Israeli star Nathan Goshen has been making waves since his international breakout in 2016 with his hit single “Thinking About It (Let It Go)” and the extremely popular remix by KVR. In addition to his music career, Nathan has made appearances on Israeli’s X-Factor and is currently working on a film project with esteemed director Avi Nesher. WOTN got a chance to sit down and talk with Nathan after his newest English release “Home” which blends a future bass production with Nathan’s unique lyrics and vocal talent.
Your debut self-titled album was released in your mid-twenties, what was your life like before you became a successful musician and additionally, what drove you to pursue a career in music?
Well, from my point of view I can definitely say it changed my life and my family’s life as well, everything from our economical situation, to me not being a boy who’s destined to get in trouble all of the time, and of course, that was my dream and I didn’t really know or love anything else.
Whether we look at your English or Hebrew music, your voice is always the shining star of each of your tracks, when did you discover your vocal talent and what sort of things helped you develop it into what it is today?
Nice to hear, but if I have to be honest, I don’t really describe myself as a great lead vocalist like I want to be. I never learned how to sing professionally and when I started to release my music, good things started to happen and I kinda kept that aside in my eyes, I plan to put pressure on that soon.
You focus a lot on the meaning behind your songs with emotional lyrics that help relate the listener to your tracks. However, with the overwhelming majority of our readers being unable to understand Hebrew, we can sometimes miss the deeper meanings behind your songs. Can you pick out one of your Hebrew songs that means a lot to you and tell us a little bit about the emotions behind it and what was going in your life at the time that inspired you to write it?
I have a song called ‘Hikiti’ on which I talk about everything I’ve been waiting for since I can remember, if it’s personal things like my dream to be a musician for a long time, or waiting for my brother to come back home when he was in the army so my mother can breathe normally again. Even my process in my relationship with god and myself, which I find most important, to more general things like educational issues here in Israel, or the long wait we have for peace where we live.
Your biggest international hit to date is “Thinking About It (Let It Go), which included an extremely popular remix by Dutch producer KVR. How did you initially connect with KVR and did you expect the track to be such an overwhelming success?
The credit for the remix goes completely to ‘KVR’ since he’s the one who found my song and decided to make a remix version for it and my label, disco:wax, for finding it online and believing in it like they did. I tend not to grow expectations for anything and just concentrate on my work and creation.
Your latest release “Home” is accompanied by a series of short documentaries that depict the lives of those for whom the word “home” has a hard-hitting meaning. Can you explain what “home” means to you and expand on your motivations to put together this series?
We were thinking it would be a good idea to ask a group of people from different places and interests about what ‘home’ means for them, since it can change completely from one person to another. What home means to me is firstly my relationship with god and right after that, my family, besides that I’m a very homely person.
Your success in the music industry in Israel has led to appearances in television, radio shows, acting, and now, with your popular english releases, an ever increasing international fanbase. With these new opportunities opening up, where do you see yourself a year from now?
I wish I could think that far, I live day by day and pass on expectations at any kind. I can generally say I would like to keep working on my music for as long as I can.
What can your fans expect from you as we close out the rest of 2017?
I have a wide variety of things I like to do musically which makes the choice of songs and even genres to be a bit problematic for me, people can expect every song to have its own taste and attitude.
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