Tynemouth Food Festival
13th & 14th of May 2017
9.30AM-5.30PM
Along with amazing food from across the region, this summer’s Tynemouth Food Festival is stacked with musical talent over both days. 22 of the North East’s brightest musicians will be performing for your listening pleasure, today we spoke to rapper NATO about getting into music, food and vlogging.
Q: Tell us a little bit about yourself, how did you get into music?
A: From a young age I’ve always loved music, I used to have some decks in my bedroom when I was around 14. All of my friends would come around and we would listen to some rave & old school hip-hop records, we started messing around with the microphone and I gravitated towards it more than using the decks.
A few months down the line and I found myself at the local youth clubs on the microphone with the older kids, that’s when I realised how much of a passion I had for it. I would constantly write new lyrics and show them to my friends every weekend, I would get good feedback most of the time. One day I decided I was going to make a CD for my friends to listen to, I put it on there phones and from then on I never looked back.
Q: Who influences you musically?
A: Hard to say, I mainly just listen to instrumentals, but artists like Kendrick Lamar, Logic & Yelawolf definitely changed how I looked at delivery and flow when it comes to rapping.
Q: Your tracks “Toy Lighthouse” and “Colour Co-Ordinated” seem so contrasting in style, how would you describe your style?
A: To be honest, it depends on how I’m feeling that day. I’ll hear a melody and in my head I’ll work out if it’s a rap or more of a singing tune. Then I’ll just go with it when I’m in the booth until I get the lyrics down. Usually first take in the booth I’ll just hum the melody, second I’ll hum with a few words here and there and then I’ll listen to it back and try to write to what I’ve got so far. I’d say my style is very versatile and you never know what you’re going to get when I drop a new song.
Q: You’ve got the Tynemouth food festival coming up next month, with that in mind, what are your favourite and least favourite foods?
A: My favourite foods are pot noodles, fish fingers and BBQ chicken pizza… I pretty much have the same food preferences as a five year old.
My least favourite foods are onions and anything green…apart from the green pot noodle.
Q: What does the rest of 2017 hold for NATO?
A: A lot of new music, music videos, vlogs, basically I’m going to try and start up my YouTube channel full force whether it be music or day to day life. As long as people are watching and getting to know the person behind the music I feel I’m on the right path. Hopefully a lot more shows too, like the food festival!
Find out more about the Tynemouth Food Fest here and keep your eyes peeled for more artist previews!
Check out our previous artist previews here
RIDE MUSIC 