Nathaniel Rateliff
Nathaniel Rateliff
Nathaniel David Rateliff is an American musician, singer and songwriter from Hermann, Missouri. Known for his folk-based, pensive songwriting, Rateliff has garnered attention with Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, the soulful R&B combo he formed in 2013...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMusician
CountryUnited States of America
everybody five flood huge liked next playing songs star stuck
Roadrunner wanted to make Born in the Flood the next Nickelback, but I didn't want to be that. I didn't want to be a huge rock star playing songs I didn't like. I didn't want to be stuck playing 'Anthem,' the song everybody liked but I didn't want to put on the record, for the next five years.
church created found god good heard listen music remember secular supposed tape zeppelin
When I was a kid, we weren't really supposed to listen to secular music. But one day, I found a 'Led Zeppelin IV' cassette tape in the garage, and it was just amazing-sounding music, not like anything I'd heard before. I remember thinking: 'Well, if God created music, why is his music in church not as good as this?'
dad family felt forced harmony hated sing third
When I was a kid, my dad kind of forced me to sing the third harmony for our little family group, and I just kind of hated it. I just felt so uncomfortable on stage, too shy.
element outside
There's this element of surprise when you're writing songs, like it's something outside of you that you get to be part of. And it's just exciting. And that's why I keep writing - because I like that feeling.
break grew landscape music scene spent time unless
There isn't much of a music scene in Hermann, unless you like polka. But the landscape I grew up in is a part of me. I spent a lot of time in the woods doing a lot of nothing to break the boredom.
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The last album, 'Falling Faster Than You Can Run.' I was really proud of, but then I didn't actually know whether it was going to come out on any label at all. So I didn't know if anyone was going to hear it. Then of course we ended up doing another EP after that called 'Closer.'
buy instead money pool robbed success
Success will be when I can have a real swimming pool instead of the fifty-dollar one I buy at Kmart every year. But I don't want to get robbed of any authenticity to try and make money.
feeling himself initial john mccartney music paul piano playing remember singing taken tribute tv watching
One of my initial memories of being taken over by music was watching Paul McCartney on TV play a tribute to John Lennon. He was playing piano by himself and singing 'Imagine,' and I remember feeling an anxiety and shortness of breath.
dad ear great instrument listening mom music people played sister soon wind
My mom played 12-string and sang, and my dad could play pretty much any wind instrument and had a great ear for harmony. Soon enough, my sister and I got into music because we were always around it, and people were always listening to it.
awful convert denver grew group kid moved people position religious sort trying work
I first moved to Denver to work with a group called YWAM, 'Youth With a Mission.' I was a kid - I was 18 - and did some work with homeless people. Really, trying to convert people is sort of an awful position to find yourself in, so I quickly, on my own, grew out of religious ideas.
time
Sometimes, if I allow time to be creative, it doesn't show up.
hit people trying
I've always been trying to write songs that hit you in the stomach but ones that make people feel like things will be just fine.
connect music
Growing up in the middle of nowhere, there was a lot of twangy music around, but it didn't really connect with me then.
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I'm pretty easily overwhelmed and pretty tough as well. I think I'm tougher than I used to be. There's been a lot of hardship along the way. But that's what life is. And it's how you deal with those things, and how you let them shape you that makes you a better person and defines what sort of person you're going to be.