An Interview with Nate Young of Anberlin
Alicia: Please introduce yourself and the part you play in Anberlin.
Nate: Nate Young, drums
Alicia: You guys are currently out on a fully acoustic tour. How have the shows been so far?
Nate: Really good, I mean this is one of those things where we weren’t sure how it was going to be. Just cause it’s so different for us, just with the arrangements, just with everything. It was an idea that we had a while ago that we weren’t able to do yet and then being at the end of our cycle with this record we just wanted to do something different rather than just doing a regular tour. It’s been going really well. We practiced for a little while and getting it all together was so different compared to our normal set. So far it’s been really good and we’re pumped. We’ve been talking about maybe doing it longer at some point and more across the US. But it’s been really really fun.
Alicia: Where did you come up with the idea to do an acoustic tour?
Nate: Actually I think it came up, last year we played Australia and we did an evening with over there and played for two and a half hours and in the middle of the set we had a kind of broken down acoustic part. It went over really well and we really enjoyed it and it was a ton of fun. So then on our last fall tour, the one with Switchfoot, we did a few songs that way. It was fun and we really wanted to do more that way plus like I was saying before we usually play more rock and aggressive. It was cool because we listen to a lot of chill stuff and we’ve always wanted to do that. We didn’t know if it would work out, taking our songs and making them more chill, and it gave us an opportunity to play more of our chill songs cause we’ve written a lot but we don’t really get to play them live. It was just an idea that we were throwing around that just kinda stuck.
Alicia: How did you decide what songs to play?
Nate: That was kind of the hardest part because it was hard to decide whether or not to take the songs that we always play and rearrange them or to just play more of the chill ones. That took a while, that was what was the hardest process just getting them all together. I think what we landed on was that we wanted to play some of the songs that we wouldn’t normally do cause like I said we thought of just doing the songs we normally do and making them more chill. So we decided to just go for songs that we normally wouldn’t play live, like the ones that are already chill. But we’re still playing the songs that do normally but it’s more of the rarities I guess.
Alicia: How did you go about arranging the full band songs as acoustic songs?
Nate: Christian did a lot of that; it was a lot of his idea. We actually got a lot of inspiration from YouTube videos from fans because they would record covers really cool and really different. I remember Christian showing me a bunch, like this one girl played one of the songs just on piano and it was a heavier song and it was awesome. So we kind of took that idea from different people doing different stuff and we just kinda threw it around when we were practicing. Like someone would start doing something different and we would take the song and work it out from there. It was a group effort.
Alicia: You guys recently finished your new album, is that correct? What can you tell me about it?
Nate: We’re very pleased with it. We went back with Aaron Sprinkle, the guy who did our first three albums and we hadn’t worked with him since then so it had been like 5-6 years. It was cool, we were really comfortable going back with him and we all stayed really close with him. Going into it we weren’t afraid to try anything cause we were so comfortable. Last record we did with Brendan O’Brien, who’s kind of a big deal, and I think we were nervous at first because we didn’t want to let him down I guess. With this record we were just so down with just trying whatever and we didn’t hold back at all. The majority of the record is more aggressive than what we did before. I guess aggressive is the best word, I wouldn’t say heavy. We just wanted to do a bunch of stuff that we haven’t done before, like different instruments. More aggressive I would say.
Alicia: You’re playing on of your new songs on this tour. How has the reaction to it been?
Nate: Really good, it’s been really fun. IT’s cool to be able to play a song way before the record is due to come out, to be able to arrange it. The response online has been really good so far. We’re really excited about it.
Alicia: What is your favorite venue to play at?
Nate: That’s hard. 930 Club in Washington, DC is really cool. It’s just a good sounding venue. It’s not really around anything, which is kind of a bummer, like it’s just in a crappy part of town but the venue is great. Probably that one.
Alicia: What is the best gift that you have received from a fan?
Nate: Forever ago, some girl, I think she worked at like Urban Outfitters, and I don’t know how she did this, and I would feel bad if she actually bought it all, but she brought us bags of cameras and coffee and mugs. I almost felt kind of bad, it was awesome but it was really too much. At the time we were like ‘This is awesome!” That was probably the craziest gift we’ve ever gotten.
Alicia: What does the rest of the year have in store for Anberlin?
Nate: After this we go home for about a month and then we’re just getting into album stuff. I think we’re going to South America for a little bit and then we’ll be back. Then we’ll be doing radio shows and some acoustic stuff, basically just getting ready for this record. We’ll tour in the fall right around when the record comes out and we’ve got to learn a whole new record so we’ll be doing a lot of practicing and getting ready. Once the record comes out, you’re pretty much working for years on that record. We’ll probably do a lot of internal stuff, music videos and all that stuff until the record comes out and we start touring.
Check out Anberlin on the following sites: Website Facebook Twitter Myspace
Nate: Nate Young, drums
Alicia: You guys are currently out on a fully acoustic tour. How have the shows been so far?
Nate: Really good, I mean this is one of those things where we weren’t sure how it was going to be. Just cause it’s so different for us, just with the arrangements, just with everything. It was an idea that we had a while ago that we weren’t able to do yet and then being at the end of our cycle with this record we just wanted to do something different rather than just doing a regular tour. It’s been going really well. We practiced for a little while and getting it all together was so different compared to our normal set. So far it’s been really good and we’re pumped. We’ve been talking about maybe doing it longer at some point and more across the US. But it’s been really really fun.
Alicia: Where did you come up with the idea to do an acoustic tour?
Nate: Actually I think it came up, last year we played Australia and we did an evening with over there and played for two and a half hours and in the middle of the set we had a kind of broken down acoustic part. It went over really well and we really enjoyed it and it was a ton of fun. So then on our last fall tour, the one with Switchfoot, we did a few songs that way. It was fun and we really wanted to do more that way plus like I was saying before we usually play more rock and aggressive. It was cool because we listen to a lot of chill stuff and we’ve always wanted to do that. We didn’t know if it would work out, taking our songs and making them more chill, and it gave us an opportunity to play more of our chill songs cause we’ve written a lot but we don’t really get to play them live. It was just an idea that we were throwing around that just kinda stuck.
Alicia: How did you decide what songs to play?
Nate: That was kind of the hardest part because it was hard to decide whether or not to take the songs that we always play and rearrange them or to just play more of the chill ones. That took a while, that was what was the hardest process just getting them all together. I think what we landed on was that we wanted to play some of the songs that we wouldn’t normally do cause like I said we thought of just doing the songs we normally do and making them more chill. So we decided to just go for songs that we normally wouldn’t play live, like the ones that are already chill. But we’re still playing the songs that do normally but it’s more of the rarities I guess.
Alicia: How did you go about arranging the full band songs as acoustic songs?
Nate: Christian did a lot of that; it was a lot of his idea. We actually got a lot of inspiration from YouTube videos from fans because they would record covers really cool and really different. I remember Christian showing me a bunch, like this one girl played one of the songs just on piano and it was a heavier song and it was awesome. So we kind of took that idea from different people doing different stuff and we just kinda threw it around when we were practicing. Like someone would start doing something different and we would take the song and work it out from there. It was a group effort.
Alicia: You guys recently finished your new album, is that correct? What can you tell me about it?
Nate: We’re very pleased with it. We went back with Aaron Sprinkle, the guy who did our first three albums and we hadn’t worked with him since then so it had been like 5-6 years. It was cool, we were really comfortable going back with him and we all stayed really close with him. Going into it we weren’t afraid to try anything cause we were so comfortable. Last record we did with Brendan O’Brien, who’s kind of a big deal, and I think we were nervous at first because we didn’t want to let him down I guess. With this record we were just so down with just trying whatever and we didn’t hold back at all. The majority of the record is more aggressive than what we did before. I guess aggressive is the best word, I wouldn’t say heavy. We just wanted to do a bunch of stuff that we haven’t done before, like different instruments. More aggressive I would say.
Alicia: You’re playing on of your new songs on this tour. How has the reaction to it been?
Nate: Really good, it’s been really fun. IT’s cool to be able to play a song way before the record is due to come out, to be able to arrange it. The response online has been really good so far. We’re really excited about it.
Alicia: What is your favorite venue to play at?
Nate: That’s hard. 930 Club in Washington, DC is really cool. It’s just a good sounding venue. It’s not really around anything, which is kind of a bummer, like it’s just in a crappy part of town but the venue is great. Probably that one.
Alicia: What is the best gift that you have received from a fan?
Nate: Forever ago, some girl, I think she worked at like Urban Outfitters, and I don’t know how she did this, and I would feel bad if she actually bought it all, but she brought us bags of cameras and coffee and mugs. I almost felt kind of bad, it was awesome but it was really too much. At the time we were like ‘This is awesome!” That was probably the craziest gift we’ve ever gotten.
Alicia: What does the rest of the year have in store for Anberlin?
Nate: After this we go home for about a month and then we’re just getting into album stuff. I think we’re going to South America for a little bit and then we’ll be back. Then we’ll be doing radio shows and some acoustic stuff, basically just getting ready for this record. We’ll tour in the fall right around when the record comes out and we’ve got to learn a whole new record so we’ll be doing a lot of practicing and getting ready. Once the record comes out, you’re pretty much working for years on that record. We’ll probably do a lot of internal stuff, music videos and all that stuff until the record comes out and we start touring.
Check out Anberlin on the following sites: Website Facebook Twitter Myspace
