"When I first met Brian I talked about how I wanted to keep the intimacy of the recordings I had at home and try to retain that intimacy even though we were in a really nice studio and I think we did." I pretty much left it alone and let the songs be what they were," says Rateliff. "They really liked it and wanted me to rerecord it so I added some new material to it. When he showed the recordings to producer Brian Deck (Califone, Iron & Wine, Modest Mouse), Deck gave him the green light. Writing the vast majority of the songs at his house a couple years ago - some an attempt to woo a love interest - Rateliff was armed with several 8-track recordings. With the release of "In Memory of Loss" this week there's plenty of reasons why his emotional, heartfelt folk has caught interest with music fans and the Daytrotter site. "Traveling around the country we've seemed to get a good response from people and I've had really good listening audiences and that's really what's important." It's a quite a big difference in comparison to traveling around the country and playing shows," says Rateliff. "We would play in the park for people and stuff like that. Now, life on the road is a lot different from those early days. "I feel kind of lucky really that anybody's paid any attention to anything we've done so far," says Rateliff. He began touring around the country, opening for bands like The Fray and getting attention from Spin and Daytrotter, with whom he's done two sessions. Slowly, newspapers and magazines caught on and the snowball effect began. During his time recovering he grew even more interested in music, beginning to write songs and eventually getting together with his close friends to form Nathaniel Rateliff and The Wheel. He moved to Denver to work for a trucking company when he was 18 a brief scare with narcolepsy forced him to reconsider his options. "In some ways (the experiences have) been able to make me look at things a bit differently," he says, adding that his example isn't a blueprint for aspiring songwriters, but for him it's influenced his honest, intimate and deeply human approach.Īs he grew older he branched off and found some friends who had a similar interest in music. His father's untimely death two years later forced Rateliff to take on some additional responsibilities. At 11 he started to work to help out his family. Things weren't always easy for Rateliff and his family during that time. He began to listen to whatever he could get his hands on - something that he says continues to this day. When he was a teenager, while walking through a barn he discovered an abandoned "Led Zeppelin IV" cassette tape. "Everyone in my family played music so I kind of grew up doing it and there wasn't a whole lot else to do," says Rateliff. With devout churchgoer parents, Rateliff learned ways of singing passionately and with a gospel-like tone, something that is fully exemplified on his latest album "In Memory of Loss." He spent many days and nights of his childhood singing and learning instruments as a part of musically spirited family. Growing up in Bay, Mo., population 60, Rateliff didn't have much to do. Singer/songwriter Nathaniel Rateliff, a man who cares about writing honest, heartfelt songs, would fit into the latter category. Some come from the big cities and big ambitions while others come from small towns and often humble beginnings. For a vast majority of up-and-coming bands, getting a recording session with the ever-growing live session site Daytrotter is a gateway to the rest of the world with their music.
0 kommentar(er)
