By Christine Deakers
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania—When intellect melds with thoughtful and soulful balladeer capacity, an audience has songwriting at its purest, where gimmick is left behind, and the stage is swept clean for just a voice and a guitar. A centered wordsmith who relies on what he knows, Nathan Veshecco, 27, questions as he composes.
“Love, With Questions” is Veshecco’s fourth album. This Rhetoric major from UC Berkeley puts his degree to work. His evocative lyrics link to smooth and catchy melodies with rifts that whisk a listener into the rhapsody of his velvet voice. Convincing, yet clear of disingenuous charm.
In his understanding and self-awareness he imbues songwriting with unpretentious poignancy. Perhaps this wisdom comes from experience. He’s proclaimed to have had a time where he felt like he had something to prove. Earlier records, he proclaims, were stylistically all over the place. But he’s pared away the excess since then.
“I've found a much simpler, more honest and hopefully, more humble way of communicating through song,” Veshecco says.
It’s his confidence that’s so appealing, and when it comes to style, “it's all about comfort… If [he’s] ironically fashionable or at least decent looking in the process, that's the cherry.” But his down-home, comfortable style isn’t the cherry on top, but rather the pit of his persona.
The found, and quiet confidence fills in the skeleton of “Love, With Questions” with muscular strength propelled by his inspirations that ever move and progress.
From a kindling phase where indie cerebral rock, like Rilo Kiley and Bright Eyes, bonfired an early foundation, he now says that stuff doesn’t do it for him anymore, but he looks back fondly.
He recognizes he’s changed, and possesses the power of his growth. An album based on questions, his inquiries on love and life do not pose as threats of incapability, but ways to understand.
For example, in his song “I Have a Question” he repeatedly refrains, “How do I lose love?” The line is provoking, being descriptive and intrinsic at the same time. These songs double not only as vessels for expression, but also vehicles to move forward. Veshecco uses the structure of a question to reconcile between his current emotions, and the struggle on how to be brave and start something new.
The jump between each of these ledges is the device of songwriting, in the work the sheet music, and reaching out to an audience. But where do these thoughts come from? Veshecco waits for them, as he says, like a teapot on the stove.
“The first idea is always inexplicable - it comes from nowhere, usually when I'm not looking,” he says. “It’s tough to force good songs. Most of my stuff comes in the shower or in the car. Once in awhile a conversation sparks something, or someone else's record, a movie, TV. So the bulk of my work is best described as ‘response’ to that initial idea.”
While the time, the talent, and the soul go into his work, these songs have a just scrawled on the edge of a napkin essence. “Love, With Questions” seems effortless, a compliment since the best always make it seem easy.
One song, in particular, entitled, “I’d Die”, is disarming and compelling for its relatable and light-hearted tone. It accounts the twenty-something, boy-meets-girl story, but Veshecco speaks his mind, without the sappiness. After a dynamic intro, a verse starts with, “You don't have to marry me/ Not tonight, it's not in sight/ Baby, believe my face/Things are getting hairy here/ Club is clearin', here come the lights/ I just wanna take you to my place.”
But quickly the verse transitions from bold audacity to a sincere promise as he addresses the listener, “trust me Girl, you can be free/ They've only given us this one life to fly”. His modus operandi is to encourage good songwriting, and he does so as he engages his listeners, and directly converses with them. He implores with an “us”, and suddenly the stakes are up, and the audience is involved.
Unique compared to many songwriters who almost sing like they are keeping a secret, Veshecco always wants his audience to be immersed, and in the know. Listeners are active participants with the music, and he never obscures his message, but always keeps people on their tapping toes with his fresh and forthright point of view on relationships.
Over Skype, in interview mode, Veshecco doesn’t take himself too seriously, in his bedazzled black-t, promoting a sparkling wine. A former wine specialist for J Winery, he sees his music like one of his idols, Marvin Gaye: through the grapevine. A lover of the “backroom” stuff, or in his words, "You know, we don't break this out for just anybody…" Veshecco is one of a kind. But when it comes down to it, he would like to be something for everyone. Veshecco’s a Pinot Noir at heart.
He says, “I'd want to be something that most people enjoy and have access to…I'd want to fit in well at my grandmother's highly Italian dinner table.”
The element that strings his work together is his independence from any bells and whistles. At its simplest form, the melody ropes him in. “It could be fifteen minutes of Flamenco Sketches by Miles Davis,” hey says, “it's still the notes that I care about way before I start thinking about motive, vibe, context, etc.”
His back to basics attitude lends itself not only to his music, but also to his personal life. It’s impossible to ignore that his connection to an audience may spring from his experience with his love life. “I can't tell you how much of my art has come from just beginning to understand the ways of being intimate.”
Collaborating with his girlfriend, actress, Taryn Sprenkle, they’ve seemed to have made a strong connection. Together on the album they cover the hit song from Broadway’s “Spring Awakening”, “The Guilty Ones”. Veshecco and Taryn look forward to new musical endeavors, no question.
