We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nat Lort-Nelson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Nat, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
A year ago, I decided to break out of solely playing music in Vatican Vamps and start an organization that helps musicians. During the pandemic with the music industry drastically slowing down and so many’s people’s livelihoods and creative outlets dissolving, I knew that I could be doing more. I had a realization that not only should I be creating music to hopefully have a positive impact on people around me, but I should help the music scene that I’m a part of thrive and do the same. I started planning the nuts and bolts of this idea along with my wife, Genevieve and good friend, Tim, and ultimately Tortuga Musician Services was born! Tortuga’s mission is to provide a network of people and hub of services that cultivates sustainability for musicians’ careers and local music communities. We offer free or at cost guitar and gear repairs, website design and social media and marketing consultation. Tortuga Musician Services launched a few months ago in March 2022 and our aim for Tortuga is to become a valuable resource and safe haven for local Denver musicians and touring acts coming through the city; a place where cost isn’t an issue ensuring that musicians can focus on their art and build their career.
Nat, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Nat and I’m the lead singer and guitarist of Vatican Vamps and co-founder of Tortuga Musician Services. I was born in Denver, but moved around a lot when I was younger. My sisters and I lived in four different countries before the age of twenty, but nothing brought us together more during this time than playing music. My parents instilled in us a musical passion at an early age and that’s why I feel that for as long as I can remember I knew I wanted to be a musician.
After high school I immediately hit the road with my friends from the punk band that I was in. The band was comprised of three Korean guys and myself and we went on to travel around South Korea on tour for about a year. The experience was once in a life time, but I learned that being on the road was not a good place for me at 17 with a lot of drugs and alcohol. So I packed up my bags and flew back to Colorado.
After arriving back to the States, I was asked by a friend to volunteer at a local drop-in shelter for young adults living on the street. This time changed my life. I was able to help a lot of young musicians who didn’t have access to get their music recorded a chance in doing so. I recorded their songs on my laptop and then burned them a CD to take with them and hopefully use towards their musical ambitions and to share with others.
Working with those young adults taught me that my music was not for me, it should be for everyone. That has been the motto of every music project I’ve been in since particularly in The Bunny Gang and in my current band Vatican Vamps.
In Vatican Vamps, we have a saying, “The work begins after the show”. We believe that playing music just to have people stand around and watch us isn’t the whole point. We are passionate about getting off stage and meeting new people and actively engaging with them. We also love creating community and leaving a positive impact with everyone we interact with through the band.
And now that passion has spilled over from making music to helping those in our music scene. Tim Gaskins (Vatican Vamps, drummer), Genevieve (Vatican Vamps, keys and synth) and I have started an organization called Tortuga Musician Services. Our mission is to provide a network of people and a hub of services that cultivates sustainability for musician’s careers and local communities. We offer free or at cost guitar and gear repairs, website design and social media consultation. We want to create a place where cost isn’t an issue ensuring that musicians can focus on their art and build their careers.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
Spreading joy and creating a space for respite or celebration from your music is one of the most rewarding aspects of being a musician. Being able to record an album that can be tapped into by anyone when they need it after a long day of work, to journey with on a trip around the world or to engage with in everyday life is such a beautiful thing. You feel that when you perform a live show; everyone has their own memories or feelings attached to the music that you’ve made completely separate from the intentions or emotions that originally sparked the energy to create it from me as a song-writer or the band as musicians. It’s incredible.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Vatican Vamps booked a DIY tour throughout the UK several years ago. Genevieve and I flew out to England first to rent a tour van and gather our backline gear before everyone else arrived. The day before the rest of the band was supposed to leave our drummer’s, Tim, wife had to go in for emergency surgery. He wasn’t able to join us. We panicked. But thank goodness, Tina, Vatican Vamps’s guitarist and percussionist is also a bad ass drummer. With about 24 hours notice, Tina learned all of Tim’s drum parts and got on the plane with our bassist, Tim M. to London.
That wasn’t the end of the adventure though. When Tina and Tim M. arrived in the UK they were held in the UK border patrol office for over 5 hours, because their reason for traveling to the UK to do music was deemed unfit. In the meantime, Genevieve and I had to rework a gig we had in Cambridge to be an acoustic duo set, while we hoped Tim and Tina would be allowed to enter the country. Tim and Tina were finally allowed into the UK, we drove 8 hours to Glasgow, practiced our set in a preschool classroom via some friend connections and then rocked out with Tina on drums at a great underground venue. And after all the shuffling of gear and sets, Tim, Vatican Vamp’s drummer, was able to make it for the second half of our tour after all. I’d have to say that was one of the most stressful tours I’ve ever been on, but the joy of playing shows half way across the world with some of your closest friends was well worth it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.vaticanvamps.com
- Instagram: @vaticanvamps
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vaticanvamps
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkoNDmVKHEpfnRqdquo6H-g
- Other: Tortuga Musician Services – www.tortugamusician.com Insta & Facebook – @tortugamusician
Image Credits
Photo Credits: Image of Nat playing live: Corey Floyd Headshot & guitar repair photos: David Sands – http://davidsands.co/