Vents MagaZine Music and Entertainment Magazine
Related Articles
A jack of many trades and master of some, 25-year-old Filipino-American artist Nathanael Philip Mosher is one of a kind. His lifelong love for writing has led him from poetry to stand-up comedy, music, and spoken-word poetry. Nathan began writing poetry at age seven. At age ten, he was chosen by his fifth grade teacher to enter the Young Storytellers program, where his play about a man becoming king of the Martians was acted by “Phil of The Future” star Ricky Ullman. While attending UCLA, he studied English literature and Creative Writing, while taking advantage of the burgeoning comedy scene, running shows in lecture halls, theatres, coffee shops, classrooms, and even parking lots, continuing to perform nightly in the greater LA area. After a life changing mental breakdown in 2018, Nathanael began to weave his poetry into song, honing his craft even further.
After months of recording, producing, and writing remotely, Mosher worked together with mentor and engineer Tom Bajoras to create his first EP, self-titled NATHANAEL. The eclectic EP soundtracks the grieving process and celebrates the humanity of suffering. The EP is due out on all streaming platforms in late spring of 2021, with advance singles being released in the new year. Until then, Mosher continues to write, produce, and master new music, which will carry you into the New Year.
Nathanael Philip Mosher is today teaming up with VENTS to unveil his highly anticipated new single “I Don’t Wanna Die Young.” You know how they say the best music makes you feel – this track does that in overdrive.
About the song, Nathanael comments
I wrote this song two days after Kobe’s death. It truly rocked my world and a flurry of emotions came out through a hook and a verse. I wrote the lyrics in the span of 30 minutes over a beat I had already been working on. I had worked on the beat previously the past two weeks, and the hook came out while I was working on it. The melody allowed me to vent the emotions I had been feeling, and the verses flowed naturally. Shout out to GarageBand for providing the loop that anchors the melody of the song.
The song is about myself in relation to Kobe, because he’s been my benchmark for work ethic and achieving my goals. He’s been there since the beginning and I’ve always been a basketball player, whether or not I was any good. I had to ask myself a hard question following his death, which was, “Are you truly working as hard as you can?” I had looked to him as an idol, consumed everything I could find about his work ethic, and his death really shook me because it put my own mortality in perspective. Much of this EP is about suicide, grief, and figuring out the role of poetry and art in my life. I didn’t want to have a sudden death like he did while feeling like I hadn’t done everything in my power to leave no stone unturned. The hook flowed out of that feeling.
“I don’t wanna die young, I don’t wanna die young, but if I do I hope I’m true and if I leave it up to you, I hope you let some people know that I’ve been worked hard.
I don’t wanna die young, I don’t wanna die young, but if I do, I hope you knew that I’ve been training for a marathon that few would ever get to put their life towards.”
I feel like Kobe and I shared the same intentions behind what we want to be known for. I want the world to know about my work ethic the way Kobe is known for his. It’s extremely important to me to honor the sacrifices people have made before me by working as hard as I can. More importantly however, what Kobe really imparted in his final days was the intention behind his work, and as I grow older I realize that my intention and process are more important, and the approach is what’s lasting, not the work I put in. This song is about me grappling with this fear of working too hard versus honoring my intentions, and the recovery that underlies everything I do. Above all, this song was really a cry out to God to not take me unto death without giving me a chance to honor all the talents and opportunities I’ve been given.
Regardless of whether I achieve all my goals, this song is a touchstone of an emotional moment that I shared with someone I never knew. I love that about great people’s impacts. Their light can shine so bright that you can see it without ever being in their vicinity. If I can shine even a fraction as brightly, I’ll have lived out God’s purpose for me.
