Music Now Spotlight:
Nathan Nice
Published: January 16, 2007 5:49 PM EST
By: Isaac Joseph Davis Junior
(Juniorscave.com)
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When you are listening to Nathan Nice on the mic,
his energetic raw presence easily comes across in his tracks. Nathan
has a way of making us “listen” to what he is conveying in his music;
and that is a good thing. In the age of nonsense lyrics, Nathan Nice’s
lyrics/flow is refreshing. This middle-school mentor by day takes his
night position of a Hip-Hop performer seriously.
Hailing from the Los Angeles, California area, Nathan keeps a busy
schedule that details graphic designing and local-level activism.
Needless to say, sleep is something that he does not have the luxury to
do these days. But, it is all worth it, once you get a sample of his
music. I recently interviewed his partner in rhymes, Andrew Clark,
Brontosaurus, and discovered another treat in Nathan Nice. I recently
reviewed his EPK (Electronic Press Kit) on Sonicbids.com (Music
Resource/Submission Giant) and was thrilled to feature Nathan in
Junior’s Cave.
Isaac-Joseph: Happy New Years Nathan. How are you doing today?
Nathan Nice: Thank you, Happy New Years to you too. I’m doing
well. I went to a big new year’s party last night, even though I
usually like to lay low on new years, and it was inspiring. I got to
watch a number of hip-hop legends perform and bounce around to dub step
all night. Today, I just slept in and took it easy, chilled with
friends and family.
Isaac-Joseph: How have the people from your old neighborhood
reacted to your music (being an entertainer)? What have been some the
feedback from them about your music?
Nathan Nice: My old neighborhood is still my neighborhood. I
left for a little while when I was going to school at CalArts, but I
was born and raised and still live in Echo Park. Everyone I chilled
with back in the day still knows I’m doing my music and they all
support. They come out to shows, ask if I have any new stuff out. I got
one song off my first album entitled “SIlver Lake,” (with Avid D of
Learning Curve) all about where we grew up. A lot of kids from the
neighborhood love that song; it’s kinda’ like our anthem.
Isaac-Joseph: If you had to describe your music to someone, how would you describe it?
Nathan Nice: I like Brontosaurus’ description: “fat beats and
sonic gems over a bed of hard hitting drums and tripped out melodies.”
Like a bomb salad; It’s much more musical than most. Changes,
progressions, real instrumentation... something you can enjoy and get
hype to or just chill with in the background or really sit down and
study. The sounds are super diverse from track to track; there are
traces of jazz, dub, electro and even folk and rock influences.
Overall, it’s grounded in that traditional boom bap though: bass, kicks
and snares, analog shit, flipped samples. As much love as we get from
hip-hop heads, I’m always surprised by the comments we get from people
who don’t really like the hip-hop they’ve heard, or who have very
little experience with it. Saying things like “I didn’t know it could
be like this” or “finally, something my ears can enjoy.” It makes me
think our music has a much more universal appeal then I usually give it
credit for. The lyrics are thoughtful and there’s a lot of
improvisation and spontaneity going on too. I should probably figure
out how to answer these “describe your music” questions more succinctly
like, “if Bob Dylan was an MC, and Air and Dan the Automator
collaborated on beats...” Actually, I kinda’ like that.
Isaac-Joseph: You wear many hats Nathan. One of your hats
consists of being a middle-school mentor. How do you incorporate what
you do as a Mentor with what you do as a performer? What do you think
you bring to Hip-Hop from your experiences as a Mentor?
Nathan Nice: When you work with kids, you constantly find ways
to engage them in the experience, to keep it interesting, connect with
them and connect them to previous lessons. Whether if it’s chess, math,
water color, writing stories or whatever. So I definitely find that
seeping into my live shows. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Maybe
my live shows sink into my work at school. Either way, I have to be
totally present and aware when I’m with my kids. If I ever come to work
tired or grumpy or my mind is somewhere else, they pick up on that real
quick and they’ll call me out on it. You have to respect your students
just as much as you expect it. And hip-hop is no different to me...
when I get up on stage, I look the audience in the eye, speak clearly,
be visual. Basically, I’m giving them my full attention.
Isaac-Joseph: Your range of topics is what makes your music so
diverse. How important is it for you as a performer to continue to
keep/maintain conscientious lyrics?
Nathan Nice: It’s the lyrics that first got me into hip-hop,
it was my element. I’ve been a writer since I was little, but putting
it to a beat just made it way more exciting. Out of all the hip-hop I
heard growing up, when the lyrics were as powerful as the beat, that
was always like a golden moment for me. That’s where my first attempts
to rap stem from: being inspired by MCs with something relevant, even
urgent to say. Public Enemy, KRS-1, Rakim, Ice Cube, Brand Nubian. It
made me want to make an impact in some way too. Then I found that
making words rhyme just feels good regardless! It’s like therapy. I’m
always trying to find undiscovered rhyme schemes, crazy connections,
I’m addicted. As far as my content though... I’m not gangster, I’m not
a pimp or a revolutionary or some mad scientist rapper. I’m not hard or
emo. There’s no constructed role, I’m just a student of my own life
with a genuine love for this. That’s what I’d be even without my own
music and that what shows up in what I write.
Isaac-Joseph: Your influences include such iconic rap giants
such as KRS-One, Nas, Modest Mouse, Hieroglyphics, Slick Rick and Ani
DiFranco. What have you learned from these rap legends that you have
incorporated in your own musical performance?
Nathan Nice: Not all those you mention are rap legends, Modest
Mouse is an indie rock band, and Ani DiFranco is a punk-folk
songwriter, but they’re just as influential to me as those rap artists
are. They all have an ability to tell stories and bare their souls...
masters of rhyme, rhythm, deliveries. KRS-One is especially inspiring
to me. The way he came from poverty and homelessness, intent on being
not just an MC, but a relevant one: putting social issues smack on the
table, teaching sucker MCs along the way. He was also the first to
really clarify MCing to me, as opposed to rapping. To rap is to merely
spit rhymes, but to MC is much more. It means you know how to engage
with your audience, to conduct that moment exactly the way you want it
to go, leading and uniting. That’s what I aspire to do, to be a
positive force. All those other artists influence me in the same way.
The need to be original is mad important too. A lot of MCs who came up
in the 80’s and early 90’s, when I first fell in love with hip-hop,
EPMD, Digable Planets, De La Soul, Biz Markie, Digital Underground and
a grip more... it was so important for them to each have their own
unique styles, beats and rhymes. Biting was the ultimate sin, so you
really had to work for your shit. The hip-hop community was much
smaller than it is now too, so you could easily notice copy cats. It
was strict. Nowadays, you can’t differentiate between a lot of artists.
A lot of heads are just trying to do what works, boiling up their
little success formulas. I just let my work float, being honest with
myself and working hard at my craft. That’s the only way I’m gonna be
able to make music that I’m proud of, that other people can respect.
That’s what I learned from all those artists I listened to growing up.
Isaac-Joseph: Recently, you completed a successful 18-city
U.S. tour with half of the legendary hip-hop crew The Pharcyde, (Fatlip
and Tre Hardson). Describe your experience of working/touring with one
of my favorite groups of all time: What lessons did you learned from
this collaboration that you feel will enhance your own music?
Nathan Nice: Oh man, it was amazing. I learned so much about
myself, about them, about hip-hop and just America in general. Too much
to say all here. The conversations on the tour bus alone! A friend of
mine told me right before I left to just be open to whatever came my
way, not to try to do too much or be disappointed in what I did or
didn’t accomplish, to just be open and learn and experience. I really
heeded that advice as much as I could. I’m used to performing anywhere
from one to five shows a month and this was 18 cities in like three
weeks. Pretty much back to back to back. I was handling a lot of the
tour manager stuff too, and that was nuts at times. Everything quickly
fell into a rhythm though, I caught my breath and it just became
effortless and fun. I love being on tour. My stage presence got crazy
strong out there too. Watching Tre and ‘Lip bust every night, they had
every crowd on lock. Seeing them fine tune and evolve their set at
every sound check, by the time we got back to LA it was razor sharp.
There was this pivotal point for me where, just as I was about to go up
on stage, I suddenly realized that I felt no fear, no butterflies,
nothing; just pure awareness. I’ve done a lot of shows, and even when
I’ve been totally comfortable with the situation, I still kinda get
that little anxious feeling. So maybe it was because of the repetition
or whatever, but all the sudden I just didn’t give a fuck; Total
freedom. That was one of my best shows ever too. We were in Bozeman,
Montana, and the spot was packed with so many people, bodies pressed
right up to the stage. I just went out and blasted on ‘em. I kicked off
my shoe by accident, I was rapping so hard. Freestyling call and
response shit, had them saying “Nathan Nice” at the top of their lungs.
I never do that! After that, it was like I had figured it all out.
There are memories from that tour I will take all the way to my
deathbed for real.
Isaac-Joseph: Describe the one event professionally that
happened to you in 2007 that you feel was the best moment in your
career so far:
Nathan Nice: It was like a week ago... I even know the exact
day, December 26th, 2007, ‘cause it was a show I did with Brontosaurus
and DJ Frenetic at The Knitting Factory, the night after Christmas. We
were performing alongside Learning Curve, Human Beings, Lost &
Loaded and others (all local Los Angeles hip-hop crews). That was my
first show since I had been back from the Pharcyde tour and it was
really just for the homies. But it was that night that I really saw my
growth as a performer reflected back at me. I didn’t feel too hype
while I was actually up on stage, just doing what I do, but afterwards
people were coming up and telling me they noticed a change, like an
evolution. I was more daring, more focused and relaxed on the mic. It
didn’t really hit me till the next day, but I’m really feeling so at
ease with where I’m at right now. I have these new ideas that I’m
really excited to expand on in our upcoming shows... to get
uncomfortable again, if that makes sense. It’s a good foundation for
where I wanna go from here. B-saurus and Frenetic and I are working out
a much more interactive live show with new songs, live drum machine
button mashing, freestyles, theatrics, a few secret weapons. Cold Lamp
steez! This is that moment.
Isaac-Joseph: As the New Year begins, describe your plans for 2008:
Nathan Nice: To stay grinding and focused. To put together at
least a couple small tours and maybe book a big one, definitely travel.
To kill all these projects and start new ones. To put more energy into
my visual art and graphic design. To learn Dreamweaver and Flash and
put ‘em to work for us. And definitely to chill with my friends and
family more.
Isaac-Joseph: Elaborate on your new album that you are working on currently as well as other shameless plugs:
Nathan Nice: Brontosaurus and I are working on a few projects right now: my next album To Meet You and some mini-projects that I can’t quite talk about yet. We also founded a new crew together, Cold Lamp,
which includes Frenetic on turntables. It’s our live shows we’re most
focused on with that for now. There’s also another project involving a
lot of raw sugar with my girl Anita Savior. I’ll be exploring some
alter-egos with that, it’s gonna be crazy. A few other collaborations.
Check www.nathannice.com, www.myspace.com/bsaurus and www.myspace.com/djfrenetic, for more good stuff...
Isaac-Joseph: We call this our Shout Out time. Give props to anyone and everyone that matters:
Nathan Nice: Shots out to Brontosaurus, DJ Frenetic, Cold Lamp in 2008,
Anita Savior, I Am Julian, Solrac Sevein, Twist One (R.I.P.), Learning
Curve, Sirah, DJ Troma One, Noah-san, Molman, Omni, Fatlip, DJ Cee
Brown, Tre Hardson, Cesl Rock, Farce One, The FutuRelics Crew, Shroom
Tang Clan, JAKA, Comah, FA2HQ, The I.V. League, 2 Damn Hype Crew, Josh
Stone, Zel 1, Amelia Burn$, DJ Aquatic, Joe Caluya, Solista, Destruct,
Mariella, Bastard Artist, The Los Angeles Airliner, all my kids and
co-workers at LACER and everybody else.. they know!
Isaac-Joseph: Final Thoughts from the mastermind performer Nathan Nice:
Nathan Nice: Just do what you have to, to do you what you love... that’s it.
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