Daddy NAT: How I Wrote “Elders”
It was the very end of 2019 after spending Christmas with the family. At the time, I had been listening to a bunch of Tyler Childers, Kacy Musgraves, vibing out with some Country/Folk for the first time in a long time. In fact, I listened to that music all the way back to Austin from the small town of Broken Bow, Oklahoma...So I guess I was technically in my car when the first elements of “Elders” came to be. As soon as I got home from this trip, I sat down to write a folk song. Started with the guitar riff you hear in the song, and shortly after threw an 808 / clap combo on it, and voila - “Elders” was born.
At the time of writing this song, I was feeling misunderstood. I had just finished my first album, but the way some of my closest family members received it wasn't great. Through that experience, I learned that our Elders don't know everything. The people who brought us into this world aren't necessarily capable of seeing the same vision that we might have for ourselves. They will also not understand the path it takes for us to get to the finish line...They do understand, however, that we all die one day. Ultimately we can live life with no regrets, or with a bucket list that never gets fulfilled.
As mentioned before, I wrote the foundation of the song (beat, hook, and first verse) within about 30 minutes of sitting down in my studio. From there, I brought it to Lonely Child and he worked a little magic to beef up the chorus as well as created room for a bridge and guitar solo. After that, we recut a few vocals, and at that time I had added a second verse. After realizing that wasn't up to par for what the song deserved, we tried a few other features. Eventually I reached out to Abhi, and let me tell you--that man is prolific. He had the verse and bridge sent over within a few days and gave us two different variations of it to pick from.
Bryan (Lonely Child) and I work on all my projects. He's integral to the sound that is DADDY Nat and continues to be a co-producer/writer on nearly every song in my catalog. Abhi on the other hand is someone that Lonely Child and I have aspired to work with for some time. Prior to Abhi's verse, we had tried several other features which didn't pan out. I actually reached out to Abhi cold, and to my surprise, he responded. We sent him the beat and he completely snapped on it. Was back to us within a few days.
“Elders” took a while to reach its final form. I don't really get writer's block in terms of melodies, but lyrically I definitely had a hard time with the second verse. I probably wrote 3 different versions, and eventually came to the decision with Lonely Child that we should find a feature. From there, we started reaching out to several artists in our network. That said, we just weren't satisfied with what we were getting--until we eventually landed on Abhi. Then I reached out cold, and the rest was history. I genuinely don't think we could have found a better feature for this song with any budget or roster.
“Elders” Cover Artwork / Click to Listen!
Apart from that – this was the first "pop" song that I've written that wasn't all sunshine and rainbows lyrically...lol. In fact, the theme is kind of dark in this song. So that contrast was interesting, and perhaps the first time I've done that type of contrast on any of my records.
"We all die when we get older, I guess that's awfully sad, at least it's true. So when I respect the mind of all my Elders, am I really compromising what I do?"
In other words – One day we're all going to die, and that sucks, but at least it's true. Not everything is a fairy tale ending. You have to work your fucking ass off, and you have to recognize that the things that worked for our parents might not work for you. They all mean well and want the best for us, but that doesn't mean they share the vision you have. So believe in yourself, glean the wisdom you can from your Elders, but don't let them stop you from pursuing your dreams.