Nathan Farrell

photograph by Sabine Ostinvil

Interview by Noa Levy Baron

Would you describe yourself as a performer? What do you feel like when you perform?

I would definitely describe myself as a performer because that is most often the medium in which I will be relaying my art. I think music itself and performing music are very different. A lot of performing is learning to be you in the most authentic way. It is about putting it all out there and that is something that I do a lot in general. So for me, performing is something that I have a little bit of an inclination for, but it’s also something that I am still developing when I perform on or off campus. I found that I’m best at performing when I don’t really view it as being on a stage, on an elevated platform. I perform better when I am literally not on a stage because it’s almost as if I was talking to others in a different way. I think it is very hard to perform on huge stages, like stadiums, in a way that a lot of very big stars will do because you cannot connect to your audience as well.

It is interesting what you describe about authenticity because when we think about people on stage, we often think of them as playing a role, as being something else other than themselves…

Yes, that’s also a part of it because sometimes your performance does not have to necessarily correspond to how you feel in the moment. A performance can be performative. If I’m sad and performing at a party, I have to draw on other feelings. But, even if it’s performative, I think there is always something genuine about it because to successfully do it, you have to draw on a genuine part of you. There is a little bit of a tension there, but I think it is still ultimately authentic.