WERS 88.9 fm - artist interview: nate wilson group

By Lindsay Tucker
7.20.10

Days after the dust settled at the Oxford Fairgrounds in Oxford Maine, and the buzz surrounding Nateva Festival hushed, Nate Wilson (founder of the self-titled group) feels good about the event. He recapped and reminisced with us on a spur-of-the-moment cell phone call. Here's what he had to say:

wers: What can you tell me about your experience at Nateva?
Nate Wilson: It was a lot of fun. I only went on Sunday…usually, I try to get there a day or so in advance to watch other music, but I didn't get a chance to. It was super hot, and our set went really well, and I got to see some cool music afterwards. The festival seemed really cool…It was more collected than a lot of other festivals around. They did a good job of getting some indie rock and other genres in there.

wers: How did you get involved with them?
Wilson: They came to us actually. I don't know exactly how that went down. I know a lot of people who were working the festival because I've been playing music in the North East for a long time. I think the familiarity helps. I think they were looking for some smaller more local bands…[we're] in the North East scene. And we were fortunate enough for them to invite us to come.

wers: Is this your first time playing a festival of this size?
Wilson: With this band yea. I've been in lots of groups before—and played lots of festivals. I've done all kinds: the High Sierra—out in California, Bonnaroo, All Good, and Gathering of the Vibes. With this band I've only done a handful of these, but this was definitely the biggest one. We did one called Bear Creek in Florida in November. It's a pretty good size, but I think this one took the cake.

wers:How did this compare to All Good, Bonnaroo..?
Wilson: I've only played Bonnaroo once.  And it was just so overwhelming—just because of the sheer size of it. I mean there were eighty thousand people there. I think [Nateva] was estimated at about twelve to fifteen thousand people†, so if you can imagine something three or four times that size—it's pretty crazy. It's a slightly different ballgame…But for the first year, [Nateva] was a huge success…I hope they do it again.

wers: So you think there will be a Nateva II?
Wilson: They ran a really well organized festival within the location. I think in New England there's been a gap as far as a big festival… since back when they used to do a thing called Berkfest—which was out in Western Mass. So I think there's demand there. And with festivals it seems like the more times they do it, the better it gets—if you can stick it out for the first few years. If they can pull it together and do it three or four years in a row, it'll without a doubt be huge. I mean it already is huge in my book, (laughs) but I know there are bigger festivals.

†Final estimates were actually closer to 10,000.