This is the final version of the song. I changed the mix just a little bit and had my friend Jean-Paul Mayden put on some more guitar texture in the middle section.

Amanita Ocreata

Beast

I was challenged to write a song that had something to do with Airships. This little ditty immediately popped into my head and I had it finished and recorded in 15 minutes. It's quite short but given the subject matter I feel that was entirely appropriate.

Oh! For A Parachute!

Following the Antikythera Mechanism, Nathaniel and Alyssa decided to go all Rodgers and Hammerstein and embark on a quest of epic proportions:  to write a musical!

The result is Any Moment Now:  a story of love, loss, assassins, devious villains, time travel, and butterflies.

The stage is set and the actors are ready.  We are thrilled to have the vocal talents of the lovely Dogwood, Unwoman, and Jody Ellen on board and as well as the piano styling’s of Jake Sele from Good Company.  

Now all we need is your help to make Any Moment Now to not only bring the show to the stage at Clockwork Alchemy on May 22nd, 2015, but into each of your ears as well!

As always, thank you so much for your support!!!

#anymomentnow #changeanything #changeeverything


Eden's Song Demo - Teaser Chorus

This is the first 12 seconds of a guitar take for the song Any Moment Now. I'd spent an hour working up a new part for acoustic guitar and only a few seconds into the take I broke a string. 

Enjoy!

(Not) The Next One

At our latest rehearsal, we decided to change up the rhythm of this to something a little more up tempo. I really like the feel from the original (http://nathanieljohnstone.bandcamp.com/track/scarlet-carpet-interstate-part-one-live) but there's something about this version that really makes me LOVE playing it.

This was recorded straight into an iPhone without any editing or processing. It's all LIVE, baby!

Mandolin: Nathaniel Johnstone
Drums: Jes Brown
Bass: Jean-Paul Mayden
Hand Claps: Mel
Shaker: Libby Bulloff

And if you like what you hear, please check this for more: nathanieljohnstone.com

Scarlet Carpet Interstate, Part One

Hey everyone! This is a teaser from the upcoming Nathaniel Johnstone Band album! We're in the middle of our pre-sales fundraiser and need your help! Check this link and check out the different rewards levels!

http://nathanieljohnstone.com/themothermatrix.html

Words: Alyssa Rosenbloom
Music: Nathaniel Johnstone
Vocals: Kate "Dogwood" McKnight
Drums: Tom Coyne
All other instruments: Nathaniel Johnstone

Seven Veils Teaser

This is the final mix of our song Little Star as sent to our mastering engineer. 

Vocals: Dogwood / Guitar & Bass: Nathaniel Johnstone / Guitar: Mike Mermelstein / Drums: Tom Coyne / Cello: Erica "Unwoman" Mulkey

We are holding a pre-album release fund raiser to cover the costs of production. If you'd like to pitch in please check out our fund-raiser web page here:

http://nathanieljohnstone.com/themothermatrix.html

We wrote this song in very early January shortly after learning of David Bowie's passing. He was a very strong influence and hero to both Nathaniel and Dogwood. To write the lyrics we went for a collaborative experiment: Dogwood wrote 4 pages of text and cut each line into it's own little strip of paper and then gave them all to Nathaniel without any explanation. 

Nathaniel then picked through the strips, picked out the ones that seemed to speak to him, and then arranged them into a verse/chorus structure. The music pretty much wrote itself.

Little Star

This is the 10th track on our new album The Mother Matrix. We had a special guest on this one: S. J. Tucker. She added percussion, atmospheric noises, and some wonderful stunt vocals. We adore her and are really happy that she helped us out with this song!

Words and Music by: Laura Tempest Zakroff and Nathaniel Johnstone
Vocals: Dogwood, S. J. Tucker
Guitar, Bass: Nathaniel Johnstone
Drums: Tom Coyne
Percussion: S. J. Tucker

The Crossroads (Part 3)

And on this day, I learned that mp3 compression artifacts can be a real bitch to eradicate. In the case of this tune, I had to eviscerate the low-frequencies on the djembe. I triple mic'd that mother and it sounded glorious but then when Soundcloud compressed to 128 kbps it suddenly developed a case of crickets. Seriously: a djembe is supposed to go: DOUM tek tek not CHIRP EEP EEP. :/

This one, like Amanita Ocreata before it, is a narrative without a story. Just the name Elle Cambia ("She Changes" in Spanish) to offer any hints.

Ella Cambia

The Mechanist & The Star Goddess is a trio with violins, drums, and dance. We've been touring since the summer of 2017 and are in the process of booking more tours and recording ALL the albums!

Please check out our fundraiser for our upcoming album:
http://nathanieljohnstone.com/fundraiser.html

This is one of the many demo recordings that came out when Davis and I were jamming. We spent several days in the studio making a bunch of stuff up for our eventual album for The Mechanist & The Star Goddess.

We've got a bunch more tunes in the works! This is just the first!

No edits, no retakes, just sound into a mic! Oh, well, I overdubbed the bass part later because I can't play bass and violin at the same time. 

Drums: Davis Petterson
Violin/Bass: Nathaniel Johnstone

Relatively Speaking

Davis and I were experimenting with his drum synth pad and adding electronic triggers for bass parts. That's what you're hearing for the bass line. We did a couple of passes of drums for this one because I wanted to get ambitious with textures. Who knows where this will go when we get into a REAL studio!

If you haven't yet seen our album fundraiser link, please check it out!
http://nathanieljohnstone.com/fundraiser.html

Drums & Bass Triggers: Davis Petterson
Violin: Nathaniel Johnstone

Surfing The Event Horizon

The Nathaniel Johnstone Band hails from Seattle, WA, lead by multi-instrumentalist Nathaniel Johnstone (violin, viola, banjo, mandolin, and guitar). Their vibrant sound crosses boundaries and borders, resulting in a blend of European, Middle Eastern, and South American music with Jazz, Rock, Surf, Folk, Gothic, and Steampunk influences.

Nathaniel Johnstone

Popular tracks