The Day That Changed My Life

Hello! This is your friend in the orange hoodie, Nathan K.
One year ago, (technically 1 year and 4 days ago) I had a meeting that completely changed the trajectory of my life. It was a Thursday. I remember because I had to take off work to go. It was originally supposed to be 1 week prior, but we had to move the meeting due to a big snowstorm that happened on what I thought would be my big day. Doesn’t matter.

Before I get too far – here is a download for you of an unreleased song of mine called “Breath of the Wild” that will come out later in the year. I want you to have it first, though. https://s.disco.ac/ajqswwmxcysp. Feel free to stream it, add it to your iPod shuffle, burn it to a CD, or share with your crush. Or keep it for yourself. Doesn’t matter.

OK, so, this meeting was my lucky break. My 1 in a million thing that I never dreamed would happen, and it was pure luck. Or fate. Or neither of those? Doesn’t matter. But I was meeting with the CEO of one of the biggest (the biggest?) music publishing companies in the world. And he was going to listen to my songs. and I had an hour of his time. Pretty crazy.
I was so nervous, but I stopped by my good friend Joe’s studio on Music Row beforehand and he gave me a pep talk. He prayed for me. We took a deep breath together. I needed it.
While I was in the lobby, 2 or 3 different people and asked if they could set up a meeting with this person I was about to meet with, and I heard the receptionist tell them “sorry, they just don’t talk to talk to random people that call, but I’m sure if you keep writing, keep playing writers rounds, some day you will be invited to talk to them. No, sir, I can’t listen to your song over the phone. No, you can’t email it to me. But I believe in you. Have a great day!… click..” Another one bites the dust.
How the heck was I there? Long story. But it didn’t have anything to do with me playing a random writers round. Or maybe it did. Doesn’t matter. It was fate, remember?
Eventually I get sent up to wait in this person’s incredibly beautiful office. Bottles of bourbon that probably cost more than my car. There was even a second receptionist designated to that floor of the office building. Pretty legit. She gave me a blue frosted sugar cookie with the companies logo on it. I remember thinking “not many people in the world get to hold this cookie.” I wasn’t sure if I should eat it or save it as a souvenir. I told myself I should go ahead and eat it, because this was going to be the first of many of these cookies. I took a photo of it on my phone. The lighting was not great. Doesn’t matter.
The cookie was delicious.. as I waited a few more minutes, I looked at my hand. Completely covered in blue dye from the cookie. I’m sure my mouth was too. Crap. The meeting hasn’t even started and I blew it. Oh well.
Finally, this incredibly charismatic person walks in, shakes my hand, and sits down on the couch and we begin. He apologized for being late. He’s on the board of directors at the school I went to for college and the meeting ran late. Then he uses the bathroom that was in his office. Woah, his office has a bathroom! Should I ask to go pee? Is that weird? I ask. I pee. Doesn’t matter..
I come back out of the bathroom and we talked about each others lives for a long time and that was very meaningful. He really wanted to get to know me. He really loves people, and believes in the power of their stories. At some point he says “so, wanna show me some songs?” Here it is, my big break. Believe it or not, the bluetooth speaker connected on the first try to my phone. That never happens. We turned it up loud. He closed his eyes and moved his head to the beat. Woah. I showed him a few more. He said he’s never heard anything like that before. Pretty cool to hear.
We talked some more. I told him how, for the past 4 years leading up to that meeting, 2020-2024 I’d written and recorded at least one song per week while having a full-time non-music job. Plus dozens of others with friends. Working 60 hours a week, at that. With no time off for covid because I worked for a company owned by the richest (or second richest? Doesn’t matter) man in the world for most of that time, and he wasn’t worried about his warehouse employees getting sick. I was exhausted, but hey, I got something like $2 extra an hour for hazard pay. Plus, instead of time and a half, double time after 40 hours. I worked 59.9 hours each week. The maximum they allowed. I paid off my student loans. And my car.
I was exhausted. But I somehow wrote and recorded a new one each week. Sometimes at the buzzer at 11:59pm every Sunday, but I did it. By myself. (Well, sorta. I couldn’t have done it without the support my partner Sara Beth.) I still am very proud of the songs I wrote during those 4 years. 1 a week for 4 years, not bad, right? WRONG.
He responded to the above statement with: “that’s cool, but you should be doing that every day.” Crap.. He continued by saying, “if you asked the writers on the most world changing songs what it was like that day, they would tell you, ‘it was just another Tuesday. I was tired. My wife told me to cancel because it had snowed 3 days prior. I went anyway. We wrote. I went home, went to bed and then I did it again the next day.. Just another Tuesday.”
I remember thinking, “yeah but these guys have publishing deals and get paid to write every day.” and while I was thinking that he interrupted my thought to say, “you should always write a song every day, and then on a day you’re inspired, that’s the day you should write 2.” Easier said than done, man. But ok.
He said some other things too. One of them was, “it’s important to tell your story in a way that is also telling your audiences story at the same time. Not just yours.” Powerful stuff. Easier said than done. That does matter.. a lot.. (be honest, you thought I was gonna say “doesn’t matter just then. it’s okay. I forgive you.)
I told myself I would try this for 2 weeks with the caveat that it would be M-F after my day job. I would see if it’s possible. I didn’t think it was, but I wanted a reason to email him in a few weeks. So I gave it a shot. Doesn’t matter.
After 2 weeks, I discovered that it WAS possible. I eagerly emailed him to tell him that I tried it, and that he was right, and I attached links to a few of my favorites from those past 2 weeks. I never heard back.. Doesn’t matter. That’s not the point. (I can’t imagine the amount of amazing songs in that inbox that there aren’t time in the day to listen to.)

The point is that I never stopped. And I’ve not run out of ideas yet. I’ve written 250 songs on my own since then + a few cowrites here and there. Mostly by myself though. Doesn’t matter. It’s wild how our brains and minds are so adaptable, and how they start looking for ideas in unusual places because our brain knows we will need one later that day when we sit down in that chair. I’m also blown away by the rush I get when I’m trying to tie two unrelated ideas together to hopefully finish the song before my wife gets home from work. Priceless. She’s actually on her way now. So I better wrap this up.

I’ve learned that I just have to sit in the chair and be open to what happens next. The hardest part is always sitting in the chair. There are so many layers to our mind and I’ve only scratched the surface of the many layers in my own life. I’m excited.

I didn’t get signed that day. I may never talk to him again. Doesn’t matter. I still have my day job. But the conversation we had that day changed my life and I’m forever grateful. It taught me that there are depths to me that I may never even begin to uncover, but I am going to keep trying for the rest of my life. Those depths are in you, too. I’m not saying that to try to sell you anything, I just hope you know that.

This year, and in the years to come, I’m excited to share more of these songs with you. I promise to be better about getting them out there into the world and off of my hard drive. I used to stress about how am I going to release things perfectly. Now my stress is this: how am I going to put all of these out before I die? and what happens when I die? Is Sara Beth going to release them? Will they have time to play them all at the funeral? Doesn’t matter. I’ll be dead.
And when i’m on my deathbed I will think fondly back to that day – Jan 25, 2024.

Feel free to follow my Spotify here if you trust them to show you the songs when they come out. But more importantly, keep your eye on your inbox. I’ll probably send them to you in advance so we don’t have to worry about that. I hope to write more frequently and connect in a meaningful way that isn’t limited to what the algorithm thinks is cool on that day.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I hope it is encouraging to you in some way.

Sincerely,
Nathan

UPCOMING SHOWS:
– 2/14/25: South Bend IN (House show). send me an email and I will get the details to you. my email is dearnathank [at] gmail [dot] com– 2/15/25: Grand Rapids MI (TBD) there is a potential for a BDAY show pending confirmation. Hopefully more details to come.
– 2/16/25: Ypsilanti MI (Ziggy’s) w/ Sara Beth Go, Turner Porter, Mother Night.
– 2/17/25: Bay City MI (Lolobee’s) w/ Sara Beth Go, Edgar Cayce & His Guitar, Those Fears (solo)- 2/19 – 2/23: Montreal QC (Folk Alliance International). If you will be there I’d be happy to send you a copy of my showcases. Or if you’re in Montreal and not attending, I’d love to meet up and grab lunch. dearnathank [at] gmail [dot] com