Episode 71: Gull

Gull is "best described as a drum; a living, breathing drum of flesh on fire that cries out assorted tongues of creatures past and delivers it from a single unique perspective; a communal music broadcast of blood and bile left as an offering on the altar of sound." Nathaniel Rappole's solo music endeavor, Gull, was conceived on an endangered wildlife preserve in Front Royal, VA in 1999, and has been publicly active since 2007. Gull has recorded a 7", 6 EPs, 3 full lengths, and has traveled vigorously-playing venues, on the streets, and in the wilds of Canada, United States, Mexico, Europe, Kenya, and SE Asia. Gull has toured in support of White Rabbits, Tres Mts, RNDM, and Saxsquatch, and has shared the bar arena with the likes of Silver Apples, Girl Talk, Deerhoof, Adrian Belew, Sleaford Mods, Tatsuya Nakatani, Zeta, Ruby The Hatchet, Panda Bear, Mdou Moctar, Dan Deacon, Godcaster, and Melt Banana. In 2012, Gull was featured in a movie about music in Mexico called Hecho en Mexico, and in 2014 he produced and performed in a documentary on street/public music in Kenya (Street Muse Kenya), which premiered at The Fowler Museum at UCLA in Los Angeles, CA. In April of 2016, Gull performed and answered questions pertaining to his travels at TedX in Richmond, VA, and in 2017 he contributed an improvised performance to Grotesque Tables ii - Noah Wall's anagramic reimagining of Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's Oblique Strategies deck of cards from 1975. In December, 2019, Gull went to Thailand and Laos to film a new doc (Street Muse Thailand) in an ongoing series about musical ecology and culture around the world. In January of 2023 and again in December of 2024, Gull was an artist in residence at Stove Works in Chattanooga, TN and set up an impromptu recording studio while incorporating captured sounds of the city's environment