Meet The Artist: Interview with Natty Reeves

Deep Matter signee Natty Reeves is a multi-instrumentalist, producer and singer-songwriter currently residing in Brighton, UK. Taking inspiration from the likes of Chet Baker, Blake Mills and Antonio Carlos Jobim, Natty produces music riddled with charm and honesty that blurs the lines between soul, jazz and hip hop. After years of blessing us with amazing instrumental and percussion-based music, Natty Reeves is finally delving into the world of vocals and will be blessing us with a handful of vocal tracks. We had the amazing opportunity to catch up with Natty Reeves to discuss; his recent live project ‘Live At 43’, his musical roots, and future plans! Here’s what came of our quick chat:

Introduce Yourself?

NR: “Hi, I’m Nat! Musician and Painter from Bristol, living in Brighton.”

How was life growing up? Have you always been into music?

NR: "Well, I started playing the guitar pretty early, I was about 6 or 7, it was Christmas present from friends to our family but I was the one that picked it up! Life in general was actually great. Looking back now, I feel really blessed to have the family I have and the friends I grew up with. It was pretty idyllic! I listened to music a lot, from my parent’s huge “portable” HiFi setup, Elvis, The Police, U2 and The Beach Boys stick out in my memory especially. Good times.”

What was the thought process behind recording a live EP?

NR: “Well, it was really a spur of the moment situation. Jackson had planned to do some recording with someone else in Brighton but they got covid so Jackson messaged me and I was free so I was like “let’s just write something this morning, and I’ll get my mates over to record it in the afternoon.” And it turned out really great! We had basic structures for the songs but just improvised around them, bouncing off each other’s performances.”

What inspired you to record Live at 43?

NR: “We had the time and I had a spare room at the time! It all lined up nicely.”

How did you decide to collaborate with Jackson Mathod for the project?

NR: “Well we’d talked over instagram a little bit and knew that we wanted to work together at some point. Then the perfect situation came together!”

How is it being signed to Deep Matter?

NR: “Literally life-changing. Tom, head honcho at DeepMatter, has carried and guided me since I was about 18! I think I’m the longest-running artist on the label and it’s been amazing to watch it grow and become so successful.”

When did you decide that music was the right direction for you?

NR: “After I took a maths A level taster lesson and couldn’t even use the calculator haha just wanted to play guitar and paint after that.”

How do you find performing live? Does it come naturally to you?

NR: “I get pretty nervous, the thought of gigging is pretty nerve wracking to be frank. Usually it goes ok though so I just need to get over it!”

How has covid-19 affected your musical journey?

NR: “Well because I’m not the keenest gigger, I wasn’t really affected in that regard haha it kinda allowed me to just focus on my production work and create the Our Time instrumental album I released last year.”

Biggest musical accomplishment to date?

NR: “Well the accomplishment that has meant the most to me was when I hit 10k streams on soundcloud, and I was bouncing around my bedroom with excitement because it blew my mind that I could get that many plays! It helped me realise that it could actually be done, I could do this for a living in the future!”

How do you stay creatively inspired when you are feeling down?

NR: “I change my medium. That’s why I paint now too. Even just using your body in a different way, change your physical actions.”

Top 5 Jazz muscians of all time?

NR: “Chet Baker, Bill Evans, Joao Gilberto, Luis Bonfa & Nat King Cole.”

When are you going to bless the world with your singing prowess?

NR: “I’ve literally just dropped my first official vocal single “White Lies” on all major music platforms! I hope you can relate to it and enjoy it…”

What’s next for you?

NR: “Vocal tracks baby! The singing is coming back in full effect, now that I have things to say again!”

Where can people find you?

NR: “www.nattyreeves.com, @natty_reeves on insta, @natreeves_art for my art insta & @astairemusic for my beats insta.”

Be sure to follow ‘Natty Reeves’ on his social pages (linked below):

Instagram | Spotify | Twitter | Soundcloud

Thank you for reading this article! If you enjoyed the content be sure to bookmark the website, and follow us on Instagram & our other socials to stay up-to-date with all of our latest content. Be sure to follow our Spotify and Soundcloud for fresh playlists and new music releases:

vibe rating ~ Instagram | Spotify | Soundcloud | TikTok