Paul Szmal: Back on FLX Morning here on Finger Lakes News Radio, it is 7.52 and again we're at 66 and happy to welcome back a guy that we talked to just about a month ago and that was Nate Michaels and Nate is going to be back at the live at the Vista at the Seneca Lake Resorts tomorrow. Nate, what's been going on in the time since we last chatted, man?
Nate Michaels: A whole lot of shows and some sunshine. Yeah, how was the first gig turn out?
Paul Szmal: The first, it was perfect. It's always nice down there. The weather's, you know, the weather doesn't really affect how good of a time we have because that big tent.
Nate Michaels: Mm-hmm. It's a good. Mm-hmm. Now, correct me if I'm wrong. My memory might be a little bit fuzzy. Were you talking about working on new music the last time?
Paul Szmal: Yeah, so I was in the process of releasing. I had four singles to release. I've released three of them so far.
Nate Michaels: Right. And then I think in October, we don't have a date set yet, but I have one more to release but then later October I'm going down to record a couple more songs. So you're doing singles more than actual albums nowadays?
Paul Szmal: I'm working my way up to an album.
Nate Michaels: Ah. So, you know, being an independent artist, I don't have a label that's paying for the recording that I have to pay back through sales or whatever. I'm fronting all the money myself, you know, with the support of all of my fans, you know, buying merch and stuff. And that's how I'm funding all of my recording.
Paul Szmal: Right. So it's literally a crowdfunding experience.
Nate Michaels: Yeah. If everybody wants to hear my music and they participate in making it happen, I think it's a beautiful thing.
Paul Szmal: Does that give you a little bit more creative freedom, do you think, working in that kind of a mode versus having to deal with the label and A&R people?
Nate Michaels: Yeah. The way I see it is I'm my own boss now and the moment I sign a piece of paper with people giving me money, I'm not my own boss anymore. So I have all of the creative freedom, whether that takes me up or down.
Paul Szmal: Tell me about the single that's going to come out. The next one is called Gravity. It's a song that I wrote for my wife a couple of years ago. And I just I related it to the fall season. So I wanted to wait and push it off until fall to release it. It's a love song.
Nate Michaels: Now, there's something wrong with love songs, man.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, I like the love songs. Nothing wrong with that at all. Do you find that you write more love songs than you do other things or does it is it just kind of when the muse hits you and what happens happens?
Nate Michaels: There are times that I write some really wacky stuff. And there are times most most of the time it's it's centered around relationships. It's centered around the human heart, whether it's love or if it's frustration, love of a different kind, you know, between father and son or whatever. It's always something to do with the heart. It's never really about booty shaking or anything.
Paul Szmal: Right, right. So yeah, every artist kind of finds their niche in that regard where they're comfortable or it's the sweet spot where they tend to find the most creativity.
Nate Michaels: Mm hmm. Yeah, this is mine. For sure.
Paul Szmal: We're talking with Nate Michaels here this morning. He's playing live at the Vista tomorrow night at the Seneca Lake Resorts. You've played down there now a bunch of times, I imagine.
Nate Michaels: Yeah, I'm a regular since they've opened. And I think I've been there at least six times.
Paul Szmal: Do you find the fan base follows you around where you go?
Nate Michaels: Yeah. And I find that it grows every time I play down down there and other places that have people from out of town around me, you know, my fan base has been growing since I started. And it's that's it's been a really organic growth, too. It's never been paid for. So I'm happy to get myself in front of people and have them actually like me and return that that like into a into a like on Facebook or a like on Instagram or follow.
Paul Szmal: Right. And then as far as the as far as the music goes, when do when the single comes out, where is that going to be available?
Nate Michaels: Everywhere. It'll be on Spotify and iTunes, you know, the two most popular Amazon music. I'm not sure about Pandora. I really don't know what the deal is with that. Everything's different nowadays. And streaming in general is way different than getting your stuff on the radio.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, I was going to say, it seems so different nowadays in the way that you get your music out because you're dealing with a lot of these different streaming services that used to be, you know, you would go to the record company and you record the single. They go ahead and press the press the vinyl and put it in record stores and people would go buy it. And that's completely gone.
Nate Michaels: Yeah. You'd be broke for a little bit, too, waiting for people to buy your your album. That's why I've taken a lot of my stuff off and we've put it on my website, things that I actually had online before I took them off, because I wanted to cut out the middleman for downloads because I wasn't making anything on, you know, the music that I worked hard on. And whether or not it's radio quality stuff, if people like the songs, they'll have the opportunity to download them from my website, which is natemichaelsmusic.com. And there's a bunch of links on there to stream or to download.
Paul Szmal: At least one of the advantages, too, with the way you're doing it is you own your own music.
Nate Michaels: Yes, I do. And, you know, referencing back to the whole Taylor Swift saga, where she had to fight to get control of her first six albums and finally did. You never had to worry about that sort of thing from day one.
Paul Szmal: Correct. And I never had to worry about having too much money, either.
Nate Michaels: What's the long-term goal?
Paul Szmal: Long-term goal is to be a songwriter. I love what I do, and I would do this indefinitely, as long as I could learn new songs, because sometimes playing a song a thousand times makes you not like it. But, you know, I've got enough people that ask for things that it kind of forces my hand to shift and to learn new things, which is great. It's great for growth as an artist, and it's great to keep things fresh for my fans.
Nate Michaels: All right. So, Nate Michaels again. natemichaelsmusic.com is where you can go to find his music. The new single will be dropping sometime shortly.
Paul Szmal: Yep. October. There you go. Probably October. Yeah. Look for the new song. It's called Gravity.
Nate Michaels: Yep. That's what we're playing at the Live at the Vista at Seneca Lake Resorts. That is coming up tomorrow night at the Seneca Lake Resorts at Sampson State Park. It's 7.58 on FLX Morning.
