Well, a simple answer could be, “You’ve gotta start somewhere, right?” But in all reality, it’s a bit more involved than that. As I’ve mentioned in another post, I’ve used music as a way to interpret and navigate my emotions for a while, and that music was all created by other people.
There’s something pretty special about finding a song that puts into words something you’ve struggled to say yourself. Sometimes you hear a song and think, “Yeah, that’s exactly how I feel.” Other times, you hear it at a completely different point in your life and suddenly it means something entirely different.
That’s a big part of why I wanted to start with covers.
These songs already have meaning to me. They’ve been there through different parts of my life, and each one carries its own memories, emotions and stories. Recording them gives me the chance to take something that someone else created and put my own interpretation on it.
I’m not trying to recreate the original recordings. If I wanted to hear the original version, I could just press play on Spotify. What I want to do is take the songs I connect with, strip them back, and see what happens when I make them my own.
There’s also something quite daunting about putting yourself out there for the first time. Writing an original song means putting a piece of yourself on the page before anyone has even heard it. Starting with covers gives me a way to learn the process - recording, performing, producing, sharing my music - while still working with songs that I already have a connection to.
And eventually, I'll start to release my own music (and yes, I have some in the pipeline already...)
That’s probably the biggest reason I’m starting here. Covers aren’t the destination - they’re part of the journey. I want to learn what kind of artist I am, what kind of music I want to make, and how I want to express myself before I start telling stories that are entirely my own.
For now, though, I’m enjoying taking songs that have meant something to me and giving them a little piece of myself.
And who knows - maybe somewhere along the way, I’ll create a song that means something to someone else in the same way these songs have meant something to me.
— Nathan