We were lucky to catch up with Nate Mercury recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Nate, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I think it’s always been around me as far as I could remember. My mom would sing at local gigs when I was super young so I always remember having a baby sitter at one point while my mom went and did her thing. I think I’m subconsciously on the same tip now. That’s probably where I get it from – my origins, my mama.

I think somewhere around middle school, I started writing raps and sh*t. I thought I wanted to be like Eminem or something hahah. But as time grew, I actually realized I wanted to be like Kanye West. That dude constantly shifts the world towards abnormal and new ideas. So around high school, I got my hands on a busted laptop and started making beats because all the beats on YouTube sucked or were just outdated. I knew I had to make my own sh*t like Ye.

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 back background and context?

I used to strictly produce melodies for other producers so they can lay drums over them and send the beats to artists. I was too busy helping others with their sound and not working on my own, so I stopped going to those sessions. I don’t think anyone knew I wanted to be an artist – they thought I was just a producer. I made beats so I could make songs for myself. I started recording myself in 2020 and that’s when I started dropping my own music. You might find my early stuff scattered around the internet, but I feel like I finally found my sound – with my mixtape I dropped earlier this year. It’s called “building Kennedy Park”

I think coming from where I’m from, there’s an automatic box you’re put in. I’m from Long Beach, so you know, it’s a lot of West Coast beats and gang culture. I grew up on that too, but I kind of want to give my city some new doors. Something for the new generation to gravitate towards. I’m trying to let them know you can do something different than what’s common around your city. You don’t gotta play the role, just make your own story. A new one.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I think it can be easy to make it an “us versus them” situation when you’re an artist and your peers have traditional careers. Sometimes the division can be felt for sure, but, I think everybody has a purpose in life. Whether you’re in it as a creative or not. I think the main focus is to remember that we all help keep this picture of Life going. My job as a creative is to inspire, make life not feel as dull. Some people’s job might be to keep us physically healthy. Some to teach our youth. Some to build our cities and homes. I think the key thing to remember if you’re doing this creative journey is to not feel so detached from your peers. This earth is a big group project. Just do what you’re best at, that’s what matters. It’s going to help out in the end.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I want to influence a new generation of kids, coming from cities like Long Beach. It can be so easy to get sucked into a hole when your peers start going down a route of violence. A lot of my friends went down that path so I’m trying to lead by example by choosing a different story to tell, in a different way. Whether it’s the type of beats I’m making to expose people to some new sounds or the way I view the world. I try to put that all in my music somehow. I think I’m trying to change music from “pain music” to something more inspiring. It’s more-so a new state of mind than a new sound, but the sound is just the accompanying soundtrack if that makes sense. Me and my dogs call it New Earth Mentality.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://natemercury.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/natemercury/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@natemercury

Image Credits

Christina Hout

Dereck Duong