JM: Why did you have an issue with nostalgia?
Nathan: Because a lot of times nostalgia is about reliving something that happened before. That to me seems to be missing a great opportunity to experience something new‚ maybe reinforced by the past‚ but made deeper‚ made more knowing.
JM: Right‚ it can take you out of the present moment.
Nathan: It can take you out of the present moment. I mean‚ you can see it all the time‚ where nostalgia is just a sad thing. It's easy‚ I think‚ to depict nostalgia as a sad moment.
JM: Well‚ how much of nostalgia helps you in the process of songwriting?
Nathan: Right‚ like all the dead poets that I have conversations with.

JM: [Laughs] Like memories... How much of that influences you when writing music?
Nathan: Not a lot. I don't think I've written very many nostalgic songs‚ because I'm always in that passionate moment in need to express something that's just passing through me‚ whether it's something that just happened‚ or is happening at the moment.
JM: Kind of like the songs that you wrote this last week?
Nathan: Right. Exactly.
JM: Tell me about those ones.
Nathan: [Laughing] I mean‚ did you hear what I realized tonight? The song "Hippy Fiasco" that I've been singing‚ I wrote in the Asheville airport before I even got on the plane to even go to the Mystic Garden Festival.
Chad: Right. It's kind of funny because you knew the fiasco was already happening.
JM: Could you repeat some of the lyrics to that song?
Nathan: "… Hippy Fiasco in the rain. Hippy Fiasco rides again…He'll get to where he's going. But where he is‚ he does not know. He's young‚ rich‚ wild and creepy! He's Hippy Fiasco."
Chad: No‚ it's sexy and creepy!
JM: [laughs] Yeah‚ got to add the sexy in there.
Nathan: Got to add the creepy! Creepy is Hippy Fiasco's secret ingredient. It's like‚ how did you make this? Without a dash of creepy‚ it's just not the same.
JM: Give me an example of creepy.

Nathan: We'll need to cut this recording off for a second…
[Laughs]
Nathan: A lot of it is about redefining words. Like fiasco is not normally a good thing. But I mean… we long for it. That's what we're shooting for. Creepy is sort of in the same category. It's just a word that we've deemed necessary. And in order to make that work for us‚ we've had to change the definition of it.
Chad: But it's kind of fun. It's like the root of everything in a raw sense. It's kind of fun if you're accepting of it. If not‚ then it's scary and you don't want a part of it. But if you're open to it‚ then it's fun.
Nathan: Then you sort of want it.
Chad: Then you're into it!
Nathan: Creep me out. Come on.