Nathan Cavaleri is back and set to release his first solo album, Demons (out August 6) since being signed to Michael Jackson’s label at age twelve, today sharing his affecting new single, Before You Check Out, an introspective song with a deeply important message and a suitably poignant film clip. Cavaleri will be celebrating the release of his new album with a national tour and was yesterday announced on the first Bluesfest 2021 lineup.
New single Before You Check Out is a discreetly powerful song with gloriously sanguine finger picking, emotive slide guitar and Nathan’s effortless, velvety voice holding a warmth and tenderness that sits perfectly atop simple and effective instrumentation. Written for a cousin who lost his battle with mental illness a few years ago, Nathan explains, “I strongly identified with what he went through and wished I had reached out to him. Having battled my own demons, I wondered whether my experience would have helped. I contemplated what I’d share if time could show mercy. I would share how our thoughts and beliefs colourise our experience and skew our perception of the world, giving us a false sense of reality – a notion that helped me to expose the root of many of my physical and mental health issues that were mistakenly believed to be out of my control.”
Complemented by a film clip that highlights the sentiment of the song – that our views of the world can be tainted by projections of our past – the video further reveals the intense authenticity of the artist, with Nathan taking centre stage, vulnerabilities laid bare.
The Demons album boasts a diverse mix of songs from the impressive guitarist and vocalist who manages to bend genres, cleverly intertwining blues with indie rock pop and soul to create a vintage modern sound of his own, that ‘Nathan Cavaleri’ sound. And his talents don’t stop there, with most of the album produced, engineered and mixed by Nathan himself, excluding five tracks that were co-produced and mixed by Tony Buchen (Montaigne, The Preatures), and mastered by Viking Lounge.
“What matters to me most is that I have a body of work that expresses messages that I’m deeply passionate about on a bed of music that is built on a lifetime of writing, recording and touring,” insights Nathan. “The bulk of Demons was created during a time when I didn’t believe that I’d be mentally and physically stable enough to return to the stage. All songs were written from a place of catharsis. Lyrical themes range from antidotes for the depressed to my fascination for the more taboo side of desire. All falling one way or another under the theme of how humans crumble, melt, face, overpower, surrender, run or dance with our Demons.”
Eager to make his way around the country on tour, Nathan explains what fans can expect from his shows, saying, “In contrast to my younger years as a performer, the Demons tour will see me connecting to audiences in an intimate story-telling type of way. As a kid I had something to play, now I have something to say. My set will be strung together with epic and incredulous stories of growing up on the road, to how my connection to music deepened when I was battling Leukaemia as a kid, to the lessons I had to learn in more recent years dealing with mental health demons. Light and shade of the set mirrors the extreme dynamics of life experiences which I try to express in a raw and relatable way.”
Before You Check Out is out now. Demons will be released on August 6. The Demons national tour is on sale now, for tickets or more information, head to www.nathancavaleri.com
