For Nathan Kaye, the last two years have seen his
music reach a world class calibre and gain international
recognition. Nathan's charisma and magnetic performance
on stage has taken him on tours behind the great wall of
China. He's also supported a diverse range of artists
including massive pop acts such as "The Corrs", the world's
best female DJ, "Lisa Lashes", and Asia's biggest selling
Canto-pop artist, "Eason Chan". Amazingly, he's also found
time to write fresh new material for his upcoming solo album,
“Don’t Just Do Something, Sit There!”
As a young child, Nathan would often invite the local
neighbourhood into his basement, put on old Beatles and
Elvis Presley records and perform to them. "Music's always
been a kind of diary for me. I can remember stuff like where I
was at age 3 when I first heard Bob Marley's "Get Up Stand
Up." At age 8 his parents separated and when he visited his
mother, she would often take him to protests for aboriginal
landrights. There, he witnessed the injustice of police
aggression in the climate of Queensland’s conservative
racial repression of the seventies and eighties. To express
what he was witnessing, Nathan started penning his first
songs at age 11.
"I was given a guitar at 14 by a Spanish guitar player
and taught myself Bob Marley, Beatles, U2 & Cat Stevens
songs whilst hanging out fishing with friends at the beach."
At age 16, he moved to Sydney to attend the Newtown High
School of Performing Arts. Nathan was introduced to
Yidaki/Didjeridoo in his early teens by his aboriginal stepfather, Yabu Bliyana, but began playing at age 17 when a
Pintjantjarra tribesman gave him his first didge. He got
circular breathing within ten days of starting. Whilst finishing
school he gained recognition performing in prominent
Sydney jazz clubs and music venues, won numerous awards
and performed to over 12,000 people at the Sydney
Entertainment Centre at age 18. Through this time, he
continued his activism in various environmental and political
issues, including raising funds for action against uranium
mining at Jabaluka in Arnem Land. Even though his success
as an actor grew over the next few years, which included
parts in major feature films and television dramas including
“Chook” in feature film, “Muriel’s Wedding”, Nathan decided
to focus on his passion for music.
This led him to the vibrant Byron Bay community in
1998 and the following year, his band "Dreamseeds" was
formed, a firm platform for voicing his observations about the
human condition and frustrations about the world's
environmental and socio-political dilemmas.
. The award winning album, "Illumination" was recorded
and released at the end of 2000 with the reggae song,
"Difference" reaching number 14 on the USA's mp3.com
reggae charts. The film clip for "The Shift" was aired on
ABC's Rage in 2001 and won the Dolphin Award for best
Funk/Hip-hop song.
With a power-driven roots style of guitar playing, soulful
vocal delivery and songwriting far beyond his years, Nathan
Kaye is unquestionably an artist to hear and experience.
Whilst Nathan refers to his musical aproach as “acoustic
roots and funky-folk”, his performance is uplifting and pumps
with funk rhythms and is spiced with reggae, hip-hop and
jazz. Crowds really get funky to his innovative blend of beatboxing and slide-didgeridoo. His sound is often described as
a fusion of Bob Marley and Ben Harper’s spiritual and
political passion, Lenny Kravitz’s funky melodies, Nick
Drake’s depth and Jack Johnson’s sweetness.
“One of the most surreal experiences I’ve had was playing to
4,500 screaming people in the P.L.A.’s (People’s Liberation
Army) barracks in China. Then as soon as I stepped off
stage I did a 25 minute interview on the largest TV station in
South China, which gets to about 200 million people!” Truly a
bizarre experience for an Aussie boy from a beach-town of
less than 10, 000 people.