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The Piedmont Highlander

The Piedmont Highlander

Nate Peden dives into a life of songwriting

Nate+Peden+dives+into+a+life+of+songwriting

As he trudges down Oakland Ave, senior Nate Peden does what he always does: he tunes his ears and listens. He notes the bright treble of leaves falling in fluttering flocks; the hollow bass of distant shipping containers on asphalt; the steady rhythm of cars rolling through crisp air. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. The street is whispering its song to him.

He records it all.  Because to Peden, this is not just an autumn walk; it is potential ambient noise for one of his songs. Ever since he began writing music — for Peden it was when he first touched a piano at the age of four — he has never stopped thinking about ways to improve his craft. When he finally got a guitar for his 13th birthday, Peden was exposed to a new world of music. And he never looked back.

“Pretty much every day since then I’m compulsively trying to write a song,” Peden said. “There are moments in life that make me feel so overwhelmed, that make the world spin — like talking to your crush as a kid — and I feel as though if I don’t put them in a song I’ll fly off the face of the Earth.”

As for the songs themselves, Peden said they are too much a part of him to describe in words. Instead he compares them to images, like sitting on an overpass at night as a torrent of cars passes below his feet. Or watching the sunrise as he sips on lukewarm coffee after a turbulent and sleepless night.

“Some songs are more unsettling, fatigued, somber,” Peden said. “All of them carry a certain resignation, or catharsis, but with a subdued energy.”

A Personal Craft

Strangely, Peden does not plan on studying music in college; he wants to keep it as his own intimate pursuit. He does not have a SoundCloud or any other way of publishing his work to the public, only voice memo recordings on his phone. Even during his first and only gig at Gaylord’s café, he refused to be tipped.

“They offered to let me put my guitar case out in front so people could leave tips and stuff but I opted not to because I just thought it was a good learning experience,” Peden said.

Peden is a regular visitor at Gaylord’s and knows the owners well.

“One day I was kind of hopped up on caffeine and saw that they had a keyboard but I’d never seen anyone use it, so I asked the owner if he’d be open to me doing a gig there and two months later I did it,” Peden said.

It was a successful venture, Peden said, and he is currently working with a friend to set up an open mic at Gaylord’s.

“It’s so that musicians can watch each other and give each other feedback and kind of create a community around Gaylord’s,” Peden said.

Peden hopes that this will help him develop his music. Though he has a “very elementary” knowledge of keyboard, harmonica, mandolin, bass, saxophone and clarinet, the vast majority of Peden’s 40 or so songs are just him and his guitar. And this is how he plans to keep it for the time being, Peden said.

“I’ve thought a lot about adding other instruments, like horns, piano, sanxian, synths, flute or harmonica, but I feel like too many instruments can make a song soggy, especially when I’m not super proficient with them,” Peden said. “I feel more vulnerable and more honest with just my guitar, and I don’t have to worry about losing the message behind a cacophony of sound.”

His process for writing songs is inconsistent, and there is no practical way to guess how long a song will take to make, Peden said.

“Some songs come immediately. I can just hear the chords and I know what I’m going to do, and I can get it done in like an hour,” Peden said. “But I’d say more often I come up with like a basic guitar part and over the course of the day refine it, and then over the course of the next few months eventually lyrics will come to me.”

Songwriting is a daily process for Peden; he said it often takes precedence over schoolwork.

“I normally write bits of guitar parts every day, once in awhile one of them will resonate with me and I’ll really feel it, or it will pull me into a vivid image, and those are the ones I tend to put lyrics to,” Peden said. “The former lends itself to more chaotic, confused songs whereas the latter tends to produce vignettes.”

Peden has hundreds of inspirations; among the most important to him are the Tallest Man on Earth and Nick Drake, and even writers like T.S. Elliot and James Joyce. But after he hit a wall of creative disillusionment, a band called Neutral Milk Hotel made him seriously resume his songwriting passion.

“One day I listened to them and I was like, ‘Holy shit. That’s what this is about,’” Peden said. “They introduced the world of music as a passion to me rather than technical skill, and it was something to really bring meaning to your life.”

A Lifelong Passion

Peden said songwriting started out as a fun childhood inclination but has grown into something far greater.

“I’ve found that music is a really good way to convey a point or a message and learn a lot about yourself,” Peden said. “It’s kind of your responsibility as an artist to take it seriously and treat it as a serious passion.”

Ever since Peden touched a piano at four years old, he was inclined to write his own music.

“I just naturally did it as a kid and I realized as I got over the significance of it and how to fine tune it,” Peden said. “I just remember that my first song was about motorcycles.”

As he got older, he would continue to write music on a keyboard at his friend’s house. But what he really wanted was a guitar. After years of begging, his parents finally succumbed. He finally got his own guitar on his 13th birthday, and that night he wrote his first guitar song.

“It was terrible. But pretty much every day since then I’m compulsively trying to write a song,” Peden said.

Senior Daniel Champion has played guitar with Peden since 7th grade.

“He passed me in ability pretty quickly. We sometimes play our songs for each other and he’s really developed his own unique voice and style,” Champion said. “His talent is all in his hair.”

Soon, however, he lost his sense of purpose and ended up nearly quitting songwriting.

“I hit kind of a wall where I felt like I wasn’t really putting myself into it. I felt like I was emulating others, and I wasn’t really sure if that was what I wanted to do,” Peden said. “I was trying to get myself into other fields where I could like make money and have stability.”

Fortunately, Peden decided to stick with it. He does not plan to look back.

“Ideally I would be a musician for the rest of my life,” Peden said. “It’s a huge part of who I am and something I’m very devoted to.”

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