Nathan Graham Interview

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My name is Pete and I'm actually joined in studio with John Street, a news reporter from the Zaverit newspaper. And we are really excited because right now we have in studio, one of the most buzzed about Chicago artists in a really, really long time. Nathan Graham, Nathan, how are you today? I'm good.

I don't know. I was the most buzzed about artists. Hey, I mean, you're getting your game profiled in Chicago magazine. WPEC has done a big profile on you and you just got done with the residency at Fitzgerald's in Berwin for all of February.

Yeah. How did that go? It was awesome. I hadn't done a residency in a long time.

So when they asked me to do this, I was like, well, I want to do it, but I don't want to do it where it's just me playing my music every week. Yeah. Because I'll get bored of that. And I mean, it just gets to the point where you just ask like, I'm good.

I don't want to hear myself playing anymore. So I had different themes every night. So I did, you know, the first, the first night was just a regular band show. And then the second night we did a songwriters night where I got to pick a couple different songwriters that I really liked in the music scene in Chicago.

They come and play with me. And then on the third night we did a blues night, which that's my, you know, that's my, my, my background is a lot of, there's a lot of blues music. So I was like, let's do one good blues night and get all that, you know, all that out of me. And then the last one was just like a huge like rap party where we just had, you know, friends of ours come in and do a couple songs with us.

And, you know, I was, we were essentially the backing band that night. So we did a couple of my songs, we did a couple of other people's songs that were there. And it was a lot of fun. It sounds awesome and everything.

Now, you know, you brought your guitar, you're going to play first, which we're really excited about. But I kind of want to go back to the beginning first. Um, you know, how did music find you? Um, it's, I feel like it's just been there, to be honest.

I mean, like, you know, my parents would play music all the time in the house. My dad was like a huge singer, songwriter, sort of music fans. So you love like Jim Croci and John Denver and, you know, like the band and, you know, Tracy Chapman, everybody like that. Oh, mom was more of a fan of, well, my mom likes every different type of music, but she really loved R&B and blues and rock music and jazz and everything.

So she would play all that stuff in the house. Anything by that came out of the sax record collection, anything that came out of Motown, anything that came out of the sound of Philadelphia. Um, yeah, she, you know, I would hear all that stuff in the house. And then my dad gave me a healthy dose of dad rock.

So it was like, you know, like Guns N' Roses and clapped in and all those people. So then I went to school and of course it was, you know, it was all hip hop and it was all like, you know, at that time it was like probably like Lincoln Park. It was probably like the most popular band at that point. Um, so I would hear that too.

And I just loved all of it. I just loved anything that had anything to do with guitars, anything that had to do with music. I was in. That's awesome.

And the thing that I love so much about your music is you've taken all those different influences and it's you're a big melting pot. You can hear all of that. You can hear the singer songwriter. You can hear the blues.

You can hear the R&B. Um, would you say that is just, you know, you've, you've taken a little bit from every genre and created your son with that? Yeah, that was, I mean, this was the first time I ever did that with this album. Cause I've come up with albums with, you know, with another band before, but it was mostly just like blues, rock stuff, or what I thought people wanted to hear from me.

Okay. Um, cause I was like the blues guitar guy for a long time. And that's, you know, I would have like, you know, maybe 10 seconds of lyrics and then like four minutes of guitar solo and I would, you know, at some point it just has not what I want to do anymore. Um, but yeah, I just kind of pulled on all of those influences for this album.

And you know, I would list, I'd be sitting there listening to like the thing you're right, lifting the night sweats and then I would jump over to like, wale and then I jump over to, um, you know, anything, like I said, anything that came out of snacks records, you know, so I was to a lot of that. And when I started to write it all kind of fit so well, you know, that I was, you know, doing all these things and it's like, some of the songs are very, are very different from each other, but they all fit in a really cool way. So John from the Zaver, you look like you got a few questions to ask Nathan here. Uh, yeah, I got a couple here.

Um, your music, it's really like this mix of like really like upbeat sounds while you're being very vulnerable lyrically. How do you sort of like mess that those two feelings together? I mean, that that's kind of like what happened in like 70s, like late 70s, late 60s, you know, R&B, right? So I mean, if you listen to like, stay in alive, if you listen to lyrics to stay in life, that's a really sad song.

Um, but it sounds really cool and it gets moving, right? So it's like, that was kind of what I wanted. It was, um, you know, taking these like very heartfelt thoughts and lyrics, but, you know, like, how do I make that danceable? You know, how do I make that like groovy and not, and not just a downer?

Cause I, you know, like sometimes I really do like that music, like there's, there's times when I like sit in my room and, you know, like Phoebe Bridgers and Billy Eilish, that's what I want to hear. But, you know, I know I can't really make that music. So how do I do it the way that I want to, but still be able to do that? And, you know, I've always been a fan of a very, um, I guess I've always been like a fan of like pop sounding guitar.

So, you know, the guitar parts from, uh, you know, human nature or, you know, anything that John Mayer wrote, anything like that. So it was like, I really loved the fact that I can do both of those things. And still, you know, it doesn't have to be, because, you know, somebody else that could have been, you know, I love the sun today, you know, that could have been that, but it's like, it's, it's all about a really kind of one way relationship. So yeah.

Interesting. Yeah. So you decided there like a lot of different influences, like the BGs and BB Bridgers, literally, and then like a little bit of Michael Jackson. What art is mostly do you like draw inspiration from?

Um, it's kind of hard because like, you know, I really do draw inspiration from a lot of different artists. It's not always, it's like, you know, I could, I could say that there's maybe, you know, maybe three or four people that I kind of go back to. Um, and I think, you know, the thing you're right, Liff is definitely one. Um, while he has another one, like lyrically, uh, Chris Stapleton is definitely one lyrically.

And, um, you know, I'd probably say like Ben Harper, Tracy Chapman, I mean, just the way that all of their lyrics are very conversational, you know, it's like, it's not shrouded in a lot of, um, and a lot of like metaphor, anything like that. I've, I like those type of lyrics too, but being able to just like kind of sit down and almost tell somebody a story, I really, I've always loved that. Bruce Springsteen is really good at that. Um, so yeah, that's.

Now you mentioned Ben Harper earlier there, Nathan and some big news broke with Ben Harper and yourself and Taylor guitar. Would you mind sharing what that news is? Yeah. Um, so it's kind of the backup and how I, how that all this started.

Um, I went on tour with Ben Harper in the summer of 2022. I want to say, where's the 2023? I'm not sure. But anyway, um, he asked me to go out on tour with him after I met him through, uh, my partner and a, um, business associate of, associate of hers.

His name is Justin Morfield. He's the, he's the lead singer if she wants revenge. Oh, nice. Yeah.

So yeah, uh, he would be very happy that I'm saying that. Uh, so he said, Hey, I'm going to send your music to Ben Harper and I'm thinking, yeah, right, you know, of course you are. So anyway, um, we go to LA to play a show and he's like, well, Ben Harper is going to come to the show and actually been didn't end up making it to that show because he had a prior engagement, but he ended up coming to this diner that we went to, uh, and Silver Lake at like two in the morning and he sat with us and talked for like three hours and just hung out with us. So after that, he asked me, what are you doing this summer?

And I was like, what do you want me to do? The summer, I'll do whatever you want me to do. Uh, so he asked me out to go on tour and then he asked me for it to go out on tour with him again. So that first one was in Europe.

The second one was in like the Pacific Northwest area. And then, um, right before Christmas, he calls me out of the blue and he's just like Ben Harper calls me out of the blue. He says, Hey, um, Taylor once has chosen me to choose an artist to watch for the next 50 years for their 50th anniversary. I was like, okay.

And he was like, and you were the first person on my list. Can you do it? I'm like, yeah, of course I can. Um, you know, get a, get a cool guitar from Taylor and, you know, get to work with one of my favorite artists.

So I got the call for that. And it was like a whirlwind. It was like, I didn't hear anything for a long time. And then all of a sudden it was just like, you got to get to Nashville and like tonight, you got to be in Nashville.

So because we're shooting tomorrow. I'm like, okay. So he, um, yeah, he nominated me for that. And I thought that was really cool.

And you know, there's a, the other person I was nominated by, uh, Zach Brown was Marcus King. So I'm like, wow, pretty, yeah, like a pretty good national line of artists at this point. So yeah, absolutely. Well, and that's going to be so vindicating for you, where you have someone, like Ben Harper, who's been around and he's so respected and everything.

Picking you and recognizing your talent and saying, this is the guy you need to watch because he's phenomenal. Yeah. And I mean, that's the thing he knows a million people. Yeah.

And you know, the thing that, the thing that I love that he did was he actually, I feel like what he actually did was say, like, who do I actually want to pick and put on this? Because I'm, you know, I'm sure that there's label politics and things like that. And you know, he could have picked somebody off of his label. He couldn't pick somebody that, you know, he had known forever and like, Oh, the favor sort of thing.

Um, but he actually picked somebody who could use the publicity to be 100% honest. Yeah. Like, um, it was really humbling. That was really nice of him to do that.

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We're here at WXAV, ADA. Point three, Your Escape from Ordinary Radio. This is John Street and we're here live in the studio with Nathan Graham. How's it going?

Now, Nathan, you're getting ready to tour later this year with the, I don't want to say the name wrong, Lily. He got it. Hi, hi. Hi.

How do you feel about that? I'm excited about that one. So I remember she has this album. Um, and I thought it was so interesting because it's, it's just a picture of her face that she's looking directly into the camera.

And, uh, usually, you know, it's like, you know, you don't have like an album cover that's just so bold, like that it's just like somebody looking directly into the camera. Nothing, really nothing around them. And, um, I didn't know her music at all. And I just picked up that record.

I bought it and I played it and I really, really, really loved it. And, um, so yeah, it's like, I've been trying to get on the tour with her for a while. And then, um, the stars aligned and we got, we got on this one. So, um, I'm really excited.

That's going to be great. The first leg of that tour is going to be me by myself, like, uh, doing acoustic stuff. And then the second leg is going to be with the full band. So that'll be fun.

Okay. Yeah. That's awesome. How did you make it happen?

If I can ask that would be my drummer, Ian. Um, my drummer, Ian Son, he's, um, he's kind of like the captain of the, of the ship sort of, um, you know, like when I'm, when I'm kind of in my head about stuff, I'm like nervous about everything. He's the one that's just like, okay, just calm down. Is everything so much fun.

We're going to get there. Uh, but yeah, he's the one that kind of, you know, kind of the pavement a little bit and, you know, like emailed there, you know, a lilies agent and manager and I, and we actually opened up for her. Um, at Oak Park was it, Oaktoberfest. Um, and so it's like, I got her number after that and I was just like, let's just keep in touch and, you know, you know, and just talk about me.

So then I kind of worked that angle a little bit and talked to her about doing some shows together and he and then talked to the agents and the managers and all that stuff and, um, and yeah, they, they listened to the music and they said like, yeah, let's make this happen. Yeah, that's the crazy thing. I think just with the state of the music because it's all about networking now, like, what is it like, you know, you essentially have to be a little bit of everything, don't you, you have to be the musician, the promoter, social media, like, how do you balance all of that? Not well.

Um, I mean, it is you do, you have to have all those skills and I'm not very skilled at the social media part. So if there's any like social media people that want to help me out. But yeah, I mean it's, you know, before it was, you know, in the 70s, 80s, 90s, even early 2000s, you know, the height of, early 2000s, the height of social media was what my space. Yeah.

And then Facebook came very closely after that. And I remember, you know, like when you were booking shows, you know, the town buyer would say, well, how many friends do you have on my space? I'm like, I don't know, four? I don't know.

You know, how many people are following you on Facebook? And now it's like, now it's Instagram and TikTok and Twitter is just nobody even cares anymore. But, you know, the whole social media aspect of it is really, it's actually really hard for me, you know, and like what goes viral and what people care about and what people listen to. And so it is harder on musicians to kind of break through the static because you're not just, you're not just kind of, I don't like to say competing, but for lack of a better term competing with other musicians now in social media, you're competing with influencers that know the trends and know exactly where everything's going.

And, you know, you're kind of just like, I got to write a song too. So I don't have, you know, I don't have all the time to like know exactly what's going on over here and what I should post to get people to care about the song that I just wrote. You know, it's like I wrote a song. Check it out.

Hopefully you like it, you know, but it's a lot more than that now. Yeah, it really is. It's like you're being pulled in all these different directions. But for you, like, you know, you're born and raised in Chicago, in the Chicago land area.

How is the city influenced your music? Like, has it or, you know, like what role does Chicago play? Well, it plays a huge role. I mean, the fact that, you know, there is a, there is a Southside Chicago blues sound.

And just recently, I figured out that I have that, especially with playing guitar, I have that sound. And I didn't realize it because I was watching, you know, Ronnie Baker Brooks guitar, you know, blues guitar player. And I remember like listening to him and I went like, oh man, I do that thing. I do that lick.

I do that, you know. So there is definitely an influence that happened with that. Especially when it comes to because, you know, it's like Nashville has a sound, Los Angeles has a sound, Austin has a sound. New York is kind of like more of a hot spot.

Chicago does have a very much like a specific R&B sound that we kind of have with that as well. And you know, just the, you know, even fake friends you just played like that sounds like Chicago to me. Yeah, sounds like a Chicago record to me. So, well, not only that for me, it sounds like a Southside Chicago record.

Yeah. And that's the thing that I love so much is because I feel like the Southside is very forgotten. You know, we're always focusing on the Northside and there's nothing wrong with that. But the Southside has some really great gems and musicians and it's got a different sound, different environment.

Of course. Yeah. That was a problem with, you know, when I did come to the Northside and, you know, when I moved out on my own for the first time, it was like the way that people talked about the Southside. It was like, it was like, it's almost like this foreign place where, you know, you dare not go.

And it was just like, it's fine. It's the same. Literally the same thing that happens down there. It happens up here.

Yes. You know, we got white socks. You got. Oops.

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Now, all there earlier, Nathan, we were talking about Buffalo Nichols. Really great musician out there released a great album called The Fatalist last year. And along with you and the great Rihanna Giddens and a bunch of others, you're bringing more representation to folk music and to Americana music and really highlighting the roles African Americans had in creating this music. Where would you recommend for people to go and kind of get more informed and educated about the impact that African Americans had on this genre of music?

There's a group that I tour with everyone from all called the Black Opry. They are, I think there's about 200 plus artists that are on that roster right now. And Black Opry is amazing. Holly G, she was the person that kind of got us all together.

She's not a musician. She's just a music fan. And she loved country music. She loved Americana.

Sometimes I don't feel safe around things in certain spaces. So she was like, let me figure out a way to feel safe in that space. She scoured the internet and found a bunch of people who, anybody who has tagged Americana, has tagged country or whatever, and found all of these artists and put us together. And I think that would be a good place to start.

And then also, the only way to really do it, I feel like, is to want to have that information and want to have that knowledge. Because I'm a child of liner notes. So if I read something and I see this person's name multiple times in liner notes, I'm going to go look them up and see you. Exactly what they did.

So I mean, watch those interviews. I mean, that's the thing is like, we have so many different ways for people to kind of get interested in artists and interviews and everything. Sometimes you get hot wings. Sometimes you go sneaker shop and sometimes you do all this stuff, right?

And they're dropping gems of information. But people only take the clickable moments. But it's like, there's these gems of information where you can find out where these artists are and what they listen to and kind of make a through line between the artists that you love. And probably a black artist that you never heard of before.

There's a lot of people that probably never heard of Big Bill Brundsy or Lead Belly or Lefty Dizz, any of those people, even Southside people that you probably have right in your own city. So you can find all that stuff. And also, there's the Chicago Blues Museum, which is the old chess records building. It's run by Miss Dixon, who is Willie Dixon's widow.

And she educates people, you can go there and you can see exactly where they recorded all that music. The fact that, you know, and also the fact that the Rolling Stones recorded their first album there. They did. You know, so, yeah, there's a lot of resources now.

The internet is vast with knowledge of all this stuff. Just start anywhere and just pull on the thread. Yeah, absolutely. John, did you have any follow up questions?

So not necessarily a follow up. But what is your relationship like with music as a musician and as a listener? It's complicated at times. I think part of being an artist is sometimes you hate the medium that you're working in.

Right? So every once in a while, I'll listen to podcasts because I can't listen to anymore blues rock guitar. I can't listen to any more music. I am done.

But I mean, you know, there's always songs and albums and things that always will make me feel better. You know, there's always like, people get ready as my, I think, probably one of my favorite songs. It's always makes me feel better every time I listen to it. So I, yeah, I mean, it's a love-hate relationship.

And I think you, I think as an artist, you kind of have to have a love-hate relationship with music or with every, whatever, whatever your medium of choices. Because I think it keeps you sane, you know, because I think if you just full head on love everything about it, I think that can be kind of naive. And I think that you can kind of get yourself in a lot of trouble. And if you just are just always pissed off about it all the time, it's just like you're not going to get anywhere.

And you're always going to have to strip on your shoulders. So you have to have a little bit of balance. That's awesome. Now, you know, WX-TV were college radio station here on the South Side of Chicago.

From your perspective, Nathan, what is college radio play in the larger landscape of not only music, but just general media as a whole? Y'all are what the next thing is, you know? It's like, you know, it's funny because, you know, the musicians and the artists that we were listening to when we were in college are now the legacy artists. And some of them are selling out stadiums and doing huge things.

Like, for instance, a friend of mine drew, he is now the guitar player for Marcus Kane. Wow. Right. So, and you know, one of the guys that I went to school with, Mike Burns, he's the bass player for Mountain Joy.

Wow. So it's like that's, yeah. So that's the thing is you're the next up. You're on deck.

So, yeah, whatever y'all are listening to or whatever y'all are checking out right now is going to be the next thing that's going to be the legacy artists that are going to pop up in the next 15, 20 years. Now, I got kind of a fun question for ya, because we participate in an event called Vinyl Thon, which takes place on Record Store Day, and basically we go 24 hours vinyl. What are the top three albums from your perspective that everyone needs to listen to on vinyl? Oh, God.

Oh, man. Top three albums that everybody needs to listen to on vinyl. Oh, this is so hard. Because I don't want to leave anything out.

You can absolutely, you know, add to it, subtract to it. Okay. So I'd say the first one is, and this is no particular order. Okay.

Access Bold is Love, because I think that it was a perfect way for somebody to do exactly what they wanted to musically, but still adhere to kind of in the days of, you know, like you had to have like a two minute song on radio, right? Get in and get out. All of the songs on that album are right around three minutes long, except for if six was nine. That's the only one that's like six minutes long.

But it's a beautifully crafted, I think, one of the best pop rock albums ever. So you should definitely listen to that on vinyl. And the fact that, you know, there's a beginning of that is there's a skit where you hear like an alien and you hear like this weird sound, which is just Jimi Hendrix doing stuff with his guitar. But it was the first time that anybody had ever like saw that, you know, on vinyl, you know, that had been done.

I would say Michael Jackson's Off the Wall. And I don't know the name of the album, but it has the rock on it and it's Harry Chapin. I think that those are the three. The Rock as in the People's Champion.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I'll have to look that up real quick.

No, no, not the rock. The People's Champion. I'm sorry. No, it's the song is called The Rock.

Oh, The Rock. Okay. And it has this also has a song on it called Bummer. And it's a it's a seven minute, like you got to really be listening to it because it's like a novel.

Is it Portrait Gallery? Yeah, that's it. Portrait Gallery. That's a great one.

Yeah. So that's the album that I think those are the three. That's a great selection right there. I'm a huge fan of Off the Wall by Michael Jackson.

I think it's criminally underrated, but it's so good. Because everybody talks about Thriller. Exactly. Thriller is a great album.

But Off the Wall I think is like, yeah. It's crazy to think Thriller didn't it just turn 40? Yeah, it did. That's not.

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You're escaped from ordinary radio. My name is Pete and we've been chatting with Nathan Graham, one of the most buzzed about local artists here in the Chicago land area. Be sure to check them out at nathangrammusic.com for all the latest news and information. We'll be playing the album, all of that good stuff.

But John, you actually have the final question for Nathan today. So I'm going to throw it over to you. Yeah, just before you go here, Nathan, it's been a pleasure having you. I just want to know what does the future look like for you musically?

Well, we're actually starting on an EP that's hopefully going to come out later this year. A lot more touring this year. Starting off with Lily Hyatt and then I'm going to do some acoustic tours with a buddy of mine named Joe George. Yeah, just a lot more work.

This was last year was kind of like the put out of products, see how people feel about it, see how people resonate with it. And I think that we're getting really good feedback from it. And it's really, it has been really nice to hear really good feedback on your debut album. So I think we're just capitalizing on that momentum, the fact that just the video with Taylor and doing this throw with Lily Hyatt, hopefully playing at Revenia Festival this year.

And a lot more festival shows. We're doing Midwest Music Festival. We're doing Mid-Summerfest and Andersonville. I can't say the name of this next place, but it's called the Barn Sessions.

It's in Wisconsin. So yeah, a lot more festival shows, a lot more recording. And then I'm also starting writing on the next album. Yeah, sounds like you got a lot out of you.

Yeah, this has been the longest stretch of non-shows that I've had in quite some time. So I'm really excited to get back into the studio and start writing. And I have like voice memos of songs that hopefully will get to see you later today. That's super exciting.

Nathan Graham, thank you so much for coming and spending some time with us here today at WXAB. We really appreciate it. But again, Nathan Graham Music.com, go check them out. You're on all the socials, Instagram, Facebook.

I'm on everyone except for X or Twitter. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know what I'm doing.

That's what I'm doing. I mean, that's a dying social media anyway, so it's okay. So thank you so much. And be sure to check him out when he's back here in Chicago.

And thanks again. Thank you very much for listening to this WXAB 88.3 FM podcast. Be sure to visit our website WXAB.com for more information on your escape from ordinary radio.