Nathan Felix is a busy man - keeping the Austin/Danish collaboration The House of Songs running, writing symphonies, starring in indie movies - and leading the classical/pop crossover combo The Noise Revival Orchestra. That band has an EP out, and a video debuting this Thursday. Indie Sounds caught up with Nathan during a spare moment, and asked some quick questions ...
Photo by Michelle Syma
Indie Sounds: So, you have a video release party happening on Thursday at Lamberts. Tell us about the video, and about making it?
Nathan Felix: I wanted to make a video that captured the message of peace, love, and forgiveness and I wanted it to have an international appeal. We were a week away from going on a month long European tour when I met David Schulte and he showed me an example of this sort of mock-3D compositing effect he did and I was sold! We shot the band at Lamberts and then I gave David the creative freedom to mold the journey!
I asked David to chime in on the experience ... "One of the main themes that Nathan and I talked about early on was to have a progression from people divided in conflict and then transforming to unity and peace. I thought of the idea to use walls as a way to represent barriers and division between people and cultures. Then the video culminates with the walls ultimately breaking down and being destroyed, with the last scene showing unity with the band. It took about 350 hours to finish the video, but was a rewarding experience that I will proudly carry with me into future projects."
I definitely have to thank Will Bridges at Lamberts for letting us pull and all-nighter to shoot this video and another that night!
View the trailer ... then come out on Thursday to view the complete video ...
IS: What do you have planned for Thursday?
Nathan: It's going to be a special night. We are really trying to give the audience a unique cinematic evening as we unveil new tunes we recently wrote for a film score and by bringing up guest vocalists like Paul Banks to sing on a co-written track, BMBT, and N/A production will drop a verse on a new Kanye cover we are experimenting with. Plus a few surprises!
IS: The video follows on from the Songs of Forgiveness EP you recently released. What's the story of that?
Nathan: It was our recovery EP in a sense as TNRO was coming out of an abyss caused by a mass exodus of the entire band a year earlier! So I reformed it with a young and hungry group for continuity purposes and we dabbled with a stripped down and strait forward approach to our new songs. And it really worked! I think the final ingredient was having Danny Reisch really mold the sound and his work on it really brought out sound to life.
Download The Songs of Forgiveness at iTunes.
IS: Backtracking a bit, how did The Noise Revival Orchestra come to be? And what's the current sound?
Nathan: TNRO is a result of touring in a previous band I was in, and listening to classical music in the van to keep everyone off each others throats! After the final tour, I quit the rock band and for the last six years it's been an exploration of texture and sound using an orchestral foundation. By nature with a large group you get that inevitable turnover, but I've learned to evolve and take the changes in stride. I now write and arrange based on the particular cast of musicians playing at the time and gear it towards their strengths.
At the moment I think we are in a beautiful transition of going from a delicate pop sound to a lush, experimental, organic sound. The current instrumentation of harp, six piece string section, and flute is leading this charge.
IS: What's next for the band, in terms of music, shows, whatever else?
Nathan: I've always been a proponent of leaving Austin as much as possible because it expands our perspective. So next year, we are going abroad again to tour in Europe with the hopes of going further east to China as well. But if you want to see us in Austin, we have a Parish show in late January and our annual pre-SXSW party at Lambert's! All that is on our website.
IS: And what else is happening with you, outside of the band? What's keeping you busy?
Nathan: Coincidentally, this week I come out in the premiere of All I Know at the Austin Film Festival. It's a documentary produced by The House of Songs and Troy Campbell about a trip I took two years ago to live in a 16th century castle in Denmark with 11 other songwriters from all over Scandinavia and Texas. It premieres at the Rollins Theatre at the Long Center this Wednesday at 8.30 pm!
And what I'm equally excited about is this November when I travel with Danny Reisch to New York to start working on my first symphony titled, The Curse the Cross & the Lion, that I've been writing over the last two years. Danny is engineering and producing the symphony conducted by Andre Lousada and his orchestra in Fredonia. It's scheduled for spring recording and fall 2012 release. And TNRO is working on music for a film by Andrew Shapter titled, The Teller & the Truth.
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