Nate Morton
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Darrin: Nate, you were born in Nashville, but you were raised in the Baltimore and Washington area. 

Nate: Correct. My dad worked at UMBC at the time, so I spent my formative years, 6^th grade through high school in the Baltimore/DC area. 

Darrin: Was it a tough area? 

Nate: No, not really. I was in a suburb called Columbia, That is in between Baltimore and DC, like 20 minutes outside of both. It was not really a tough area. 

Darrin: How old were you when you left there? 

Nate: I left there when I went to college.  I went for one year of school at the University of Maryland, as a Mechanical Engineering major.  That was all it took to prove that I should not be in school as a Mechanical Engineering major.  **laughs**.  At that point I transferred to the Berkeley School of Music, where I was a music major. That was in 1991. So I left the Baltimore area in about 1991. 

Darrin: What was the music scene like in that area? 

Nate: Well that part of it was interesting.  I was in high school at that time, but I was lucky to have some friends that were working in the music industry at that time all around Baltimore.  I was able to be a side guy sort of thing, and pick up gigs around Baltimore. I was the youngest kid in the band and got a lot of education from that. I was also playing in my garage band then, named Akamilli.  We were like a hard core, punk/ska band. We were greatly influenced at the time, by English Beat, Minor Threat, Black Flagg, Fugazi  and bands like that.  We wanted to be Fugazi.

In fact, as an interesting side note, we were really into Fugazi at the time.  Ian McKay was the leader of Minor Threat, started Dugazi.  No matter what, he could not get Fugazi signed.  He kept trying, but no signing. So at that time, like 1988, he started a record label. Dischord Records. Out of Baltimore, and I believe it is still going strong today. But that was like 20 years ago. I remember at that time being in my high school garage band, and all of us sitting around, going…WOW. Can you believe, he started his OWN record label. It was ground breaking. People then did not just start their own record labels.

Darrin: Not like today, where everyone has a record label.  All you need is enough money to press 1,000 CD’s in the DIY world.

Nate: Exactly, if you have 1,000 bucks, you can start your own record label, and release a CD.  Back then it was much more than that. We were considerably impressed.  So in finishing up about what the scene was like then, it was very cool for me. I had a foot in both worlds. I had a foot in the very popular high school garage band scene, you know, go to the mall and get free food from your friends at Chick Filet, because they know your band.  And I had a foot in the show up and play in a smoky club, and get your butt kicked by a bandstand full of musicians that are 5 times better than you are, but basically making you a better musician than you were. It worked out good for me. It was very good at kicking your ass in a positive way. 

Darrin: You have worked with Mandy Moore, Vanessa Carlton, Richard Marx, Michael Bolton, Paul Anka and others. Who sticks out the most to you, as a cool gig or person to work with?

Nate: In fairness, I have to say I have recorded with Paul Anka, although I have not actually met Paul Anka. It was more of a situation where I was working with a producer that was doing stuff with Paul Anka, and had me play on a track or 2 for Paul. It was through Michael Thompson, a session guitar player and producer here.

As for sharing the stage, I am going to answer this in a way that does not seem too arrogant. But I have to say, the current situation that I am playing in, with Paul Mirkovich, Rafa Moreira and Sasha Kristov, is the most exciting, gratifying, musically and spiritual gig that I have ever done. It is one thing to be playing with a Vanessa Carlton, where you are like, wow, I am playing with Vanessa Carlton, and she has sold a ton of records. I have not sold any records..she has. And I am here, at her disposal.  It is another thing entirely, to feel as though you are part of a group. That is not to say, that working as a side guy you are not appreciated, because you do contribute, but it is just not the same as being part of a group.  

The gig that stands out in my mind, is a gig that the Houseband recently did, in Iceland. Over a couple of nights, we played for 12,000 people. 2 sold out shows in Iceland.  The beauty of that gig, is we are playing with Toby Rand, and Storm and Magni, whom I love, he is a total great guy and artist. But as many people in the audience knew us, knew them also.  

Darrin: People are understanding the value and the power of the Houseband now.  You have people like Paul Stanley coming and hiring out the entire band. 

Nate: Yeah, exactly. The Houseband, I really consider to be my band. My band, in the sense that we have fights and arguments like any other band, we hang out like other bands do, we laugh and talk shit like normal bands do, the only thing that we do not have, is a record. In every other regard, it is my band. 

Darrin: So, when do we get the record?

Nate: Exactly!! **laughs** Believe me, it is being talked about at great lengths, as we speak. I would love nothing more, than to be back here with you n 6 months, having an interview with a CD release date.

Darrin: Well you know we are going to do that…right? I get the exclusive!! **laughs** 

Nate: I would love that to happen. I hope everything works out and it goes that way. 

Darrin: Who set up the Iceland gigs?

Nate: Iceland was championed by Magni, because he is from Iceland. If you can imagine, he is like royalty in that country now.

Darrin: I saw a talk show over there with him and Dilana. He is a god alright.

Nate: He is. He is bigger than Elvis. We walked through the mall when we were there.  Everyone recognizes and acknowledges him in some way, whether or not they mob him and ask him questions, or for autographs, or a couple will walk by whispering..It’s Magni!!!

Darrin: It looks like Magni and Dilana are getting along …very…..good. 

Nate: Yeah, they seem to be umm, fast friends. 

Darrin: And, yeah, I am going to leave it at that, because I do not do that type of journalism.  **laughs** enough of that…. 

Nate: ***laughing*** 

Darrin: Why do we not see anything like the Houseband or Paul Stanley in Canada?

Nate: I was really surprised, that in the domestic leg of the Paul Stanley tour, that we did not stop off in at least Vancouver and Toronto.  We were all the way up in Seattle, and that is what, a couple hours drive from Vancouver? Well, I hope we can do more domestically with Paul.  I know he wants to, and that we all want to. We have a wide open summer coming up. 

Darrin: Yeah, I have tried to work on getting Rafa and Magnetico up here, but there are always the details to work out.  Rafa is great though.  He is one of the beautiful people in music. 

Nate: He really is. That is another thing that I love about this band.  It is not often that you can put together a group of talent like this, and have them get along musically, and personally. It is not that it is blissful.  It is definitely not blissful, we have disagreements, and musical debates, but we can do it in a positive and productive way. It is really amazing.  There are not 2 of the same people in the band. We are all dramatically different people. I am noit sure if it is a word, but we come together in a very synergistic way. 

Darrin: I can spell it..it IS a real word.  We will chalk it up to artistic license. 

Nate: **laughs** Thank you…I appreciate that. 

Darrin: In one word, describe this person… Carmine Appice 

Nate: Educational. If I needed other words, influential, moustache…**laughs** I gotta say, the thing I appreciated most about Carmine, he wrote this book, called Realistic Rock. As far as I am concerned it is the best beginning drumming book. I studied out of it when I started playing drums, and he really hit the nail on the head.  It is a great straight forward drumming instructional book. It is kind of a bible of beginning drumming.  I do not mean beginning drummer, I mean no disrespect at all, but for someone pursuing drumming, and reading drum charts. I will forever be indebted to him for writing it. 

Do I get any more word association questions?  That was actually really fun!!

Darrin: Let me think.  Jimmy’s Chicken Shack 

Nate: Best unheard of band ever. 

Darrin: You turned me on to them.  I love what they do. 

Nate: Now you have to do it again, and say 24/7 Spies. 

Darrin: 24/7 Spies

Nate: Best unheard of band ever. 

Darrin: **laughs** 

Nate: It is funny, I listen to a lot of obscure unheard of stuff.  It sort of boggles the mind that people have never heard of some of these guys. Once on tour, I was sitting with a guitar player, and I think I was listening to Jimmy’s Chicken Shack, it was a particular killing track, and I said “Man..you gotta check this out!!” and he said “Oh, what is it, some obscure band you are listening to, because the rhythm section is slammin’?” I just looked at him, sighed, and said “Never mind”. **laughs** 

Darrin: Well, I know you are not only into rhythm sections, because you are a Nirvana fan, and while the drumming was amazing, the Krist the bass player was no Sasha Kristov. 

Nate: Mentioning Nirvana, I have mentioned this on another interview. How Nirvana took the whole music scene, and turned it upside down. In the 80’s if you had a killer shredding guitar player, it did not matter as much as what the rest of the guys in the band were doing. If you had a shredding guitar player, you had a band. 

Darrin: Yeah, and I think Kurt and a lot of the grunge movement really hurt the musical part of the rock scenen in the early 90’s. 

Nate: That is the point I was making. With that, if you had a killer rhythm section, you had a band. Kurt Cobain was a guy that could string together a few chords, but he was backed up by the craziest slammin drum beats that people had heard in a long time. The first time I heard the drum fill that takes you into Teen spirit, it was like the skies parted, and these beams of light were shining down upon the Earth, and I was like, “This is where it is going!!!” 

Darrin: I liked that era a bit, because it let slacker players like me to be in a band, and write tunes that people actually thought were cool.   

Nate: **laughs** I think what it actually did, was put a lot of focus on a different part of the band. I have to admit I was a bit of a musical snob, before Dave Grohl came along. Dave helped me understand the beauty of simple slammin simplicity. That is not at all meant to be disrespectful. I am not saying he is a simple drummer, it does not have to be, 5 against 4, or superimposing this rhythm over that rhythm. Sometimes it can be all about Boom Bap, Boom Boom Boom Bap. Played in the pocket with huge amounts of energy. So it feels like it is pummeling you when it comes out of the stereo. That is a gift man. 

Darrin: Hah, I used to go to an open mic night.  There was a great drummer there, named Chris Murraydriver.  Murray, could DRIVER ER.  I used to wear shorts, and the hair on your les would move with the kick drum.  If he had a piece of stick come off, it stuck into ya.  He is awesome. 

Nate: I have been umm..a frustration to some engineers, because I tend to hit, well, a little hard.

Darrin: **laughs** oh yeah..just a bit…. 

Nate: An engineer will say to me… “You know, umm, it would almost sound more open, if you did not hit them so hard…” and I kinda look at them and say “ ….yeah?”   

Darrin: You have a CD out.

Nate: Yes, I have a CD out, with my band, that is called Dooty Bug. It is a collection of rock, and reggae and hip hop, it is a bit schizophrenic. By my own admission.

Darrin: Who does what on the CD? 

Nate: The majority of the record is myself, and a friend of mine named Sean Hallie. I am doing 95% of the lead vocals, and I am playing drums, I think I am playing bass and keys on a couple of tracks, and the majority of the drum programming. Sean is playing guitars on mostly everything, and bass on almost everything. And I have a few good friends of mine that are on a few tracks as well.  It is called Playground Philosophy.

You can get it on CDbaby. Or you can get it through my website. 

Darrin: What got you started on doing your own CD? 

Nate: Well, I have been and continue to be a side guy. And I started writing that when I was at a point where I said, “I spend  a lot of time and energy making other peoples’ music.” Or at least, hopefully, helping make it come across true live. Whatever I may be doing in whatever context. For other people.  Which is great. It pays my bills and I love to do it. Then I kinda thought that I would put some tunes together.  Then I could do it without any sort of limitations at all. I think I was playing in a band with someone at that time, and it really was not a rock band, and I was constantly being told, it is too loud, or it should not be played like that. And I appreciated that, and it was what my role was at that time, but I need a creative outlet. I needed to do something where no one could tell me that I could not play that particular rhythm on that particular song. I allowed to come out, whatever came out.

Darrin: It came out very cool. 

Nate: It was really important.  You know, my record, it is funny, there are parts that are tongue in cheek.  I do not fancy myself as a songwriter, with an important message to get out. It was just a project that I could enjoy doing, and enjoy getting out there, that other people could enjoy and listen to. I think that everybody needs that. And everyone needs something that they can throw themselves into, and answer to nobody else with it. 

Darrin: That is important, and I think people lose sight that drummers are important as musicians, and can compose as well. There really are not that many band leaders that are drummers. 

Nate: Not many at all.  There of course is Phil Collins, Dave Grohl… 

Darrin: Kelly Keagy does, as well as Peter Criss did some writing. Random musician for you again: Neil Peart 

Nate: Phenomenal drummer for Rush. He fits that band better than any other drummer could possibly have done. I did go through a phase, where Rush was all I listened to. My musical journey has been an interesting one.  I grew up listening to what my parents played at home, mostly my father, which was, Jimi Hendrix, The Commodores, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, George Clinton, Van Morrison, Peter Frampton and others. 

Darrin: That is a wide scope of listening. 

Nate: Precisely. And the next thing, a good friend of mine, who happened to be the leader of my high school garage band, Dave Sitek, who is currently in a band called TV on the Radio, and they are doing very well. One day in like 9^th grade, Dave Sitek says to me, you need to hear this band called Fishbone. And I went “Fishbone?” I was not listening to rock music at this time. So, I put it in, and that was the end of the R&B phase, and my whole world changed. Fishbone became one of my favorite bands. Then I heard Neil Peart on Rush records, and this is halfway through high school, and it was like,,what?  There is a drum solo on a record? I was listening to R&B and hiphop in this phase, and it was all drum machines and programming and things like that. The idea of a drum solo on a record was unfathomable. I heard Neil Peart do the YYZ solo on Exit Stage Left, and that blew me away. It was like “Guys, this is the best drummer in the world”

From there is grew into me listening to more jazz, like the Chick Corea Electric Band, where I heard Dave Weckell play, and that took it to another realm. What they were doing on a musical level, was something I had never heard before. From the orchestration of it, to the rhythmic complexity, to the drum solos, they just tore it up.  So I went through an era where that is all I listened to. That led me more to jazz. That led to Coltrane and all those other amazing artists. That lasted all the way through college. The important thing is, every time I opened a new door, I brought the past music with me.  And it just added to my arsenal.  Even when I am going to clean the house, and I go to my CD collection, to find music to clean the house by, I am just as likely to grab a Peter Frampton record, as I am a Miles Davis record, or a Soundgarden record or even a Rage Against the Machine record. It could be anything. I enjoy adding ingredients to what I listen to. 

Darrin: So when did the Animal and Muppet Show phase hit?

Nate: **laughs** That would have been at about 4 years old man. It was my earliest influence actually. At 4 years old, I am a hyper kid, you can probably tell from this conversation that I still am.  I turn on the Muppet Show,  and here is this friggen mad Animal, going berserk!! So at 4 years old, I show this, and I thought, “I can relate to this.” 

Darrin: You do know, that you have the same neck tick, headbang and generally playing style..right? 

Nate: **laughs** I have been briefed.

Darrin: I watched some old footage last night.  From the first show.  All you need is a big red wig, and carve some drumsticks from a couple of baseball bats, and you are good to go. Then you need to do a gig like that.  Get the yellow t-shirt 

Nate: Don’t put it past me. **laughs** 

Darrin: I am dead serious.  I wanna see it happen. 

Nate: You know what, should I get the big nose too? **laughs** That WOULD be funny.  A friend of mine recently got me the first season box set of the Muppet Show. It was really amazing stuff. 

Darrin: It had meaning for kids, and adults, on different levels

Nate: I sat and watched and thought “No wonder I loved this so much when I was a kid”. There is so much music involved and stuff going on. 

Darrin: I am taking you to the near past and present now.  I have said before, that I liked the first season of the Rockstar show, a lot better than season 2. The music was a lot cooler, the song choices were varied and amazing, to the point where it sucked waiting for the next week’s show. The second season, the musical choices seemed flat, the show did not have the same excitement, you knew that Lucas would probably win, and it just did not seem as cool and genuine. What is your view on that? 

Nate: You can just print that.  You do not even have to ask me.  Just print that. 

Darrin: **laughs** I talked to Paul Mirkovich about this too, and he had great points. Just, have the show become a show about great singers.  Have the Houseband play with them, pick the best singer.  Have a panel of producers, and road managers and the like.  Have the winner cut an album with the Houseband, put them on a major tour with like Aerosmith, and hit the road on tour for 3 months. 

Nate: Done.  Done deal.  I would do that gig in a second.

Darrin: Hell, I would finance that show.  It has the potential to be HUGE. 

Nate: Where do I sign?  It is cool., because Paul is right, as are you.  The novelty of a band looking for a singer is already getting tired, and really, how many big bands are there that will do this? But, every summer, there are tons of huge tours out there.  The Police, Van Halen, Ozzfest, you name it. That is a renewable resource, every single year. 

Darrin: Paul is very wise.  I would love to see that happen in a Season 3. 

Nate: You are preaching to the choir!! 

Darrin: Excellent.  I am glad we could have this discussion. **laughs** I noticed that Jason Newsted did not stay with Supernova for long after the end of the show. 

Nate: You know on the cartoons, when a character is standing there, and they take off really fast, and they leave a cloud of smoke, in the shape of their body? And the cloud slowly dissipates? That was Jason Newsted. Seriously, the finale ended, I looked over where Jason was sitting, and there was the cloud of smoke. **laughs** He was outta there so fast. 

Darrin: Wow. I guess it was not for him!! But he plays for Voivod, and I love him for that. Jason has always had integrity. 

Nate: Simply put, with INXS you had an open minded panel, of people that were ok with seeing the boundaries of what people could do, in different genres. They had 100 years collectively of playing music, and 25 years as a band. They were more open minded to other styles, and contrast.  With Supernova, it was about BRING ON THE ROCK!!...We want ROCK!!! It was 2 different mind sets. 

I guess the best way to put it, was this time around it was limited to what the singers could do, and limited in the styles that they could perform. Contestants were doing great songs, but they were so under the gun to bring the ROCK, that it hurt them. They happened to make some poor musical decisions because of that. I think everyone learned a lesson from that, and it is ok to make mistakes and learn from it. 

Darrin: I also missed the stuff in the practice room this time around, where you would rehearse with the singers.  That was awesome. I remember JD wanting to change up Queen in the first season, and Rafa’s expression was..blank and Paul was saying “That really is not a great idea…” It made it so damn cool and real. 

Nate: Darrin, did you ever see the Webisodes?  They are online, and they did a ton of that stuff, that never made it to TV. You will get to see all the sideways glances in the rehearsal room.  *laughs** 

Darrin: Aha…I have watching to do!!....One word musician description again..Marty Casey 

Nate: Phenomenal. Intense. Great Front person. Focused. Determined.  He was always ready to work, he never came in late with a hangover, but the first guy that was there, saying, “Let’s work on this” 

Darrin: Rafa Moreira 

Nate: Devastating. Amazing. Terrifying. I say to Rafa all the time, that my only regret of being in the Houseband is that I never got to play with him sooner. I wish it could have happened years earlier. He has to be one of the best guitar players I have ever played with in my life. He has such a love of music. He loves music as much today, as the first time he ever picked up a guitar. I love him. 

Darrin: Sasha Kristov 

Nate: Solid.  Rock solid. He has saved me many times. I have gone into some crazy fill, and thought..What am I doing?  And he was there to bail me out. He will always cover my ass. Sweetheart, sincere,  

Darrin: Hell of a painter 

Nate: I was just going to say, multi talented. When I look at his artwork, with all due respect to his bass playing, I ask him why the hell he plays bass. 

Darrin: Paul Mirkovich 

Nate: Focused.  Organized, super talented, professional.  Versatile. Babysitter.  **laughs** he will know that means.  Print it if you want to. Of the 4 members of the band, Paul is the one on who’s shoulders keeping us in line falls on. That is his role, and he takes great pride in it. He does an awesome job at it. It does have to be somebody’s role. **laughs** He is a great, great musical director. 

Darrin: Last question, and I will make it a name association question again.  Nate Morton 

Nate: Trying. Working.  Trying to get there. Hopefully I will figure out what I am doing one day. **laughs** That is about the size of it man. It is an ongoing thing. I am thrilled and happy with the amount of things I have been able to do so far. Not for one second can I kick back and relax on that though. I always feel things can be more solid. This could be more in the pocket.  

Darrin: Nate thank you so much for all your time… 

Nate: No problem, it was fun!