We were lucky to catch up with Nathaniel Pettey recently and have shared our conversation below.

Nathaniel, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I believe the path to my current role is a product of my evolving thirst to fulfill multiple goals I’ve set as opportunities have presented themselves. For instance, when I wanted to learn guitar I took lessons. If I wanted to play a specific type of guitar I’d dissect a genre or artist until I could teach myself nuance and a customized approaches to the instrument whichever instrument I was focused on at the time. I took a similar approach to each instrument I can now play with minimal difficulty. If I just paid for lessons for each instrument, it may have sped things up but likely stifled my relationship with the writing process, imho. I think the creative process of hearing each instrument in your head while writing makes such a huge difference in bringing a piece to life. The only thing that stopped me from learning more was my amount of free time, while raising a family and working a full time job.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Nathaniel Pettey. I started my journey many years ago while still in grade school playing music. That led to playing with local musicians and building original material. I knew my thirst for creativity was one that would likely take quite a bit to quench. Over the years, I learned how to play multiple different genres on multiple different instruments in order to fulfill my passion. I went from playing lead guitar in a hard rock group to a support role in a folk rock band, to a rhythm focused role in a Indie punk band then eventually a frontman role in my current project. (I hate the word frontman, but can’t think of a more descriptive term for my responsibilities) My current project is called a O’Rion & the Cosmonauts, and we are currently in the process of building original material in efforts to enter the studio and complete full length album. I do my absolute best to inspire this current project in a manner that is supportive and advocative for each musician involved. In the past I’ve played in groups that presented a level of dysfunction that seemed to hamper the creative process, and complicates the ability to produce passionate and genuine material with this project, I’m attempting to do everything I can to push the motivation level while simultaneously cultivating my bandmates ability to produce impressive and honest material. Prior to building this project I was lucky enough to write and produce two songs that are currently on streaming services. You can find them under the name O’Rion. The songs are named “Then Again” and “When the Paint Dries.” Both songs are more focused on folk and Americana genres. My hopes with this current project is that we will broaden our genre interests and present a more dynamic sound than these prior tracks. In efforts to support the recording process, the band, “O’Rion & the Cosmonauts have built a 3 hour gig setup that has helped us build funds. We play all kinds of fun crowd pleasers! We’ve been very successful with the gigging schedule this past year and are now able to take time off from that grind to focus on the creation process. We have played festivals, local bars and event centers as well as private parties. It’s possible that we will reconnect with that effort but currently the original content creation is our passion. Playing a full set of originals is a high priority for performing live again in the future.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I think it’s super important for creatives or anyone that’s interested in building something that seems incredibly challenging to slow down and dissect. You learn as much as you give your self time to learn. I think it’s incredibly important that you also continue to stay humble and take pride in things that you believe you have worked hard enough to deserve to be proud of. I love watching a project come together after meeting adversity. I want to make sure that my bandmates feel supported and validated at every turn. Obviously it’d be fun to complete an album and support that effort with a mini tour or multiple gigs but my biggest goal is to build a project that leaves everyone involved or effected by feeling fulfilled and satisfied! That’s my personal goal.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Resilience is a tricky concept for me. I believe that any time that you get into a position where it seems like your effort level has to increase in order to move forward would be considered resilience. So any time where you feel like the answer is no or not right now or not with your skill set or current funds you have to push past those (?)s. For me resilience has played a role in me, recognizing certain personalities, and then meet options appear as quickly as they disappear. So learning to not let that slow momentum in my projects and I the current project gets complicated. I believe that the passion behind each project and setting smart goals normally play the biggest role in overcoming certain adversity and complications. Being timely and critical while building goals makes a huge difference.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/orion_and_the_cosmonauts?igshid=MmIzYWVlNDQ5Yg==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Orioninouterspace?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCxiOJ4R7I7bjsStWB9ePx-Q?mibextid=Zxz2cZ

Image Credits
https://www.facebook.com/KateKlausPhotography?mibextid=LQQJ4d Kate Klaus