Interview: Nathaniel Rateliff – Still Learning And Growing

Nathaniel Rateliff and his band The Night Sweats have just arrived in Auckland, ready to rock The Powerstation.

Based in Denver, Colorado, Rateliff has been keeping some pretty heady company lately, sharing stages with the likes of Phillip Glass, Patti Smith and Willie Nelson. He’s also proven to be a man of integrity, speaking out for gun control when there is every chance doing so could alienate a significant portion of his fan base.

The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda spoke to Nathaniel Rateliff as he and the band were getting themselves acclimated to New Zealand.

Click here to listen to the conversation:

Or, read a transcription of the interview here:

NR: Uh, you know, this is the first time I’m in New Zealand. I’m really liking it a lot, though.

MD: Oh, good! Glad that you could make it. Congratulations on making it here! The first thing I wanted to say was, I wanted to express my gratitude for speaking out about the gun control thing like you did. Because you probably know that it’s a big thing here in New Zealand, we just went through a major tragedy –

NR: I do!

MD: We’re changing our gun laws, and I know how tough it is, especially, being from Missouri, for you to do something like that. So – it’s very brave of you.

NR: My pleasure. I feel like – I grew up a gun owner, and still am, and I feel like there’s just a lot more education, and – I can’t believe there’s not more restrictions than there are. It’s a difficult thing to talk about, because people get so scared, and defensive.

MD: They do get worked up!

NR: And like, unreasonably so. But it was not just myself, tThe band was really great, while I was away working on a different project. Mark even, um, Mark Shusterman, gave a speech at one of the hearings, and the bill actually passed in Colorado, and I can’t believe that – it’s funny, we have a mostly Democratic government in Colorado, and it still barely passed. Like, who has hands in whose pockets, here?

MD: Well, something has to change, obviously.

NR: But, it is – at least, like I’ve said, what little we could do, and it’s nice to try to do something, and it actually make a difference,  even small things. We’re excited to have been a part of it.

MD: Excellent. And this event you were hosting in Austin, Texas, The Marigold Project, is that related to that?

NR: Uh, The Marigold Project is the foundation that we started to try to kind of – we work outside of our community – but it’s an endowment. We’re trying to work with inequality and poverty and homelessness. We kind of stole a lady who runs the foundation from – Kari Nott is her name, and we met her through Farm Aid, and so we still do a lot of stuff with Farm Aid. But yeah, the Marigold Project is just a foundation that we started, early on with the Night Sweats, I think, we’d s been going for two years – we do the fundraisers here and there, but I think most recently, and often, it was just a way to try to – play the show and we try to raise money for the foundation, and give out grants at the end of the year to people who are needing help, and doing work in their communities, and in our community.

MD: Cool. And speaking of benefits, I see that you performed in the Tibet House concert a few – a little while ago. It’s quite an eclectic combination of people – I mean, Laurie Anderson, Jason Isbell, Phillip Glass, and Patti Smith and yourself, so – what was that like?

NR: You know, I ended up spending kind of the day with Phillip Glass, so I – I never thought I’d be buddy-buddy with that sort of guy, but it was really cool experience. And everybody was really, really kind. It was just…amazing to be around, and really cool to share the stage with all those guys.

MD: Right, right. And I saw you performed a Bruce Springsteen tune while you were at this thing – and also a Sam and Dave. So what caused you to choose doing Atlantic City?

NR: Um, well – I love, I actually love The Band’s version of that song. So I kind of did a rendition of that – sort of Levon [Helm]’s version. Um. And you know, when you’re playing in New York, people love The Boss, you know.

MD: They do.

NR: Yeah. As soon as I played the first two chords people already were like, hollering. I was like, “Wow, that’s amazing.” And then, when I sang the first line, the audience, everybody stood up. So I was like, “This is the right song to play for this crowd!” I guess so.

MD: Did you listen to much Bruce when you were growing up?

NR: Um, you know, oddly enough, I only really listened to Nebraska, a lot.

MD: That is, odd, but yeah.

NR: You know, I was more of a fan of The Band over Bruce. But I really loved his songwriting and he had that performance he was doing on Broadway and we got to go watch it as a band, and got to go say hi to him and talk to him, and yeah. I mean – as a – I love his writing, but for whatever reason, it was one of those things that I didn’t really listen to until I was a little older.

MD: Right, right. You seem to be doing all sorts of cool things – like you said, you’ve met Bruce, and I know you were hanging out with Willie Nelson, and I know you played the Grand Ole Opry on New Year’s Eve, and you’re doing Woodstock – is this just kind of… are you just living the dream at this moment? What is it like for you?

NR: Yeah, we just work really hard, and I don’t know…we’ve been really blessed to get to do a lot of things that I think people in our position, or a lot of people, kind of always fantasize about doing. And the work with Willie and Farm Aid has been really great for us, we keep trying to like – I don’t know, it’s crazy that there’s still so much work that needs to be done in that area. Farmers are still getting pushed out by bigger companies and corporations.

MD: Now, of course you’re here in Auckland to play at the Powerstation tomorrow night, and it’s your first time here, so folks who are listening to us talk won’t necessarily be that familiar with your live performance. So what can you tell folks kind of what to expect for a show tomorrow?

NR: Well, we try to just have a great time on stage and uh, you know, you can’t always pick your audience, but you can pick the band you’re playing with, so. I’m playing shows every night with some of my closest and most dearest friends, and I love doing what we’re doing, so hopefully… people will see that. Like I said, we’re just try and have a good time, and – yeah, just play some rock ‘n’ roll!

MD: Yeah, it sounds good. You mentioned your closest and dearest friends. I know your bass player, Joseph Pope is – you and he go back, way back. And I was wondering if you could elaborate on the kind of musical relationship you guys have forged over the years.

NR: Yeah! We kind of started playing together when we were kids, and moved to Denver in ’98.

MD: Why Denver?

NR: And I’ve kind of always been – um, well. We were trying to make it to San Diego and just kind of got stuck in Denver. We both found pretty reasonable jobs at a trucking company, that we could work at and still play music, and kind of ended up doing that for like, ten years. Yeah! I don’t know, we just kinda got stuck there. It was a whole lot nicer than Missouri!

MD: Right. Denver: It’s Nicer Than Missouri! There you go.

NR: Yeah. So. I don’t know – I don’t know why we never made it to California, honestly, but I’m glad we ended up where we did, and it’s really worked out to our – it’s really helped us, our Denver community, was – we grew up to hear… and all the different bands we put together with all these different types of music, has always been very supportive of us, and so. Without that, we probably wouldn’t’ve gotten as far as we have, so I feel really lucky for that too.

MD: Very cool. So it’s an eight-piece band you’re travelling around with, right? So, it’s gotta be huge to come to this – this distance, and travel with this size band. Can you tell me a little bit about some of the other guys in the group?

NR: Yeah, of course. So, um, Patrick Meese is on drums, and we’ve been playing together for over ten years as well. Um, and Mark Shusterman plays keys, same thing, he’s kinda been in the old sort of, folk band Americana band we had that was just under my name, and we’ve been making music together for a long time. And then, Luke Mossman was just a great guitar player we knew from Denver. He played in a lot of different bands there. And uh, I wanted another guitar player in the band, and pretty much called him before we were going to go on our first European tour, and was like, “Hey man! Got your number from so-and-so, hope you’re well, and getting ready to go to Europe, and just wanted to see if you wanted to play guitar for this band! I’ll send you some songs, you tell me what you think, and –“ I was like, “I’ll give you twenty dollars a day per diem, and…”

MD: Can’t beat that!

NR: Yeah! And then he was like, “Well, let me look at my calendar,” and then he called back immediately and was like, “Calendar’s cleared!” So. And then that was it, you know.

MD: And what was it about his guitar playing that attracted you? You being a guitar player yourself, were you looking for a particular style or something to add to what you were doing?

NR: I actually kind of knew him as being, well, definitely a different guitar player to myself, but I knew he had studied jazz and I kind of wanted to have somebody that had sort of a background that was different to mine, and just different knowledge altogether. And that was kind of it. I knew he was great player, and a good hang, and when you’re spending your life on the road with somebody, I think – being able to spend time with each other, and having a good time, is one of the… you could take somebody who doesn’t play as well over somebody who does sometimes, if they’re fun to hang out with. But yeah. And then we got Andy Wild on baritone sax, and he used to be on tenor, but then Jeff Dazey started playing with us, who used to play in Leon Bridges’ band, and… he’s just a Texan, and a helluva dude, really. And then we got Scott Frock on trumpet, who’s a New Orleans guy, and just a really great player, and a really sweet guy. That’s kinda the list, there.

MD: And these are all the guys that you went back in New Mexico with? And put together Tearing At The Seams?

NR: Yeah. Scott wasn’t there for that portion of it, and neither was Jeff Dazey, but Andy was there. So we were just kind of woodshedding out there, and took all those songs to (producer) Richard Swift. I think we had came out of there with eleven songs in seven days, and then…spent about two and a half weeks just with Richard, and…kind of came out with an album we really liked, but I was kinda going through a…separation that led to my divorce. So it just seemed like a divorce record at first, like, “This is not a good follow-up,” so… we went back, and I wrote some more songs, at Richard’s place, and we recorded a lot of that stuff just live in the studio. You know, and it’s a great feeling to make music that way. So, when we… we ended up with another eight songs there, and that balanced out the sort of sad…that I left off the record, so.

MD: So, you must be thinking about the next record by now. Are you thinking about going back and getting everybody together and going through the same process, or are you thinking of something different?

NR: Uh, no, I’m thinking of kind of the same approach, and I mean I was thinking of the next record as soon as we finished the last one. So. You know, it’s kind of unending. I kinda built out a little studio, outside Denver, like a great space for us all to be, and…so the plan is just for us to kinda woodshed again, at least we’ll be at home this time. Just kind of spend time together and you know, I know some of the other guys have ideas for songs, and I have a bunch of ideas, so we’re going to try to piece it all together, and see what we come up with, you know. That’s kind of the exciting stuff, really.

MD: Cool.

MD: So, I assume songwriting comes fairly easily at this point in your – in things, for you.

NR: Uh, I mean, I’ve been doing it a long time. It comes pretty easily, but they’re not all good, so you know.

MD: I see.

NR: Yes, I keep workin’ – workin’ for the good ones, you know. It took me a long time to…sort of figure out that not everybody needs to hear everything I come up with. You know, like, uh…so. But it’s a good learning process and I feel like I’m still learning and growing, and also the guys are always here to support me in it.

MD: Excellent.

NR: I love it.

Click here for tickets and information to see Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats at The Powerstation on Wednesday, April 10th.