still 7 months old and I think in a way it’s the
opposite for me. I think it’s relaxed me in a
lot of ways, you know? It’s made me worry
less about myself or my own things … I think
the worry about where you stand with old
girlfriends or any of those things, those things
are getting smaller and less important and it’s
such a relief,” he says.
“It’s very tempting - especially for artists or
musicians - to be single forever and not have
to look out for anybody but yourself, but
there’s a deep mystery to kind of surrendering
your will and taking care of someone else. It’s
not all about me and my desires are not the
most important thing – it gives you a depth,
so that, not that it’s all about being a better
artist, but it definitely helps with that.
“I think you do have a sense of wanting to,
like, prioritise and do good work in your life.
Pick your work .. because you have to spend
that amount of time putting into your family
and making the most of that, it makes you
have more passion to bring to the work that
you do, and you have more to express and
more to draw from.”
Nathan’s latest work is the new Cold War Kids
album Hold My Home, their fifth, spawning
singles such as All This Could Be Yours with
its chugging piano chords and sing-along
refrain, and the impacting First, which Nathan
calls a “morning-after song with the usual
Cold War Kids self-doubt: ‘Who am I, what
am I doing, who are these people, do they
love me ... do I love myself?’
“The songs that strike a nerve emotionally are
the vulnerable ones. But it got an immediate
reaction. I want to still learn what roads I can
go down that are working.”
Plenty of Cold War Kids fans would have
connected with the certain type of vulnerability
in Nathan’s songwriting, evident right from
the early days from classics such as Hang
Me Up To Dry with the lyrics, ‘You wrung me
out too, too, too many times’. But LiQUiFY
wanted to dig deeper, asking what actually
makes Nathan feel uneasy about himself,
reflecting on the vulnerabilities of who he is
and his own abilities.
“That is a great question that really nobody
asks,” he replies, thankfully not hanging up.
“I think that’s kind of an aspect of what makes
a good song and finding how to kinda get to
that place is always the thing. It’s funny, you
know, especially as we’re now as a band,
stable, we’re home for a while, I have a wife