Meet Nate Delgallego: “ROOFTOP REMIX”
Photo taken by Jacob Delgallego & Sergio Garduño
Meet Nate Delgallego. Nate is a 20-year-old multi-genre musician, producer, and visual artist from San Diego, California. Nate has been making music since he was young, has an ear for rhythmic patterns, and grew up making all the noise that he possibly could with family members' instruments. But Nate says that the ball began rolling regarding musicianship and production around the age of thirteen. Nate Delgallego just released his album "ROOFTOP REMIX," a hip-hop/rap compilation album completely done by Nate himself. So, let's get to know Nate and hear about the process of producing his album and what he has in store for the future!
LISTEN TO "ROOFTOP REMIX," OUT NOW!
Photo taken by Jacob Delgallego & Sergio Garduño
WHO ARE SOME OF YOUR BIGGEST MUSICAL INSPIRATIONS?
"I was raised in such a musically & familially diverse environment with both sides playing everything from Blink-182 to Bob Marley to Big L, and I think that early childhood exposure to such a wide variety of sounds shaped my admiration for music of all genres. The first album I ever dug into and became obsessed with was 'Goblin' by Tyler The Creator in the 5th grade, amongst the rest of the Odd Future catalog. In 2016 I started to attend local hardcore & punk shows with my older cousins and immediately fell in love with the live energy and feeling that bands like Turnstile, Mizery & Take Offense gave me. From Hip-Hop to Hardcore and everything in between, my biggest musical inspirations are drawn from all kinds of places."
TELL ME A BIT MORE ABOUT YOUR MUSICAL JOURNEY. WHAT GOT YOU INTO MAKING YOUR OWN MUSIC?
"I believed on Christmas in 2015, my now brother-in-law gifted me an old copy of Final Cut Studio containing a DAW-like program called Soundtrack Pro 3. From there, I started experimenting & creating my first few rap beats using my mother's school-provided Macbook Pro. This software was intended to engineer movie audio, not music, and with no ability to set a tempo, it got to the point I had to manually place each individual drum without the ability to quantize. I'm sure you can imagine how amazing these first few attempts sounded. Eventually, I downloaded a cracked copy of Logic Pro X off Reddit, and the sheer will to want to properly create the music that I loved was overbearing."
LET'S TALK ABOUT YOUR MOST RECENT RELEASE, THE ALBUM "ROOFTOP REMIX," WHICH CAME OUT ON AUGUST 11TH, 2023. TELL ME ABOUT THE PRODUCTION. TELL ME ABOUT THE PRODUCTION PROCESS OF THIS ALBUM.
"'ROOFTOP REMIX' is a Hip-Hop/Rap compilation album consisting of ten unofficial mashup songs that I produced, arranged, engineered, mixed, mastered & distributed via my independent record label, Forever Ending Records. Featuring the lead single, 'DON'T DENY' (which dropped on August 4, 2023), a majority of this project was created from inside my bedroom music studio using a variety of graciously borrowed samples & vocal recordings performed by some of my favorite emcees & singers. From Instagram snippets to off-kilter drum pattern ideas stemming as far back as COVID-19 lockdowns, this extended period of isolation granted myself the opportunity to experiment with new methods of creating collaborative rap music regardless of connectivity to the lyricist, let alone to the outside world."
Photo taken by Jacob Delgallego & Sergio Garduño
WHAT SONG ON THE ALBUM PROVED TO BE THE MOST DIFFICULT TO RECORD?
"Aside from some small mixing difficulties isolating standard-definition YouTube videos of rare freestyles, a lot of this project put itself together easily. Most of the instrumentals heard on 'ROOFTOP REMIX' have sat on my hard drive for months to years waiting for use, and it quickly became a game of asking myself, 'Which of my favorite artists would sound best on this beat?'"
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE TRACK ON THE ALBUM?
"My favorite song off this album is a tossup between 'WORLD TOUR' and 'JUST LIKE ME.' The former is the one track off the album that sounds most to me like it could've been the original composition. Sorry Swizz, but I was never too crazy about that WW III beat Ja Rule was originally spitting over, and there's something so seamless about how his flow and tone of voice matches the beat I produced for him. The latter, however, is the only joint off the album where I switched up the beat in the middle of the track. I still get a stank face every time I hear Freddie Gibbs piece the two together."
IS THERE AN OVERALL THEME, MESSAGE, OR FEELING WITH THIS ALBUM THAT YOU ARE TRYING TO GET ACROSS TO LISTENERS?
"While there isn't an exact message being relayed in the content itself, I learned a lot throughout its creation about my own gratitude and appreciation for the things in life I already have rather than harping on what I don't."
Photo taken by Jacob Delgallego & Sergio Garduño
ANY ADVICE FOR OTHER MUSICIANS LOOKING TO PRODUCE THEIR OWN MUSIC?
"It's extremely easy, especially as an aspiring artist, to get caught up in desirable gear, recognition, or whatever your metric is for success that you haven't yet attained. The question is, do you love the journey, or do you love the destination? Are you in this for the love or for the look? The correct answer becomes more and more evident when you learn to create for the sake of loving to create instead of aiming for the next hit single every time and expecting the fruits of your labor to magically grow ripe overnight. For f**k's sake, we all carry around a 6-inch piece of metal in our pockets with ready access to all the information in the world you could possibly need. Use it. Take advantage of the ever-expanding amount of knowledge we all have and run wild with it in whichever direction you desire."
WHAT CAN LISTENERS EXPECT FROM YOU IN THE FUTURE?
"Aside from solo projects, I play lead guitar in a San Diego Hardcore band with my little brother called Hereditary, in which we just finished tracking a new EP with Alex Jacobelli at Sunsick Studio. I also own an independent record label known as Forever Ending Records. I recently put out some cassette tapes for an up-and-coming Inland Empire Hardcore band called God Awful. And while I'm currently unemployed, you can typically find me at your local cafe pulling espresso shots & pouring latte art."
Photo taken by Jacob Delgallego & Sergio Garduño
