In light of Jersey's Sunshine Festival this weekend; the UK's own alternative singer-songwriter Nathan Ball tells me what he's looking forward to most about visiting the picturesque island of Jersey, and his answer captures it's essence perfectly;
"Getting in the sea actually, a few of us surf in the band so we’re quite excited to see the sea because we’ve been cooped up in the studio for a bit. Also, everyone we’ve met from Jersey seems to be a good laugh so I’m hoping the gig will be good fun."
You started playing guitar at the age of 14, can you remember what the first song you ever learnt was? Or the first original song you’d written yourself?
"I think the first song I ever learnt was a Green Day one, might’ve been Time of your Life, big fan of them. I can’t remember the first song I wrote, but I remember when I was in a school band and we wrote a song called Luck is a Lady [laughs.] It was a fantastic song."
Do you enjoy the writing process, mixing process, or the performance side of the music more?
"Performance, I don’t have a huge interest in the mixing. I kind of leave that to the producer. I enjoy being in the studio but it’s not my passion to be sat at a computer all the time. And writing I love, but it can be very frustrating when you’re on to a song and you think it could be a beauty and then you get to that stage where you struggle to finish it off, which can get infuriating. But performing is just awesome, absolutely love it and it’s the best part of it for sure."
It says on your Facebook page that you moved into the mountains for a little while, where exactly was it you went and what experiences did you gain from it?
"I went and lived in Switzerland for a bit and was just snowboarding for a season for about seven months. I just had to get away after university really ‘cause the last year of it had been quite hectic with work and I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. All my friends were getting into jobs and I just kind of thought, ‘nah I’m going to get a bit of headspace for a bit’ and hide away."
You’re said to enjoy nature from mountains, to the sea, to the woods. So out of all places why have you chosen London as your home?
"[Laughs] Good question! Just for where we are at the moment with music you just kind of have to be. We’ve just got so many meetings going on, recording, and most of the band live here as well as most of our shows being up here. If we’re playing abroad we can also fly from here, it’s just so much easier at the moment for productivity really. It’s so we can be together or be at meetings within 20 minutes rather than a six hour drive up from Cornwall for a meeting that usually gets cancelled anyway. I tend to spend half the year in Cornwall and half the year up in London."
You’re a singer-songwriter but include other musicians in your band; do the other musicians ever come up with song ideas or is it all mainly down to you to write the material?
"I tend to write them and then I’ll take them to Max, our guitarist, and then we work on them together and record little demos and he’ll play drums on the keyboard on it and then just build it up from there. I’ll start out with the ideas or sometimes I’ll just totally finish them, but I work on them with Max quite a lot, which is fun to get someone else’s take on it I think."
You’ve played a few dates here and there in Europe and have said that the European’s are a lot more accepting and laid back to your music compared to those in the UK. What’s the worst thing you’ve experienced over here with regards to terrible audiences?
"Luckily we haven’t really had it recently but it’s just the atmosphere you get in Holland as they’re very much on your side. You arrive at a gig and you feel the buzz and the audience wants you to have great show; they’ll be singing along, clapping along and wishing you good luck. Whereas in the UK they kind of stand back and are like ‘right, impress me,’ which is quite rewarding as an artist to try and overcome that get them on your side. When I first started out playing gigs at 17-18 when you don’t have a fan base you’re going to be playing to 4 four people which are your parents and the sound man [laughs.] But we’ve been lucky ‘cause we’ve got some really awesome fans so we’re lucked out at the moment, nothing too horrible yet but I’m sure that’s yet to come."
In an all round positive review on the UpAndComing, they’ve said that ‘This British artist won’t win any prizes for originality, right now the music industry is not in short supply of emotive male singer-songwriter types.’ But for you personally, what do you think is different about yourself to other people doing the same thing you are?
"I think we have a lot more of a band sound and the newer stuff have like War on Drugs, The National kind of vibe and I listen to a lot of house music so I get a lot of inspiration from emotive deep house music and that covers that area. I wouldn’t class it as classic singer-songwriter at all actually, but hey, some people are going to write that when they see a picture of one person with a guitar."
You’ve released two singles already, Right Place and Cold Hands, are there any plans for an album in the upcoming future?
"Ah-ha, an exclusive for you. Well there’s one written, I’ve written an album. We’ve got loads of songs ready to go but for us it’s just waiting for the right time because at the moment it’s working just releasing singles. You can kind of do a whole campaign around each one and people get excited for each single and every song has been single worthy. But there are some really nice songs that would make very good album tracks that wouldn’t work as a single but I think at the moment it’s just waiting for the right time. It’s just getting it right, I certainly know that you only get one shot at a debut album and I’d like it to go well, so I think we’ll just keep building organically like we are at the moment."
You’re sharing the bill with other musicians from the likes of Norma, Tadhg Daly and Reef. Who are you most looking forward to seeing?
"I’m looking forward to seeing Reef, I think they’ll rock it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen them play. I don’t really know how to pronounce his name, is it Tadhg? He sounds ace, everyone really. Norma as well, they sound awesome. We’ve lucked out on a four person bill, but everyone looks great so no one stands out, everyone I think."
Nathan Ball will be performing at The Water Splash on Sunday 28th May.
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