Nathan James – Akasha

By starrymag | January 10, 2022

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

 

 

Q) How would you describe your sound?

 

A) I would say my sound is still being developed since I’m such a new artist, but what I’m discovering is I love to make my sound a mix of sexy and heavy. Some songs may include single elements or both elements. There are two types of influences when talking about another music artist: sound and image.

 

Q) Who are some of your musical influences?

 

A) The artists that influence my sound are Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, Nine Inch Nails, Deaf Tones, Staind and Attila. For image that would be 80’s hair metal type influence, Marilyn Manson and David Bowie.

 

Q) How did growing up in Denver help shape you as a musician and photographer?

 

A) It didn’t. What helped shape me into a photographer and music artist is when I had a career ending injury playing college basketball. I had two surgeries on my left knee: one freshman year and one sophomore year. The latter surgery ended my basketball career. My mom had sent me a camera in the mail when I was playing basketball at Casper College in Wyoming. I would go out and start taking photos in this one alley downtown and sometimes I would put the camera on a tripod with a self-timer and then run in front of the camera and pose. After doing that, the same year I got into hand painting custom shoes. I would do custom designs or restore them to look new. I would get a lot of requests from my teammates and classmates to customize their shoes and I would charge anywhere between $100-300 for a pair of them. This was when I realized I could make a career based on my art. Taking photos of the finished shoe product led me into doing body painting on women, which led to me realizing I just really like taking photographs of people. That’s how I started to dive into my photography career. For my music, in October 2019 I did my first ever fine art photography gallery named “Nightmares” and they were six photographs I shot that were each named after different insecurities I’ve gone through in my life and often times what others have experienced in theirs as well. The names of the photos are:

 

Do you give a fuck?

Am I good enough?

Is this how it ends?

Can you hear me?

Am I alone?

Why Can’t I Feel Anything?

 

From doing this gallery I wanted to add another art medium no photographer has done, that I know of, which was make my own songs that describe the mood and story of each photograph. I made 6 songs and they all sucked. I never put any of them out, but I learned I love making music and I wanted to get really good at it and fully pursue it as a long-term career. That is what I’m currently doing and when I’m 70 or even till I die I plan on keeping this same energy towards music.

 

Q) What made you want to step aside from photography for a bit and pursue your music?

 

A) I’m not stepping aside from photography. I will always be a photographer. I put just as much work into both outlets, but right now my main focus is to grow my music career as well as continue my established one in photography. I’m a photographer rockstar!

 

Q) Talk about the story behind your new song “Akasha.”

 

A) There’s the literal meaning and there’s the metaphorical meaning. The literal meaning is it’s a song about extreme lust and love and takes inspiration from the move Queen of the Damned which is about two vampire lovers. The metaphorical meaning holds more resonance with me because, for me, the story is written in sound and how the sound makes you feel, not just the lyrics. I like sound that feels cinematic and can paint a picture in your head to create whatever story you want in your brain. It gives the listener freedom to create their own story, essentially.

 

Q) How did you come to work with drummer Stixx Taylor on the track?

 

A) I was at a party, and we have already known about each other and had small talk here and there. He came up to me and said, “When are we going to do a song together?” And I said, “I have a record that would be great for you to do drums on.” He said he wanted to link tomorrow, and the rest is history.

 

Q) What do you think it is about the song that fans connect to?

 

A) The beautiful thing about music is something can be said by me but interpreted completely different depending on who is listening. The beautiful thing about “Akasha” is it gives off an intense feeling and mood, and that feeling, and mood will find the story in the listeners brain of what relates to them. This song was inspired by the iconic movie Queen of the Damned and Akasha is the name of the queen vampire in the film.

 

 

Q) How does the video for the track play into the message behind it?

 

A) The music video took an entirely different direction after it was shot. There were all sorts of problems around the production of this music video due to cancelations, last minute changes and lack of execution from the production team of the video. I ended up needing to use people I have never worked with before and, as a result, our visions just did not properly align. There almost wasn’t a music that came out. What we ended up doing was creating a visualizer by picking the best highlighted footage from the original music video and creating a fifteen second looping montage that plays throughout the entirety of the record. This was the best option in order to not sacrifice quality and overall, the best solution to the problem.

 

Q) What is your song writing process? Do you need music before you can create lyrics?

 

A) My songwriting process is keeping notes in my phone that are words, phrases or ideas that I think about throughout the day. When I get to the studio, I’m very active with the producers on creating an instrumental and from there I like to think of what kind of setting the sound gives off. After that I just try to find lyrics that portray and fit that cinematic setting. All the lyrics stem from actual moments in my life.

 

Q) How much of hand do you have in the production of your music?

 

A) All of it. I’m heavily involved in the entire process of creating my music.

 

Q) Will there be a full album or EP coming out in the near future?

 

A) Yes, hopefully sometime within the first six months of 2022.

 

Q) Where are some of your favorite places to perform and what makes those locations so significant to you?

 

A) I haven’t done many performances because I’m a new artist that emerged during COVID. The opportunities to perform have just been limited for all of us. So far, though, my favorite show I’ve had was a concert that was staged and set up behind an Auto-Zone in a field in Santa Monica. Two to three thousand people showed up and the music was so loud the show got shut down and I was only able to perform one song before the cops showed up and turned off the power. But it was the most lit rager ever!

 

Q) You shot Machine Gun Kelly’s album cover for Tickets to my Downfall – which is basically everywhere these days! Talk about getting to work with MGK. As a photographer, who haven’t you shot yet that you’d love to work with?

 

A) Shooting the MGK album cover was super cool; very last minute. I ended up getting a Facetime call from his drummer, Rook, and it was MGK on the line. The conversation went something like…

“Hey, what are you doin’?”

“Chillin’.”

“I want you to shoot my album cover.”

“When?”

“Right now.”

As far as artists I haven’t shot, I would love to shoot Billie Eilish, Ozzy Osborne, Marilyn Manson, Drake and Taylor Swift. I mean the list could go on.

 

Q) You are a part of social media. Why is that such an important way for you to connect with your fans?

 

A) It’s important because that’s the most immediate and intimate way to have constant engagement with your fan base.

 

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?

 

A) I would like to say… I fuckin’ love you. If I don’t have people that support me and what I’m doing then the art can’t be shared and appreciated by anyone else, so thank you.