East of Eli, Nathan West’s musical endeavor, has been the subject of popular and critical acclaim from their first 2014 LP that has gained the band a solid fanbase.
East of Eli’s sophomore album Lost Transmission drops next February, and we had the chance to talk to Nathan West about the music and the strong relationship with their fans.
I wanted to first ask about your name ‘East of Eli’ and how that originated?
Originally Chyler [Leigh, Supergirl actress and West’s wife] and I were penning a script and the title of the screenplay was East of Eli. It was about this musician, and it was a way we were thinking of putting the music out there, so we wrote this script around music. We were writing it and realized we were going to change the name to ‘Into the Mystic’ so I was like I’m going to take East of Eli for my band name because I didn’t want to go with just the traditional solo artist style thing. It just was fitting so I decided to go with it.
Photo Credit Dean Zulich
You did start in film and television, so do you think that you going by that name helped to distinguish your music from you as an actor?
That’s definitely a part of it too, because once people see you in a certain light, then it’s hard for them to see you in another light. For me, having been on screen, I had to get my foot in the door on the music side and get people to see me as a musician and not an actor, so that definitely was another part of it with going with the name.
And why did you decide to transition to music after acting? Or was it something you always wanted?
Well basically I’ve been playing for a very long time, and when I transitioned to starting to play music it was at a point where it was time for me to step out and do it. Before that I didn’t really want to step out professionally and do it, I was just messing around with it, and it was really close to my heart, and it was this thing I wanted to do on a personal side. But the more I played and the more I shared songs with friends and family everyone was like ‘you gotta take this out, you gotta share your music’ I was like, I don’t know, kind of timid about the whole thing. Finally, it go to the point where I was acting for a bit and I decided this is really not my thing. It’s something I love to do, and I madly respect, but it’s got to be the right project for me to be able to do that. So I just poured my heart and soul into music and doors started to slowly open. Once I got over the fear of it, getting out there and playing, which was way bad, just getting my feet wet, I was like ‘oh this is what I want to do.
You’ve always been a performer, so what made music more nerve wracking then acting on a television set?
You kind of bare your soul. There’s no character to hide behind. Regardless of if you write your music or not, which I do, people associate that music with who you are as a person. So, you can say you’re playing a character whatever you want to say, but people really identify that with a piece of who you are as a person. Acting you’re portraying a character, and even though you’re portraying an emotion and showing those emotions, you’re playing scene by scene. A musician is a tell all in a lot of ways, so it can be a little bit more nerve wracking, especially when you’re onstage and you’re singing, you don’t want to mess up, miss a note. It takes a different set of skills to do, but that said I will say there came a point while I was out playing and it kind of dawned on me that it’s not about me. It’s about the music and more importantly it’s about the fans, the people that pay to show up to the show. They’re expecting an experience, and once I realized it wasn’t about me, the nerves went away, and I don’t get nervous anymore. I don’t even think twice about, I just go out there and deliver and get out of the way of the music and have fun and make sure everyone is enjoying themselves and having an amazing time. Seems to work so I’m going to stick with it.
You have a solid fanbase, they call themselves the ‘East of Eli’ angels! How do you like to connect with them? Are you big on social media?
Social media and I kind of battle back and forth! I do love it, what I like to do is go on social media and have a massive text group with the world. I have to promote shows and stuff like that, it bugs me when I have to because I don’t want to seem superficial, but at the same time you’ve got to. In regards to how I love to connect with my fans, we do a lot of VIP events and stuff like that, and there’s all different levels and what not, but we also do just the shows themselves. I love to spend quality time with my fans, my biggest thing is I love hugs, you know when you get a good hug? I try to give that! Because a lot of our fans will come in, and look like they’re struggling through something, or it was a rough trip getting there, something people really gravitated towards is that no matter who I am, where I come from, who I love, I know that Nathan and the rest of East of Eli and there for me. That’s important, artistry, like I said, is not about me, but even taking it a step further, it’s really all about that game. If you have a platform, utilizing that power of influence to do something better with the world. To help out, to influence greatness, to fuel the fire for more positivity in the world. It’s not like a huge crusade, I’m just being me, but if I’m going to get this opportunity, regardless of whether it’s 500 people or 5 people, if I have an opportunity where I’m put on a platform to be able to do something, where all eyes are on me for that moment, I want to make sure that I’m not doing it just for self gratification. I want to make sure that I’m doing it, I’m giving all that I have of myself to something greater than myself. I look back at the fans and I’m like ‘Hey you do matter.’ We have so many fans that come to us, just in New York this week, so many fans coming up like, ‘Hey I was kind of on the verge of suicide, or ‘I had a terrible struggle with this, and I turned on East of Eli’ or people come to concerts like ‘I was on the edge of my life and a friend dragged me down here.’ Those kind of things, I don’t take credit for it, but I love the fact that I’m apart of that story that I could be of support and be there to help out. That’s why I do what I do. I’m not trying to be a rockstar, look it’s fun as hell that opportunity to jump around and do whatever you want to do, but the truth is, it’s really about each and every person out in that audience. To give them something to grab a hold of, or to encourage them to push forward.
Lead Photo Credit Bobby Quillard
