In the Headlines...
Matt Nathanson Gets Involved
By: Nicole Roberge
Anyone who has seen Matt
Nathanson in concert knows that he is just a ball of energy, waiting to rock
you. Some of you may also know of his involvement with Rock For A Remedy-an
organization that sets up food drives at concerts to raise money for local food
banks. What you may not know is the proactive stance Nathanson takes with
different organizations, and his desire to be more involved and get his fans
involved along the way.
Nathanson’s push for involvement isn’t a new thing, however. In college, he spent much of his time working with charitable organizations. He did a benefit show every year for a rape crisis center and a woman’s resource center. He would also put on pro-choice and censorship of America shows. Nathanson remembers the impact music could have on raising awareness, and wishes there was more support and interest in today’s musicians and fans, instead of just a benefit show every so often: “I remember in college there were all these great causes involved. These days it doesn’t feel like it as much. There’s gotta be a new way to introduce it. I feel like they listen, but I feel like with anything, it loses its push after a while. You have to make it hip again, so kids go, ‘yeah, that’s kick ass.’ That’s how it feels. You have to reintroduce that stuff in a way that feels cool. So bands get excited about doing it.”
Nathanson’s desire to make a difference in college has spanned his years touring, and most recently generated his involvement with Rock for a Remedy. The organization contacted him when he was on tour with Jason Mraz (who prompted the start of the organization) and he jumped at the chance to work with them. “It’s not something I would have known about without them coming forward,” Nathanson noted. “They’re really proactive people, so forward thinking and they do every aspect of it. They show up, set up the table, and they kind of bust a move. It’s pretty kick ass. They’re all super good human beings so it’s pretty rad.”
Nathanson did a string of shows with Rock For A Remedy, “patchwork dates,” as he calls them, whenever RFAR could set it up. It was called the “More (Food) Than This” Drive—a play on Nathanson’s song title, “More Than This.” Nathanson credits the organization greatly, as benefit shows are something he has always wanted to do, but since he’s still building as an artist, it has been hard to put together. “It’s hard because I’m not super big, so it’s hard to pull together any kind of organized thing. They made it pretty easy. It’s something I’ve always wanted to pull together, but it’s just not easy to do. They sought it out, and they’re just such fans of the music that they hooked it up on shows that we were headlining.”
So when music merges with a cause, do you think that raises awareness?
“I don’t really know. I feel like there’s a way different thing that’s happening now. Back in the 90’s there was this whole movement to vote, this whole pro-choice movement. Always discussions at venues, and shows…it was very hip to be for a cause and now I don’t know how much of an impact it is. I think it’s impactful but I don’t know if it sinks in the way it really should.”
With
the different trends of society, Nathanson is glad that RFAR is stepping up to
the challenge, but wishes there was more he could do at this point. “I’m not
at the stage where I can do anything that has a big impact. Obviously every
little bit counts, but for me, being a musician at this stage, it’s really
all-encompassing, self-absorption—it’s really sort of frustrating. You spend
your whole time trying to make it work and you put all your energy back into
your thing.” This however, does not discourage Nathanson from staying with an
organization like RFAR, even though his focus is on his career. “I would love
to pull my head out of my ass enough to be able to do more things like Rock for
a Remedy, voter registration, pro-choice or women’s rights. All that stuff sort
of took a backseat in fashion and I kind of hope it picks up again. And that’s
why I think they’re such bad-asses because they make it easy on the performer.
They come to these people at this point in their lives when all the energy is
being focused on moving this thing (music) forward and establishing themselves.
And they swoop in and say, ‘well do it, set it up, send out the emails,’ and
it’s fantastic. Hopefully it’ll motivate people to be more active in that
stuff.”
Nathanson believes that organizations like RFAR are encouragement to music fans to get involved, because if they didn’t have these events, the chance that people would donate to these food banks is slim. “I’ll have Rock For a Remedy at any show I can have them at,” he said, noting how they make the process easier for fans to help. “If you make it easy for people to do it, it gets done. And it’s a real benefit. And that’s the part that’s so great.” Nathanson doesn’t want to just stop at food drives though. “I would love to do more for rape crisis centers and pro-choice stuff. Women’s rights are just sort of essential stuff. It would be rad to be able to pull together a whole tour and have tables at every show. It would be good to get to a point where I can bring people along that I really dug. Put tents up at every venue,” he said.
But even with this enthusiasm and desire to help, Nathanson realizes the difficulty that can come with putting together such things. “It’s funny, causes are really hard to dedicate to. To stick to that commitment, you say, ‘I’m never gonna forget this, I’m never gonna let this go unnoticed again. I’m always gonna talk about this’, whatever the issue is. If it’s the environment, ‘I’m always gonna recycle.’ It’s simple stuff, like always turn the faucet off when I brush my teeth. It sounds strange, but those things are really kind of fair-weather moments. They last and then you get caught up in the role of how things go and it kind of takes a backseat and it’s unfortunate that it does. And that’s why it’s so important for people to bring it back to the forefront,” he said, but noticed that it is a common occurrence. “I’m just as guilty as everyone else. I get wrapped up in stuff that’s really less important. It’s really essential to keep that stuff in the forefront of your mind, and it’s hard to do.”
Nathanson has many views on how
to increase awareness, but feels also that though musicians have the stage to
spout their views, it isn’t really his place to send his messages to people.
There’s a fine line with when it is his place to talk about these issues, but
even when he does, it is not up to him to sway views. Instead, people should be
trying to become aware of things on their own. “It’s the kind of thing, where
if you ever asked me about it, I would tell you how I felt. From the stage,
sometimes I feel like it’s not my place. I would never be able to educate
people. Let people educated themselves. I would love to give people the
opportunity to educate themselves by setting something up in the lobby of every
show.”
Though Matt Nathanson would love to see a push in the direction of benefits and raising awareness, he realizes that people get caught up in their own lives, himself included, and that is how these causes seem to get neglected. Many people don’t want to put the effort forward, especially when thinking about things of their own that they have to do—work, taking care of kids, trying to attain their own goals. “You spend so much of your energy trying to survive in a way. Not survive like, put food on the table, but try to figure out a way and make things work. Everybody’s got their thing that they’re trying to do, so these kinds of things take a backseat at a certain point. It’s a shame and it really shouldn’t take the backseat. It should be something that goes along with brushing your teeth and taking out the garbage. There should be this thing of, ‘Alright, cool, let’s get involved, what can we do to help? How can we give our time to this?’” he said.
Though Matt Nathanson may not, at this point in his career, have the time to commit to these causes as much as he’d like, he’s taking a step in the right direction. By teaming up with organizations like Rock for a Remedy, and trying to motivate his fans to take action on causes that impact them, he is raising awareness at his shows on issues that may not otherwise be acknowledged. And that is just one of the many ways Matt Nathanson is out there to rock you.