Nate’s Poetry in Motion! 15/4/13

Image compliments of Shazz White

Nate McCartney, brains behind local group Dramatic Tiger Club has seen some recent success with his not so much singer but songwriter style. Nate’s delivery is unlike anything else in the City. A cross between, rap, spoken word and true poetic talent and let’s not forget the acoustic guitar under his arm. Nate describes how he started in music and developed this unique approach.   

“I started playing piano when I was about six and I gave it up because I was terrible at it. When I was about ten then I was given the option of playing double bass at school and I took it. I started that properly and played double bass until I was about 15 or 16. I got to my grade 8 but then in the interim started playing bass guitar. I started playing in bands and stuff. When I turned about 14 I wasn’t able to work yet and I wanted money so I taught myself how to play guitar  just so I could go busking and I haven’t stopped playing guitar since. I was never really a great singer so after my book came out a couple of years ago someone said to me, “Why don’t you just write stories and put them to music?”, more like spoken word over music as opposed to what I’m doing know which is more folk. That’s how I started off doing what I’m doing now and how I got here.”

An eclectic taste in music is certainly a good thing, Nate mentions a guilty pleasure as well as some acts who have had a big influence one his music. “I have a ridiculously eclectic taste in music, my favourite band range from anything from the Backstreet Boys. There’s a guy who recently, in the last couple of years I’ve started to watch a lot of and listen to a lot of called Watsky and he’s a rapper but his turns of phrase and everything else is fantastic, he’s a wee white boy from America and brilliant. A huge influence when I was playing bass in the first place was Ian Dury and The Blockheads because the bassist for The Blockheads is unbelievable but then in turn Ian Dury became a huge influence when I started doing what I’m doing now. It’s the same kind of idea again, spoken word almost, he could never really sing either. A more recent influence in the last few years would be Jamie-T as well, love Jamie-T.”

To be starting out and doing something you haven’t seen done before must be daunting enough but Nate actually set up his first gig before he’d even written his set. Raising to the challenge he had a set-list finished in two months and made his debut. “The first gig I did was in the Culture Tech Festival and I’d only written one song at this point, not when I did the gig but when I was first offered the gig. I’d written one song and sent it over knowing I’d write more and sent it over to Mark Nagurski and he offered me a slot on the same night as the Japanese Popstars so I had like two months to write a whole gigs worth of stuff. The first gig wasn’t exactly packed out, we were in the cafe and they were upstairs but the people who were there enjoyed it. It was sort of one of them thing where I hadn’t really gotten my footing yet but the idea was there and I think people enjoyed that more than anything else. I had a couple more gigs, some I the Nerve Centre, the Jammhouse in the Playhouse and then a few in the Castle as well. The ones in the Castle were the main ones then because that where I started to get a lot more people showing up and they were specifically for me and Conor Hutcheon and people we knew were coming. A couple of gigs there might have been 50 or 60 people there which doesn’t seem like a lot but in the Castle it’s packed out! That’s when I started enjoying it more because people were reacting to it better. The last gig we did then, the Firstsource singer/songwriter competition and that was the best reaction I’ve ever had for anything I’ve done with my own stuff in my live. People singing along and that kind of thing, it was fantastic. I'm really excited about the whole thing. I assumed, and this is probably because of my lack of investigation into the whole thing, I assumed the prize was going to be a lot less than it was. I thought we were going to play the Music City Festival and maybe get a small voucher but we ended up getting tonnes more. Not even any of the actual prizes like the recording or the vouchers, I’m excited about them so don’t get me wrong but what I’m most excited about is getting a chance to sit down with Paddy Glasgow, Stephen McCauley and Charlotte Dryden to hear their thoughts on what I’m doing and what I could be doing better because they’re big names in the industry. Then playing the Music City Festival which is apparently projected to have 30,000 people coming to it, it’s overwhelming to an extent. Hopefully the more people that see what I’m doing the more people that will enjoy it.” 

Nate explains that as a result of his recent success he’s going to have the opportunity to do something he’s only been able to do before in the comfort of his own bedroom or even shed. He’s looking forward to a new direction and knows what he wants. “I’ve recorded a lot of my stuff but only in friends sheds and bedrooms, I’ve spent a lot of time doing that but I’ve never been in a proper recording studio for my own songs. I’ve done session work for other bands and other artists when I was playing bass and guitar. The main thing for me now is that I’ll be sitting in a recording studio with full control of what I want to do and what I have to do.”

“The recording I have up online are all quite, there’s a lot computer production and distorted guitars, effects and drum beats in every song. What I want to try and do now it to strip it all back so it’s just going to be myself and Niall on acoustics. When I was playing before in The Castle and stuff I was bringing up a laptop and basically had created my own backing tracks and was playing along to them. I don’t want to have to do that anymore because I have the band with me and I think it will be better and nicer. When I’d spoken to Paddy Nash before the competition, as part of the competition, I played him a couple of songs and then he went home and listened to some more recordings online and it was him who said I should just be doing it acoustically. I’ve come to that conclusion as well.”

Have a listen online at https://soundcloud.com/dramatictigerclub or if you’re one of the 30,000 projected for the Music City Festival 21^st June you can check out Dramatic Tiger Club live!