104: Nate Wood

Nate Wood is an extraordinarily gifted, natural musician. He’s a drummer, bassist, guitarist, singer-songwriter, mixing and mastering engineer. Raised and educated in Los Angeles, he joined the band Kneebody in 2001 (along with former Third Story guest Ben Wendel).

Eventually Nate moved to New York where he has been a fixture on the scene for years, working as both drummer and bassist for the likes of Donny McCaslin and Wayne Krantz. In fact, it was Nate’s love of the music Krantz was making that helped to motivate him to move east. 

With Nate Wood, Brooklyn, April 2018.

Although in recent years he has started to gain notoriety among musicians and hardcore fans, he’s still (in my opinion) greatly underappreciated, particularly as a drummer. But that’s starting to change now, in part due to his new project “Four” which features Nate playing drums, bass, keyboards and singing simultaneously. 

Here he talks about why screwing around is so important to creativity, what’s so special about 83bpm as a tempo, what ever happened to swing, and that ongoing Third Story question: should I move to LA? Because he’s so multifaceted, this interview is filled with Nate saying “but that’s a whole other conversation….”

fOUR is a project recorded in 1 pass by Nate Wood with no overdubs, and/or pre-recorded backing tracks. Instruments used: Gretsch USA Custom drums with Istanbul Agop Cymbals Moollon P Classic Bass Korg Minilogue Korg Monologue My music: https://natewood.bandcamp.com https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/nate-wood/id1271546704

Kneebody performs "Uprising", the first single from their new album 'Anti-Hero' at Braund Studios. Download / Stream 'Anti-Hero' - https://kneebody.lnk.to/Anti-HeroID Video features the track "For the Fallen" With a constantly evolving sound that incorporates electronic music, rock and hip-hop, Kneebody has established itself as one of the most forward-looking groups in jazz.

"better if you try" is the 6th fOUR video. fOUR is a project by Nate Wood recorded live in 1 pass with no overdubs, click track or pre-recorded backing tracks.

Kneebody + Daedelus On Tour Now! For dates and tickets visit kneebody.com/tour Kneebody + Daedelus - Drum Battle From "Kneedelus" out now on Brainfeeder Available at: Brainfeeder: found.ee/kneedelus iTunes: found.ee/kneedelus-it Spotify: found.ee/kneedelus-sp Filmed and Edited by: Alex Chaloff (Bucket's Moving Company) Drum Battle Written By: Ben Wendel

The episode features a short introduction from me and Nate’s old pal, pianist Randy Ingram.

It’s a great one. Enjoy.

In this week’s Spotify playlist hear some of the songs we discuss in our conversation. Listen here.