The Human Abstract [New Album Out August 19]

I'm always going on about concepts like "the law of attraction" by which all of one's dreams can be attained by placing one's thoughts on the most ideal possible situation that can be imagined, and by faith and sheer will, focusing on a desired reality until it comes into being.

There have been times in my life I have doubted these ideas. But today -- as I worked on a track for the new Human Abstract album at the studio of Pink Floyd's Patrick Leonard at Sunset and La Brea in downtown Los Angeles, using the same equipment that artists like Madonna and Elton John had used before me; and afterwards driving to meet up with my fellow bandmembers in Santa Monica at a studio granted to us for free by the Red Bull company, and manned by Toby Wright, whose extensive roster of music includes Metallica's ...And Justice For All (an album I idolized as a kid) -- I couldn't help but feel like there must be something undeniable about the power of focus, and of not wavering from that focus.

I didn't grow up in LA, I don't have parents that have anything to do with the modern music business world, and I don't come from a rich family. I grew up in a lower-middle class family in the south, in Nashville, Tennessee, and remember thinking of places like Hollywood, California, and how far away and almost make-believe they seemed at the time. Now I meet friends and go to bars and shows there to blow off steam at the end of the day (when I'm not touring across North America with my band).

The point of my story is that life is truly what you make of it. Our only limitations are the ones we set for ourselves. Now I know this to be ultimately true, and I hope I can make everyone believe it for themselves, and get everything they ever dreamed out of life, as I strive daily to do.

It's not all roses these days... times are tense as the band pulls together for our sophomore release (the second of a band's albums very oftentimes being the most crucial of the entire career). We want to hold true to the roots of everything we've worked so hard to build up, and make a record that pushes the metal envelope to uncomfortable limits. And at the same time, we all want to branch out to a larger audience, each looking at it from our own perspectives.

I can't speak for the entire group, but from a vocalist's standpoint, I truly have a strong desire to send a message out so strong and loud, that anyone who hears must listen. I want to break into the mainstream audience, but not by wearing cheesy clothes and makeup, and not by selling my heart and soul to a clueless and out-of-touch major label in exchange for a short career, ending in ridicule and a nice tax write off for the record company. I want to get there by merit of knowing myself enough to know how connected I am with every living being, and in knowing this connection, writing music that not only speaks from my heart, but that speaks from theirs as well. I want to know the world, and I want to be known by the world, because we all want that. I want to inspire and be inspired by everyone I come in contact with. I want to travel everywhere and learn from everyone I meet.

I think its interesting that people talk trash about breaking into the mainstream like its a bad thing. Maybe those people say derogatory things about it because they are afraid that they could never merit such heights. If that's true, its a very sad irony, considering that each of us carries such a potential within ourselves, and the implications of how little those people must know themselves, let alone those around them, are enough to make one shudder at the thought.

NRE (Nathan Ells)