Interview: Nathan Cavaleri
By Sheldon Ang
Once signed with Michael Jackson’s label after a bidding war with Prince and Madonna, Nathan Cavaleri was considered by B.B King as the future of Blues. As a child prodigy, he shared the stage and toured with the likes of his idol Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits), and appeared alongside Jessica Alba and scored a cameo role as himself in Baywatch. Those were the days of Barry Bissell Take 40 Australia, Late Night with Steve Vizard and Paul Keating. 30 years on, he has returned to the limelight – albeit a cosier version of the 90’s stratosphere. We caught up with the singer songwriter and dexterous guitarist on the release of his 4th solo album, Miracles.
Interviewer’s take on Nathan Cavaleri
From our fleeting conversation of twenty minutes or so, it’s apparent to me that Nathan is fused with spiritual emotions, articulating beautifully through the adage of show, not tell. His narrative blend of communication are projected with honesty and sincerity, capturing the essence of a captivating conversation. I was wary about seeking answers of his past, but he was candid about mental illness and childhood leukaemia without prompting, hence giving me comfort to wander into the spectacle of his childhood fame.
His lyrics are engraved in metaphors, symbolism and at times cryptic, while occasionally driven by the contrast of shadows and sunlight. So, it’s unsurprising the connection between the persona and music of Nathan Cavaleri is inexorably intertwined, making this conversation as one of the most captivating interviews that I’ve carry out.
In Retrospect
Sheldon: Someone commented on my press release, ‘Geez he’s all grown up already’, and I was like, ‘Well yeah that was thirty years ago!’ Do you get that a lot?
Nathan: Well, I’m just living my life. I didn’t really know any better but occasionally the way that somebody may word it, it can make me stop and go, ‘yeah I have done a lot.’ I think there was a real sort of a moment when we did “Australian Story” because they needed me to put dates to some of the things that I had done, and so I had this list in front of me that was given to me. Seeing that list make me realised we should take stock of your life – and people should – and to appreciate progress a little better but I looked at that list and I remember so many of those things happened over one to two years. And I’m like, ‘Oh my God did I go from there to there in one year and then here and here and there!’ It was just jammed packed within a space of one to two years. But I think it’s important to every now and then; just stop and remember what you’ve done and the challenges you’ve overcome as well.
Miracles
Sheldon: Good advise. Congratulations on your latest album Miracles. It seems it’s very eclectic; blues, rock, ballads…
Nathan: I just wanted to create something that was true. My last album Demons came about when I was coming out from the other side of mental health challenge…where I was challenged for about 4 to 5 years and I didn’t think I’d be able to play and tour. So I at least got back to that place of writing music – just self expression. It wasn’t about whether I was gonna release it or how I was going to do it or people going to like it. It was kind of like how I wrote music, creating music when I was a kid again, but it was a time of rediscoveries, still trying to find myself and there was some hesitance there. There were times where I run down a little bit by my insecurities. And this album (Miracles) and the space which I created was more about, ‘You learnt enough’ – it’s time to leap and it time to act….have a bit more faith…. and in order to do that I wanted to create something that is true, which meant I had to just take on every single elements of self doubt and just be bold. And so now when I listened back to this album as it is, I am genuinely proud of it and I can hear how bold I had to be, and what I had to face in order to get it.
Sheldon: Your previous album is called Demons and the latest album is Miracles – is it because you felt you have destroyed the demons of the past, and now you’re living in…miracles, considering?
Nathan: You’re the second person in an interview who asked the question – the link between the name of the last album and the name of this album. Maybe it was a conscious thing and I find it beautiful, when you make a decision and then you look back on it and go, ‘wow that’s related to this’ and it’s like deep down you sorta knew it, and consciously understand it. I actually just called the album Miracles as I was working outwards from the song Miracles. If I talk about the sentiment of the song, this came about during Covid where I was getting really tired and at times angry with the constant bombardment of bad news. And as much as what it was important we need to be informed about that stuff, it was almost just warping my sense of the world and reality as a whole and I had to consistently remind myself and widen that lens to include everything in experience.
‘Right – these things are happening here, most of these things are not happening actually here – they’re just precautions, but these are the everyday good things that are happening… all this simple things like just to just to keep myself even saying and grounded in reality and I remember asking myself the question, ‘What if we brought attention to the everyday – the simple good things that happened even you everyday miracles that you just can’t explain because a lot of it is like the fear of the unknown and then I kept saying to myself, ‘Well the unknown often reveals itself to be fine, and so then I started to think about my kids, and one of the biggest miracles for me is childbirth and at times I feel like it’s trivialised – like it’s just that happens every day, let’s just popping out and go back to work. I chose that cover art (of Miracles album) because it was a reminder of an everyday miracles that has been happening since humans being on the planet and it’s also a moment when love seems to transcend in fear because there’s so much risk in there, so many fears that go along when you when the mother is delivering and fears for the father – from the father’s perspective as well, but that love is the reason why they have so much strength to be able to see that experience through the love for the baby, the life itself and then from the babies point of view, it’s that desire to wanna live you know so I don’t use that as an anchor and I feel like miracles as a whole as a concept is it is really good anchor for me just psychologically
Sheldon: The next album could be “Fuck Yeah”
Nathan: (Chuckles) Fuck yeah – probably – you know starting to feel like the next body of work that I create will probably sit in a different space and be a little lighter. This is a deep album. I mean we banged – like there’s a few songs on there that are tongue in cheek and are a lot of fun and all that, but we definitely go to some deep places that’s for sure.
The Singles
Sheldon: The first track of the album is Querencia – that means to draw strength from a place – it could be under a tree or in a forest – where’s your querencia?
Nathan: What drew me towards that word was the origins in bull fighting and how the bull goes into this space of querencia. It’s obvious within the arena when that happens. And it’s a place where it goes within itself to draw strength. It’s a place of refuge and it’s also most dangerous time to attack a bull and I just thought that was beautiful because I love that metaphor on how there’s so much chaos happening…so much adversity that’s happening to that bull. And despite that situation that the bull has a way to be able to draw strength, and when you look from the humans’ perspective is that we can be in a state of chaos… It feels like the world is just you know coming down on us and that querencia for me is within here (pointing to his heart). It’s how I focused my attention as it’s that sort of quiet and peace. It might be deep down within yourself. It’s the anchor. It’s not so much about having an external thing to create that querencia – but it’s something that I can take with me wherever I am in whatever situation. And I’m still working on it. I felt like that was a very liberating concept.
Sheldon: And one of my favourite tracks is Gone to God – it has that late 70s poignancy, nostalgic feel to it but with a modern twist – it remind me of Eric Carmen, Boz Scaggs sort of sentiment. The lyrics is quite dark and disturbed – and depressing. But your vocals is pacifying – and is almost acquiescing – it is very contrasting with the lyrics – so what’s your take of that song? Sad song? Or a song of comfort?
Nathan: Yeah I love that mix – that paradox – that contrast. When I originally wrote that song and I played only guitar. I thought ‘wow this is a sad song’, but the concept itself came from me questioning my own beliefs around mortality and my own spirituality, and I had worked out that I had let science dictate my spiritual beliefs, which was a complete contrast to what I felt when I was a kid. Ironically I was having mortality issues as an adult but I never had them as a kid even though I was battling leukaemia because I had this wonderment…this kind of belief that actually made life so much easier and to be able to face those situations with a little bit more lightness and a little bit more, I suppose – faith. So the contrast comes from a deep topic but I was inspired by my youth and then I brought those together and that was a real goal for me. I didn’t want it to be from the perspective of the loss adult. All I wanted was to be a mixture of the lost adult that’s been inspired by the energy of my younger self – the child – so and that’s what you’re hearing there
The Young and the Restless
Sheldon: Can we go back to the days of Barry Bissel and Steve Vizard…How was it like to be signed by Michael Jackson’s label and to share the stage with Mark Knopfler and BB King?
Nathan: Yeah when you’re a kid you don’t know any better. Life is life and I didn’t really understand what an epic situation I was in – at all. I mean life for me was never just normal because I was battling leukaemia early on then. I get to meet my idol, Mark Knopfler in the UK because of the Starlight Foundation and then I’m doing all these appearances on TV and performances. All of that gave me a sense of purpose and fire while I was dealing with leukemia at that time. And I suppose it was all just this big bundle of joy and there was definitely pressure at times, but my parents kept me grounded. I felt very anchored and there was a lot of love around it. Probably didn’t really shift until I became a teenager and you go through all those natural imbalances as a teenager and that was when I began to feel kind of embarrassed by everything that I had achieved. I didn’t wanna stand out anymore and I sort of buried that for a long time. To be honest, I didn’t really start to face those voices in my head until my mid to late 20s when I realised when I had enough people around me including the mentors, artist look up to you, kept saying, ‘Why you not proud of your past, you know you should be using your name when you’re out there,’ and yeah I suppose that advice came in it at the very perfect time, enough for me to want to challenge all of that.
Sheldon: So this may seems a bit of a silly question to most artist – but could be different to you. Do you feel more comfirtale playing concerts at the MCG and the Sydney Olympic stadium across 7 nights, ie Taylor Swift – or at Blacktown RSL club?
Nathan: Yeah good question! I mean they’re very extreme situations. But if I had to pick – as both are very uncomfortable for me,I would probably say I’d be more comfortable playing at the MCG. I didn’t realise that until I started back again after that big period of taking time off…I was actually playing really intimate sized venues…and I still play at intimidate sized venues. It wasn’t until I ended up scoring a festival gig and then recently supported Caleo and we played at the Enmore theatre and the Power Station in New Zealand to 2000- 3000 people – that I was like wow – this really feel at home on here; more at home here than what I do at those intimate gigs. I don’t know why. Maybe I think the intimacy can be really almost a bit too potent sometimes ’cause you can look into the eyes of everybody. It’s almost like playing in front of your family – I’m way more nervous playing in front of family and friends. The biggest that I’ve played to was in front of about 90,000 people and that was when I performed at the Paralympic Opening Ceremony. What I realised is that 300, 400, 500 people – all kind of blend in. As soon as you get to probably maybe 1000 to 2000 up – the crowd is no longer a group of people. It’s an entity – an energy at mass, and then you can play all the way up to tens of thousands of people. To me there’s not really a huge difference to 3000. And maybe there’s probably another little spike at about the 10,000 mark…but it’s all energy – it’s just all energy upwards. But as soon as you’re in the room with people you can see their eyes, can see their faces, you see how bored they are or whatever it is – that’s different – they’re people.
The Album Tour
Sheldon: Speaking of which, you have a country tour coming up in July 7. What can we expect from that?
Nathan: We’re playing as many of the new songs as we can. It’s not a full band setup although it’s very electric and it’s dynamite at times. I’ve gotta a sort of more unique three piece set up with the another guitarist – some beats are going, Swiss army knife from the left of me – he plays percussion and trumpet and you know a few other instruments. All three of us obviously sing, and yeah I mean I’lI play all of the songs in a similar format to what I did with when I created Demons which was when I string them together with stories. And you’ll know whether from my past, nostalgic reasons or stuff from today, whether it’s sharing some of things I’ve learned through mental health challenges….some funny moments with lots of light shade. I mean, I haven’t seen anybody walked at work out crying yet.
Listen Miracles on Spotify
Tickets to Miracles Australian Album Tour ’23
Website: Nathan Cavaleri
Connect with Nathan on Youtube Instagram Facebook
About the Interviewer: Sheldon has interviewed more than 50 artists including members of KISS, Guns N Roses, Bon Jovi, INXS, Europe, Cold Chisel, Nightwish, The Animals and many more. He was also the former Chief Photographer and Principal Journalist for a WA based magazine. Since launching SAM in May 2022, he has also photographed and reviewed most of the arena and stadium performances in Perth.
