“We tried to approach it thinking, ‘Well, what would he do on this?’ We actually started a record at his studio in Cottage Grove, Oregon last March. “This was going to be a record I had planned to do with Richard, which Pat probably would have been a part of as well,” says Rateliff. Working with Rateliff on the album included co-producers James Barone and Night Sweats drummer Patrick Meese, all of whom had worked with Swift and learned a lot from him. All of that in one got me here and helped me write this record, too.” I feel like I've grown as a musician and a performer, and as a writer and singer. “I just kind of feel like I've taken everything I've learned from the Night Sweats and the shows we play and our time on the road. “There's a lot of similarities in there for sure,” he says. Fans of Rateliff’s earlier work might notice the sound of the new record is a throwback to his pre-Night Sweats albums In Memory of Loss (2010) and Falling Faster Than You Can Run (2013). The moments of melancholy and introspection that surround the record is buoyed by hope and resilience in overcoming personal difficulties. I wanted to be able to talk about that in a song so that it creates a conversation for the listener, and for other people to be able to be vulnerable that thing and talk about it-and then also try to find hope in there and not to feel so devastated and so lost.” And so I let all of it come out, all the things that I wanted to be able to say, to let him know that even though he was gone that I recognized and shared that same unexplainable brokenness. I immediately felt like I was trying to say something to Richard. “I think I had the phrase ‘rush on’ in my head. “I don't really know where it came from,” the singer says. Rateliff said he’d immersed himself in the music Van Morrison was making in the mid-1960s for Bang Records - the sessions that yielded his first solo hit, “Brown-Eyed Girl” - and those fed his vision for his own take on soul music.The other song inspired by Swift is the album’s emotional and stark ballad “Rush On,” which is further elevated by Ratefliff's very powerfully moving vocal performance. The ebullient sound and spirit that characterizes “Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats” is a dramatic departure from the intimate tone of his 2013 album, “Falling Faster Than You,” and its 2010 predecessor, “In Memory of Loss.” Still, as Rateliff notes, many of the themes are the same: troubled relationships and coming to terms with personal demons, for example - the latter playing out in “S.O.B.,” in which a recently broken heart wreaks havoc with his resolve to be sober. One of the guys I’ve been playing with for 21 years did an interview recently, and I heard him say ‘This is the first time I’ve heard sound like it was him.’ It was really nice hearing that from someone I’ve been playing with for so long.’” “But I feel really comfortable in both realms. “These shows are really fun to play, compared to playing sad, sad songs all night,” said Rateliff. The band’s breakout single, the gospel-drenched rave-up “S.O.B.,” landed them a spot on the “Tonight Show” last month, and host Jimmy Fallon was such a fan he kept playing snippets from the album until the band’s performance (Rateliff was also happy to bust a few James Brown-inspired, oil-on-glass dance moves). Then the songs started to pour out, and pretty soon we had eight or 10 songs down.” “So when you’re discouraged, you start thinking, ‘I guess I could be a gardener again, or a carpenter, refinish furniture.’ I was asking myself, ‘What could I do to make me happy?’ I’d always wanted to do an R&B and soul record a friend with a studio asked to come by and record a couple of songs, maybe just make a 45. “This has taken a lot of sacrifices by myself, my friends, our families and all our relationships,” said Rateliff, who, with his stocky build and bushy beard, mustache and plentiful tattoos, looks more like a character out of “Duck Dynasty” than an R&B disciple. SIGN UP for the free Essential Arts & Culture newsletter >
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