Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nate Lopez. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Nate, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

That’s a hard question because music is so meaningful to me. It can be joyous, fun, and healing, for both the audience and artist. I hope my new solo album, Emanate, brings that for everyone. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure is a fantastic movie that had a profound impact on me as a kid. It has laughs, George Carlin, love for EVH and the idea that someone could make music so excellent that it would unite the world in peace. That always stuck with me. It may not be an achievable goal, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth striving for. Emanate is a project that means a lot to me because I put a lot of love into it and it represents what I love to do. I hold down a groove with my bass strings, play some chords and melodies on top and improvise. It’s just an honest, live recording of me playing my guitar in my home studio. No other musicians, no overdubs, looping, or extra tracks.

I do have some good pieces of gear to credit for not only doing their job well on Emanate, but inspiring my creativity. On this album, I’m playing my signature model 8-string guitar – the travel version NL-8 from LHT guitars. It’s an unusual instrument in a few ways. It’s a half bass half guitar hybrid, so I need two amplifiers. The NL-8 has one pickup and output for the three bass strings (tuned EAD) and another pickup for my five guitar strings (tuned ADGBE). EMG was nice enough to make me the custom pickups for this guitar, and it gives me a great feeling to get to create music with it. I love my ZT Lunchbox guitar amp. I’ve been gigging with it for years, so I had the guitar side covered but needed a good, small bass amp to pair it with. After searching for years for the right combination of size and tone, I found Phil Jones Bass amps. As soon as I got my PJB amp, I stacked my ZT on top of it and plugged straight in, no fx. I was immediately inspired, so I set up a couple of mic’s and started recording in my small home studio. I just started playing and after a couple of days I had 12 tracks: 6 tunes I wrote for the instrument and 6 tunes I love to play. Emanate has a variety of tunes on it – everything from my funk-inspired originals to Nirvana and Britney covers.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

I was born and raised in California by my parents, Marcus and Joan. My dad was a college professor and activist and my mom was a nurse in the emergency room. My mom’s side of the family was pretty musical; my grandma played piano and so did my mom. They mostly played classic pop hits from fakebooks and some classical pieces. I took piano lessons from a local teacher for a couple years early on, but I never loved it. I wasn’t taught improvisation or how to play by ear at all, and I couldn’t make the sounds I heard on my dad’s BB King and Santana Records. It just seemed like the notes were not there, which was frustrating (turns out they weren’t! Gotta bend those guitar strings to get the in-between notes…). Although my dad didn’t play any instruments, his brother Ricardo was an expert guitarist. He always entertained at family gatherings by not just strumming his guitar, but by using all sorts of techniques, like tapping and harmonics. When Ricardo passed away, my dad got the guitar. He let me play it and eventually gave it to me. That really got me hooked. I loved the sound and although I learned a few chords and melodies, I found that what I really liked was picking out a good bassline. Whether it was CCR, James Brown, or Nirvana, I liked to groove. After a few months, my parents got me a bass guitar for my 15th birthday.

I started off playing mostly metal and 90’s pop music. I was studying at the local college at that time, so I got into the music program there and started playing in the jazz big band and small combos. That changed everything and really taught me so much about music; from the actual theory of it, to learning to play with others, improvisation, and what it meant to swing and groove. Huge thanks to Delbert Bump, my teacher, and my fellow classmates: Nioshi Jackson, George Glover, David Halliday, and everyone else.

I played bass in jazz groups and a nuevo flamenco band for a few years, but was always fascinated with solo guitar playing. Whether it was classical (like Christopher Parkening and John Williams) or Jazz (like Charlie Byrd and Joe Pass), I was amazed that I could hear a piece of music performed by a huge ensemble and also hear that same piece played by just one person. I started studying classical guitar technique with guitarist Matthee Grasso and that was a game changer. When a friend suggested I check out Charlie Hunter (inventor of the hybrid guitar), I knew I had found what I was looking for. At the time, Charlie was playing an 8-string guitar, which was unheard of. Not only did his guitar have 8 strings, but three of them were bass strings and five were guitar. This presented a way to play full songs on one instrument. With the 8-string I get to play those screaming lead guitar sounds I’ve always loved while holding down a solid groove with the bass.

I’ve been gigging, recording albums, and making a living with the hybrid 8-string guitar now for over 10 years – mostly solo, sometimes with a drummer. I have several albums out on all the streaming sites, two of which are with my good friend Nioshi Jackson from my jazz school days. I play a conventional 6-string sometimes, but I really enjoy the context and groove that the bass strings on my 8-string provide.

What do you find most rewarding about being creative?

I love the connection I can have with an audience. It’s a great feeling when I write a song that speaks to me, then play it for an audience and they dig it. When I create a groove and see people tapping their feet, dancing, bobbing their head – there’s a great energy exchange there.

Another amazing aspect of being a musician is the friends and family you make and meet. I have struck up friendships with people where the only language we both speak is music. If you mention you play guitar, anywhere, chances are someone else does as well and they wanna talk about it.

Perhaps the best thing about being a musician is the chance to brighten someone’s day. I think everyone can relate to the power of music. There have been countless times that just hearing a song has made my day, and I’ve had fantastic experiences with friends at concerts. So the chance to get to help create that for someone else is an honor.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

There are so many ways people can support local artists. Go out to live shows. When you’re at the venue, post a pic or vid and tag the venue and band on social media. By sharing a post, a whole new audience can learn about the venue and artist and it can be amazingly helpful. Tipping/buying merch is nice too. If you can’t make it out to see live music, you can still post about it. It’s free and quick and can make a big difference. Follow/subscribe to the artist and comment on/ share their posts.

Listen to music that’s not on the radio. A lot of the songs on the radio are written by the same few people for many different artists, so there’s not a lot of diversity there. The “hits” are also predetermined. So you may not even really like that song you’re singing along to; maybe you’ve just heard it a bunch of times due to mandatory plays. In the past we had to listen to whatever was on the radio in the area or buy whatever albums the record store had. Now, we can listen to anyone, anywhere. Thanks to smartphones and social media, anyone can record themselves and put music online. So whether you’re into throat singing heavy metal or solo 8-string guitar, there’s someone out there for you.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.NateLopez.com
• Instagram: @natelopezmusic
• Facebook: @natelopezmusic
• Twitter: @natelopezmusic
• Youtube: @natelopezmusic