Nathan’s story…
Nathan has been surrounded by music, circus, & magic, his entire life. Growing up with a family of artists, & musicians, he began performing at the age of 15. Back then he was a juggler, unicyclist, & fire performer. It wasn’t until the age of 18 that he began writing & playing songs at his local open mic night: the Chandelier Sessions. Since then he’s been pursuing the artistic life, performing both as an acrobat, actor, & musician on stages all around Ireland.
After a terrible injury to his back while touring with a circus-musical production, he was thrown into a crisis of identity & lost sight of his dreams to one day perform with Cirque Du Soleil. It was during these years that Nathan began to retreat into writing, not just songs, but plays, & short stories.
Through some local arts activism, Nathan met his friend & mentor: Trisha O’Keefe, a woman with a decorated history in the music industry. With her guidance & advice, she steered Nathan towards a life of songwriting & music first. He left the world of circus behind him… Nathan has said that the best advice he ever received from his mentor was: “Your structure and melody are great, but your lyrics are crap. Go home, rewrite your songs, and you could have a career as a songwriter.”
Since he left the circus behind to pursue a songwriter’s existence, he has travelled up & down the country & over seas, building a small crew of friends, fans, & family. There have been many milestones along the road, including three years of his own unplugged music night in Temple Bar, sold out shows at The Smock Alley Theatre, & a small tour of the UK… but all of these achievements come from a previous life of ‘Nathan Mac’. All of this changed in 2020…
On the 3rd of January 2020, Nathan was introduced to his soon to be collaborator: Brian Dwyer. Together, they have been combining evocative narrative lyrics & melodies, with beautiful Cinematic-pop audioscapes. The “Start of Something Blue” project grew organically out of their partnership & has exploded onto the Irish music scene as something creatively deeper, with a circus-musical film, in depth artworks, & storytelling that marries Nathan’s traditional Irish roots with his love for electronic music. From here we can celebrate the blue, the pink, the black… the glow and shimmer of the digital art.
All of Nathan’s work culminated on the 2nd of September 2022, with a launch of this debut album & it’s companion piece: Learning Curve. With this new sound, & new image, Nathan has once again returned to his circus roots. He is combining the best moments of his life in the creative world, & is set to lead the way in cross-discipline performances