch your set but they were getting involved right from the off. Did you pick up on that during the tour?
I would say that at every show on the tour, fans were there very early, and I think that is a two-fold thing: I think that the first is that Danny has curated and collected an incredible group of people who are his fans…some of the kindest, and most open-minded music lovers that I have met in years…so that’s the first part. The second part is that I think that my reputation over the last year or so has started to make its way around, and I’m not saying that arrogantly – I truly hope that it doesn’t come off that way – but when I play live; then I am going to fucking bring it. Especially going on before someone as good as Danny because there is a bar that is set and I’m going to do my best to meet that bar. It’s exciting. I love that people are getting in early…it’s been a real treat for me.
After having to stay in a hotel in Manchester for 8 weeks because of the 2020 worldwide lockdown; were you awarded the keys to the city?
I have such an infinity for the place. I don’t know what it is but the Northern Quarter has an energy to it. It has a magic to it. If you look at the history and the music that has come out of it then Manchester is a special place. There is something about it that makes people excited about music.
Although it was lockdown, were you able to get out and about?
Yes, I got pretty familiar with the whole city! Just before they locked everything down I was getting breakfast every day at The Koffee Pot in the Northern Quarter, and several times I went to Rudy’s for a pizza, so I’m well-versed in how to have a good meal in Manchester! The Whiskey Jar is a really special place for me to go grab a drink…it’s one of my favourite spots and I sing about it in the song [‘Ode to Manchester’] When they did shut down…I feel that the city has a lot of beautiful outdoor stuff to do and so when it wasn’t raining miserably then I went out and about. Manchester is always going to have a place in my heart.
With lockdown, and everything that isolation involved, were you always going to go down the solo path? Or was it forced upon you because of the lockdown?
I think a little bit of both. You know, I was in a band – Lionize – for a long time and we had a storied history in the UK. We had a great time over here, and at the end of 2019 there was a breakdown in communications internally and it seemed that things were going to slow down to at least a hiatus, or an extended break. I don’t know how to take breaks…I guess that’s the back-breaking American work ethic that I have; it’s insane…I don’t know if it is healthy.
What happened to me was that I didn’t want to stop making music…I certainly didn’t want to stop touring, which is my favourite part of the job besides connecting with people during the performance. So it was natural for me to transition into a solo act, and I don’t know if the band would have survived the 2 years off because of Covid. Interest in the band had started to wane and around the same time I felt that I had a lot to say musically, so it felt like the right time to branch out, and looking back now it was the right decision.
I recently spoke to another artist who went through something similar during the lockdown and found herself out of a band and now a solo artist. She mentioned that going solo was both the best thing ever and the scariest thing ever; is that something that you can identify with?
Very much. I mean, I think the word that best encapsulates that thought is Freedom. The freedom as an artist to write the things that you want to write, sing what you want to sing, and even down to the little nuances like “It’s 7 o’clock and I want to go to the Sushi place for dinner…but the other guys don’t like sushi so I guess we’ll have to find somewhere else”…now I just fucking go. Going solo has forced me to only rely on myself. And that has made me a stronger participant in every aspect of the business: paying the bills, making the connections business-wise, all of the creative decisions are mine right down to the t-shirts and the album cover. I think that everyone should try it once in their life. Even if your band doesn’t break up.
You mentioned the album cover for ‘Metaphysical Change’, it is stunning, was it you who came up with the concept?
I worked with this great artist out of Denver, Colorado called Richard Ingersoll, and I said to him that a lot of the inspiration for this record came from me taking massive amounts of DMT – which is an incredibly strong psychedelic drug – and I said to him that this is what I see. He made an oil painting that encapsulated the themes of the record, and if you look at it, almost every song is represented by a little piece…he did a beautiful job. It’s something that I am especially proud of when people come to the show and tell me that they have bought the vinyl just because of the way that it looks. They don’t have anything to play it on but they want to hang it on the wall.
It’s amazing that in the age of AI-created artwork, people are still creating something unique that is made with love and passion.
I think that at the end of the day, there are a million things that you can do before you go to AI for art. I’m not anti-AI art, it’s like everything else: is social media inherently bad? No. It’s not inherently bad or good, it’s a tool. Has it harmed society? Yes, for sure. So I look at AI art the same way. Fans appreciate art that you have conceptualized, even if you just drew a stick figure on white paper and that’s the cover, then fans are going to think that’s much cooler than letting a computer decide.
‘Metaphysical Change’ featured guest performances from Frank Iero (My Chemical Romance), and Per Wiberg (Opeth), but also the much-missed Brit Turner of Blackberry Smoke; where did the connection with Brit come from?
Brit and I became friends through our mutual friend who makes guitars: Matt Hughes who makes Banker Guitars for Blackberry Smoke, Marcus King, Tyler Bryant, and Brent from Mastodon. I wrote the song [‘Livin’ on the Line’] and sent it to Brit and I said “Hey, man, I would love to hear you knock out some Blackberry Smoke-style drums on this” and when it came back it sounded just right. I sent it to my friend Karina Rykman who is an amazing bass player and she locked in with Brit over the track…it’s funny looking back at the process…I can never replicate that again because most of the record was done in isolation.
What I did was essentially send these tracks out to people and not tell them what other people were going to play on the track with placeholder instruments. So I sent it to Brit with a bassline that was very generic, I played the bassline, I’m not a great bass player but I played the bassline, and then Brit played along with that. Then I took out the bassline, sent it to Karina, and said “Play whatever you feel like”. I did the same thing with Frank on ‘Lords Of Water, Lords Of Grain’, and what everyone sent back, 100% I kept for the record, it just sort of magically…worked. So for me, the record is special in that regard, it was sort of like a science project…I didn’t follow the instructions and it exploded…but in a cool way.
It must have been quite a sensation when you heard the album back for the first time.
Yeah, it blew me away. I went down to Nashville and sat in the studio with Vance Powell, a legendary engineer, producer, and mixer, and we started to mix the record. When I heard everything come through the giant studio speakers I was like “Holy Shit!”, we made a 13-song record that is uniquely its own thing, and I’m very proud of it.
The album was released in 2022, two years on have you seen a change in your solo material? For instance, do you take more risks with your music?
I think that ‘Metaphysical Change’ had some moments of vulnerability, but it is mostly observational. I think where I am at right now, the direction that I am heading in, and what seems to have connected with people right now, is almost solely vulnerability and storytelling. That’s the growth that I’ve seen between then and now.
‘Wish I Was’ is a great example of that “vulnerability” you mention. It can be a strange song to wrap your head around as a listener because it is so upbeat and cheery, but then when you pay attention to the lyrics it is like “Oh, fuck”. As a songwriter, is that contrast difficult to achieve?
Yeah, that was the intention. I had put a song out right before it called ‘Back To Nashville’ and that was very positive, and cheery. Melodically it is very major, but the subject matter is very dark, and I have always been attracted to that. What I was trying to represent with ‘Wish I Was’ was the idea that when people go through hard times they still have to put a smile on and go out into the wide world. Show up for their job, or their family. And I think that’s why I wanted to do that song like that. It’s not that I wish that I was dead, it’s the idea that the feelings are so strong and crippling, and then juxtapose that with a fun, bouncy feeling. I like that. I like tongue-in-cheek sarcasm. And spending time with Danny/Amigo…well, he’s the master of it.
Your social media pages have some great content; especially where you perform songs live, right there and then. Have you embraced social media as the marketing tool that it can be?
Truthfully, I was resistant to it for a very long time. I think that I had conflated art with advertising and the truth of it is that social media is not for art. It is 100% advertising. It took me a few years to shift my mindset and my focus and say “Okay, doing a 30-second video on TikTok and Instagram is not compromising your art”, especially if you are bringing new people into your art. It is advertising for your art. So I said, “Fuck it, let’s have fun with it…let’s sing a song called ‘Wish I Was Dead’ while I am floating in a pool with a dog”. And that’s the beauty of it all.
Connect with Nate Bergman, HERE
Interview – Dave
