Nathan Seeckts is one part the Dead City Lights musician, and the other part a highly narrative soloist. We had a chat with the local legend about his new release, how his solo work compares to the band and what’s next.
Hey Nathan, thanks for talking with Forte! How’s things been tracking for you?
Yeah really well. I’m just about to jump on a plane to Las Vegas. I’m heading over to the USA for a couple of months to travel and play some shows in support of the new EP. By the time this is in print I’ll be in Mexico working on my tan. It’s going to be horrible!!
A Man Possessed is your third and latest solo EP- how has the process evolved this third time round?
I really took my time with this one, compared to the last couple. I started tracking guitars at the end of last year, and in between releasing The Dead City Lights 7” and getting married, I managed to track the rest of it over about four or five months this year. Recording everything myself has meant that I haven’t been constricted by time. I also invited a stack of awesomely talented friends to help me out with tracking extra instruments and vocals.
When you start the writing process for new body of works, is there any lessons or inspiration that you take from your last body to the new? Or do you like to work with a blank slate and let the chips fall where it may so to speak?
I was really picky with which songs I would put on this release. I wanted people to hear a development in my writing and performing since Oceans. I axed two or three songs because they were a little too similar to ones I’d released before. Once the recording started and people started coming in to add their own flair, the songs began to evolve in ways I’d never imagined. I had Alister Turrill come in and lay down some resonator guitar for ‘Wheels Up’ and it suddenly became this really rootsy, driving number. It was awesome.
You’re also in the band Dead City Lights, has there been any crossovers when writing for the band and writing for your solo EP where something that hasn’t quite fit for one project has been used for another?
When I’m writing a song, I’ll pretty quickly work out if it’s a band number or if I’m going to keep it just for me. I’m really lucky that I get to have the best of both worlds with the band and the solo work. The only track that started as a band song and migrated onto the solo EP was “Lean Into Me”.
It just seemed to work better stripped back. On the recording I had Blackie from the band track some electric guitars because I loved what he’d come up with when we had played it live.
The title track A Man Possessed is quite visceral lyrically, the opening lines being “hard and full of pride/we were shooting the breeze on the day you died.” It’s quite a heavy song and given that it’s in that country genre, with the gravelly vocals and stripped back guitar, it gives it a lot of heart.Is there a particular way that you approach singing and performing songs like these?
I honestly have to be really careful of not getting caught up in the narrative of that song. Because as you said it’s such a heavy song in terms of the story that’s being told. I can sometimes get swept up in the emotion of it all and it can really mess with you. It’s also a case of taking the audience to that place and then bringing them back to you, so I tend to follow it up with something a bit lighter in tone.
Is there a particular track on the EP that is your most favourite to perform?
Without a doubt ‘Tigerlily’ and ‘A Man Possessed’ are my favourites from the EP to play live. ‘Tigerlily’ has got a really great hook in the chorus that I love to sing and is a great little story, and ‘Possessed’ has some really cool little guitar parts and that ‘kick you in the guts’ kind of story that I personally love to listen to.
And lastly, as this is your third EP… can we next be looking forward to an album?
Next year I want to have a full length album out. If I hadn’t been going over to the states, this would have turned into an album. I wanted to make sure I had something new to promote over there, hence why it’s EP number three and not an album this time around.
Release: ‘A Man Possessed is out now via iTunes and Bandcamp (nathanseeckts.bandcamp.com)