Today we’d like to introduce you to Nathan Brown.
Nathan, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I started playing in bands and booking shows regularly while attending Auburn University in Alabama. I was studying architecture at the time. Auburn was a very college town and the venues primarily showcased easy going college rock. Producing shows in houses and small independent venues was a great way to champion the underground musicians who lived in town or were touring from all over the world, and to get many different types of people together to collaborate, fraternize and inspire one another. Because the clubs were all focused on the mainstream, little house shows would fetch folks from many unlikely musical spheres…and they played shows together and supported each other invariably. I did it because it was inspiring and the community felt stronger for it.
When I moved to Atlanta in 2002, I wanted to continue this process and started volunteering at Eyedrum Art and Music Gallery where I quickly moved into the position of Music Director. Through the very hard work of people who had preceded me, the place had gained a reputation for being a spot that supported non-mainstream art forms. I kept this role for well over a decade, producing and promoting sometimes up to 4 or 5 events a week. And it was all worth it. It was during this time that I met like-minded musicians and started forming bands.
The cool thing about Eyedrum was that I could continue helping to bring outsiders together and had a resource for doing that any way I could imagine. So I started doing my annual Respite event…an anti-festival of sorts where patrons could enjoy atmospheric or ambient music while reclining and enjoying warm beverages on or around the solstice and get a little bit of peace among the otherwise hectic holiday season…all of this while not having to worry themselves over spending money (they’ve always been free) or bustling among the typical eager or rowdy fans of more rock and roll events. Performers would get a chance to workshop new ideas or explore new sonic palettes.
During this time, I also ran a small cd-r label called Robotfishy Music that attempted to document some of this bizarre and unique local music and the scene at the time was really fascinating and diverse. I did this for a few years before realizing that I just didn’t have the time for it.
I quit Eyedrum a few years back due to too much internal drama and it ended up being quite freeing. I suddenly had a lot of time to focus on my own creativity which included working out of my modest home studio. I started working more on my own music and began producing, mixing and mastering albums for local musicians. This was the start of the Holy Amalgamation and it persists to this day.
More time also meant branching out into other mediums and I began focusing on both my visual art and my writing. An architectural education provided a terrifically holistic foundation for all of this and I believe that there are echoes of it in all of the areas I try to explore. I integrated my continuing study of science and my appreciation for the seemingly mundane into my work. This has resulted in my latest set of drawings which explore a mythical idea of a sand rocket from the end of the universe. Although it’s not real science, I try to make analogies to some real ideas that are out there about time, string theory, and extra-dimensional possibilities. The writing supplements this. It’s a series of short stories that I am weaving into a book. It first presents the idea of the sand rocket and follows with a series of parables that relate to various theories surrounding the rocket’s existence, supplemented with a whole lot of content that is basically re-appropriated tales from my childhood.
Currently, I am still producing events and since they are fewer in number, I am able to spend a little more time with them. The flagship shows are the Respite event I do each winter and the Shape event in the Spring. Respite focuses on relaxing sounds and Shape focuses on improvisation and spontaneous music, complete with a conducted group improvisation with audience participation. I also host more underground shows at The Geode Abode that are very small in scope to give audiences and performers as intimate of an environment as possible, with a max of about 20 people in attendance. I try to incorporate other mediums into these events such as storytelling, visualizations by local artists, and poetry.
My band Cave Bat has produced 40 albums in just over four years and has been a part of many events since its inception. We have a philosophy in our approach to music and include as many local artists in our soundscape as we can which has resulted in the Clan of the Cave Bat, an encompassing group of like-minded musicians who celebrate the freedom found in groundless composition.
Besides working on my own projects and producing events, I do a lot of freelance things here and there…soundtracks and sound design for theater, film and puppet shows, prop building, commissioned writing, whatever comes along. I’m always up for a new challenge!
Has it been a smooth road?
It’s maybe been smoother than it should have been. I think I’m good at what I do and I love to do it. And Atlanta is chock full of endless resources. After moving here, I quickly learned that if I want to make something happen, all I have to do is look around and find the place to do it and people willing to participate…and these things are plentiful. That said, I think the only “struggles” have been trying to separate the music from any negativity…the drama. I’ve had to cut ties to maintain positivity about the work that I do…as well as to look out for myself. It’s meant a lot more work and a more difficult struggle to get support but I don’t care. I’ll live longer and stronger due to it.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with The Holy Amalgamation/Clan of the Cave Bat – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Musically, I am very proud of the Clan of the Cave Bat. Our music decidedly includes the listener early enough in the creation of a song to be able to hear the errors and missteps, making the process completely transparent and leaving it open-ended enough so that a listener may be able to fill in the blanks with their own expectations and associations. In this way, it almost makes the albums interactive experiences. We are able to continue to work on songs and re-release them in various forms, perform them differently, sometimes turning them into something completely new. Or we’ll just leave a piece where it is to make its own temporal statement. I am honored to have a like-minded band partner in Rob Sepanski. I think that this sort of process has so much potential to fall apart and not work at all without someone like him who shares the vision and really contributes so much ability and brainstorming in a way that has been enormously fulfilling. All of the other artists that we’ve brought into the circle have contributed terrifically and we really do consider them members of the band. And this includes not only musicians but visual artists who have provided us images from which to formulate an associated sonic embroidery.
I don’t have any sort of competitive spirit so I can’t really say that I feel “set apart from the rest” but I can certainly tell you that if you find yourself working with me, you will find it easy, it will go to unexpected places and you will probably make a new friend in the process.
I want to add that if you are reading this and have some ideas but don’t know quite how to start or make it happen, hit me up. It doesn’t matter if I know you or not or what sort of project you’re working on. I’ll tell you what I know, give you some tips or advice and if it ends up being personally interesting to me, I’ll even give you a hand.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I dislike the cliquey nature of the art scene. I think that this problem fluctuates and definitely isn’t utterly encompassing but it occurs to me that there could certainly be a lot more collaboration or even just support not only between different disciplines but among different clubs/venues/even among different styles of music. Atlanta has a great potential to have a scene but true scenes have a unique personality. The only way to incite uniqueness is to let go of boundaries or genres or whatever uniform you are wearing in order to fit in with a small group of people who unfortunately want to think just like you.
I do like that resources are so easy to find. There are enough empty buildings, bedroom musicians, eager participants, open calendar dates and free junk available that there really isn’t any excuse at all to not get a project moving. That and Buford Highway. And Book Nook.
Contact Info:
- Website: cavebat.bandcamp.com
- Email: squidskid@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nathanbrownart/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nathan.brown.92798072
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/clan_of_the_cave_bat/
Image Credit:
Photo in the Geode Abode by Rob Sepanski. NB playing in a green light by Greg Randall, cave bat at Sleeping Partner Studios by Emily Kiser, Photo of some recent drawings by Nathan Brown
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