For singer, songwriter and guitarist Matt Nathanson, it's difficult to not think of life on the road as a home away from home. He has played 600 shows in 400 venues over the last several years in a music career that dates back to 1993.
For Nathanson, existence in transit can be characterized in no other way than as being bittersweet since it's the constant touring that has earned him a stout grass-roots following across the U.S. This is partly responsible for his deal with Universal Records but has also kept him away from his wife and permanent residence in San Francisco.
Born in Massachusetts, Nathanson began playing the 12-string guitar in sixth grade since it was this kind of guitar that all the 1980s big-haired, metal rockers - bands like Poison and Def Leppard - were using at the time for songs like Poison's "Every Rose has its Thorn."
"I had this coolest teacher ever when I was in sixth grade. You could bring in any song and he would figure out all the guitar parts that made up that song. During the course of the lesson, he would teach you," recalled Nathanson. "So, I learned how to pretty much play guitar that way."
Nathanson, who graduated from Claremont McKenna College, one of five independent undergraduate universities in the San Bernardino area, didn't pick up a six-string until college. It was also at this time when Nathanson discovered people like Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Neil Young, and Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground.
"You don't necessarily move on from the people you dug as a kid but you have to augment it with things because you become multifaceted, hopefully," remembered Nathanson. "In college I had a really good friend who schooled me and broke me open to a whole other world of music. It was stuff I didn't know existed, and Dylan did change my life. I know everyone says that but it's true, he's just such a bad ass. I was so ready to receive that kind of music at that time in my life that it almost came at a perfect moment."
Nathanson, now 31, released five albums - the debut "Please" in 1993 - as an independent artist with his last in 2002 entitled "Everything Meant Everything." Over the years, he has toured in support of his work. Fans have traveled near and far to catch one of Nathanson's shows mostly due to word-of-mouth promotion with a Web site that accumulates more than a million hits each month. In the past two years alone, Nathanson has played 250 shows.
He inked a deal with Universal last fall and recorded his latest work, "Beneath These Fireworks," in 2003 which was produced by Ron Aniello (Guster and Barenaked Ladies). The new album is a departure from his past work in that it features an entire band rather than the usual acoustic vibe comprising Nathanson, his acoustic guitar, and cellist and longtime friend Matt Fish.
The album is pop music heaven with incredibly rousing choruses on virtually every mid- to fast-tempo song, and quaint and exquisite melodies on the slower tunes. The lyrics enhance the mood of each song and cover everything from vulnerability, lost love and escaping one's emotional baggage to a sense of spirit and the realization of contentment, most of which were co-written by Mark Weinberg.
"He and I are best friends, and so we sort of have the same interest when it comes to what songs should do. So when it comes time to write songs we just sort of sit around and 'geek out' and try to impress each other with our ideas (laughs)," said Nathanson. "Writing solo takes a really long time for me. Things are kind of stalled on the detail of the song, and it's kind of like puking out all of your ideas and weeding through them later and refining them. It's the same concept when collaborating but when Mark is around for me, I don't get caught up in the details as much."
On "Beneath These Fireworks," Nathanson had the chance to work with a group of seasoned studio musicians like drummer Matt Chamberlain (Brad Mehldau, Tori Amos, Fiona Apple), bassist Sergio Andrade (Lifehouse) and guitarist David Garza (Juliana Hatfield), while Glen Phillips, a former member of Toad the Wet Sprocket, added a few harmonies over some of the songs.
"I made a master list of people, and Matt was the No. 1 drummer and so on. When I brought the songs to them I kind of let go of everything. I mapped out everything and the idea was that if I have these great players, it's going to be better to let them really play these songs," explained Nathanson. " I went in with pretty detailed songs and I let the natural order of things happen. They just rocked it."
Nathanson, whose influences range from U2, Bob Dylan and R.E.M. to Def Leppard and Poison remembers his first musical memory was when he first heard KISS.
"When I was a little kid my parents used to listen to 'Annie' and 'Oliver.' They were into the Broadway musicals and my dad listened to people like Ella Fitzgerald, but I didn't grow up in a place where music was constantly happening," added Nathanson. "I grew up in Boston and so for me it was the Monkees, maybe, and metal. KISS was the first band that really affected me, they were bigger than life itself. I can remember when I was 5 or 6 being totally terrified of it and at the same time totally into it."
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