Band Interview: Spirit Adrift

Ahead of the release of their brand new album, Enlightened In Eternity, Games, Brrraaains & A Head-Banging Life had the pleasure of chatting with Nate Garrett (Vocals/Guitar/Bass) of Spirit Adrift. What follows is a transcript of some of the talking points from the interview. The full thing can be heard on YouTube, Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

You can read our review of the new album here.

Nate, it is a pleasure to speak with you. How’s your day been?

It’s been alright, just been doing a few interviews promoting the new album, so I am in the zone for sure. Thanks for having me.

You’re now at that period where it’s all press, press, press in the lead up to the album. Do you enjoy this side of things?

Yeah, I do, actually. I enjoy talking about music and what inspires our music and that sort of thing. I will say that this press cycle has been way, way more intense than any that I’ve ever done in the past. But yeah, by and large, I enjoy talking to people about music and that sort of thing.

It must be kind of exciting than from your perspective. Is the reality is beginning to hit that you’re becoming a bit more of a worldwide name?

Yeah, it’s cool, you know, we’ve only been a live band since May of 2017. Before that it was a solo project starting in 2016 when we released our first material and we’d only done one European tour. That was last year, September of last year.

That was probably my favourite tour that we’ve done. Partially because I was able to relinquish a lot of my responsibilities. Usually I’m doing merch, doing a lot of the driving and booking the hotel rooms and this and that and singing and playing. That European tour I was not driving. I was not doing merch. I was not responsible for room and board, managing any of that stuff. So it was really cool and the shows were great. The response was just really overwhelmingly positive, and it seemed like our music was really resonating with people.

I feel like Europe and the U.K. and maybe even South America and Japan and those markets are like the key audience for this band. I feel like metal never went away in those in those places. It peaked in the 80s and then it just stayed big and never really went away. Whereas here in the States, I feel like it kind of had its ups and downs. And I feel like right now it’s kind of a lull, which we’re trying to correct as hard as we can.

Do you consider the early days of the band, as you say, when it was a solo project as a kind of good set up for what we’re going through these days?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately because there’s a new model, there’s a new model for metal bands and rock bands, and if you look at a lot of them. Successful up and coming metal bands are kind of like solo studio projects that turned into real bands and I put Spirit Adrift in that category as well.

You know, back in the day, if you wanted to make a record because of the limitations of technology, you had to have a band. You had to have someone that played drums and guitar and possibly second guitar, bass, et cetera, et cetera. You all had to play at the same time in the studio. Now, you don’t. You don’t have to do that. I still think that’s a superior way of doing things because you got a real chemistry that you don’t really get when you do everything separately.

But, you know, I think people are figuring out, Oh, if I can play drums and guitar, bass and sing, why not just make the record myself and then if people like it, I can get some guys and teach them the songs. That’s what happened with Spirit of Drift. Although I would say that Marcus is a full-fledged member of the band now. He and I are the core of the band and we’ve just figured out a system that works really well and we’re proud of the music that we make.

You know, one day I would like to record an album, live with a full band. I think that would be really cool but for this pandemic situation, we kind of have a perfect situation.

It’s been incredible when you talk about the origins. It has been a phenomenal rise. So a forced, quiet 2020. Do you think that’s beneficial for both you and Marcus? As a chance to take a breather?

Yes, I’m so glad you asked me that in that way, because so many people are like, what are you guys going to do when the record comes out?

Nothing.

We’re doing a live stream on Saturday, October 17th, the day after the record comes out, on Century Media’s YouTube channel, there will be a live stream of us playing some new songs and some old songs. It’s free, so look for that.

I recorded the first stuff in 2015. Since then, every single waking moment and quite a bit of non-waking moments, I’ve been completely consumed with music and I have missed a lot of the most significant events in my own life, or I’ve only been halfway present for them. With my other band, I had to cut a tour in half so that I could go get married.

When my wife and I got engaged and we were trying to set a date, we both just kind of laughed because we were like, no matter what date we set, there’s going to be a tour or something happening. Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened.

So when the album comes out, I’m going to completely focus on my personal life, kind of disappear into the woods until it’s time to perform, at which point as soon as they let us, we’ll be on tour for sure.

It sounds well-deserved.

Thank you, man. I’m happy. I get to kind of chill out for a few months, finally.

Of course, right now, it is the build to the release of the full album Enlightened in Eternity. Where’s your head at regarding it now?

The fact that we can’t perform live from the beginning of the promo cycle, I was just brainstorming all day long every day, what can we do? What can we do in lieu of touring, to promote this album, to get this album the attention that it deserves, to make sure that it doesn’t just come out and die because there’s no touring. And I as always, I took on way more than I meant too.

It was pretty stressful there for me because I manage the band but as of yesterday, pretty much every big project is finished. Today I’m feeling good, man, I’m feeling like very, very relieved that everything that needed to happen before the album came out has happened. And of course, even though I wanted it to be done a month before the album came out, here we are a week before the album comes out, but we got it done. So it’s alright.

What about musically, in regards to how you wrote this album, have you moved on mentally from it at this stage?

Yeah, because I wrote the songs in the spring of 2019 and recorded the very first versions of the demos back then. I then wrote this whole album during a pretty brief, but much appreciated window where I was really feeling happy and doing well and I had a lot of inner peace and I think that’s reflected in the material.

Shortly thereafter I had a lot of personal turmoil and everything that’s going on with the world and this upcoming election. Where we’re just being inundated with constant negativity and doom and gloom and apocalyptic warnings and every negative thing that you could have. We’re just being, like beaten over the head with negativity.

So, yeah, I’m definitely in a different space, I just feel…I don’t know, I don’t feel necessarily depressed or anything like that, I feel like a lion that’s just covered in scars and battle wounds. One that is just determined to keep going forward. That’s kind of how I feel.

I’m still, you know, writing music. I have about 10 or 12 new songs demoed since the pandemic. I just feel a lot of peace despite what’s going on, and I just feel I feel very accomplished. I’m super proud of the new album and I’m really excited about the new songs that I have, too. So, I just I feel very battle worn, but determined to get through it.

Well, it’s interesting when you talk about the positive feelings that the writing of this new album has given you, because you only have to hear it to kind of get that. Clearly, you are aware of all of this while you were doing it, right?

Absolutely, the first song that I wrote was the opening track Ride Into the Light. I didn’t even mean to write a new album, I really didn’t even want to write a new album because I was pretty worn out from the whole process of the previous album.

So I was like, let me just write a song that’s just unquestionably metal as fuck, and there’s no mistaking what it is. There’s no pretence about it and it just celebrates everything that’s bad ass about really heavy, powerful, triumphant metal. So that song came together and of course, with that goal in mind, I wanted some lyrics that reflected those themes as well. I just had a vision of this album being like the spoils of victory and being more of an enjoyable thing for myself personally.

So the lyrics started coming together and then the cover art started coming together. I was like, well, the last album was all about war and violence and anger. So it’s like we’re leaving behind the ruins of a battle, basically. And we’re riding away and we’re riding into the light. So the riffs and the lyrics and the cover art and the album title all kind of organically came together as I was working on that first song.

You describe the new album as this ode to heavy metal, so to speak but then we get to the final track Reunited in the Void, and it is something of a closer. Do you consider that risky for this album?

Oh, yeah but I love taking risks. In fact, I don’t feel good unless I’m doing something that I’m worried about as far as how it’s going to be perceived or how it’s going. And the truth is, deep down inside, I don’t really care all that much if people like my music or not. I’m making music for people like me who need it to feel better and to help them get through life. For people who like the same type of bands that I like, so if somebody doesn’t like it, it’s probably not for them and that’s fine.

I never worry too much about that but it was definitely a conscious thing to shock people and throw people off and just kind of started as like an inside joke to myself.

How comfortable are you with the modern requirements of being in a band? The social media aspects and the need to be ever present presence online?

I fucking hate it. I’m I’m good at it because I have to be because unfortunately, the days of being judged totally on how good your songs are long gone. I don’t know that they ever fully existed, but I think it was a little more of that case in the 70s for sure. But yeah, I fucking hate it, man. Nobody is who they say they are on social media.

People’s attention span is so short that you just have to beat them over the head constantly just to get the fucking time of day from anyone. I have been doing less and less of it and it feels good and the band continues to succeed. So I almost kind of begin to doubt how accurate it is when people say that you have to give them content and you have to have social media.

I’m not so sure that that’s true. I think it might still be that at the end of the day, the music is the only thing that matters. I fucking hate social media, but I do it because they told me that I need to.

Links

Website | Facebook | Instagram