This week, I have an important announcement to share with all of you regarding the next chapter in my artistic journey. I'm launching a new platform that will allow us to connect in a deeper way and create something beautiful together:
10 years ago, my first act as a full-time artist was to start a patreon page. i knew that where i wanted to go would only be possible with the support of a community. i did NOT know where it was we were about to go...
many of you know the story:
in 2014, we decided to move to chicago. later that year, we found out about olivia's prognosis.
in 2015, olivia was born, and her life turned everything upside down. i stopped playing with hello industry and started playing solo. i wrote my first book and my first solo album.
in 2016, olivia died. i wrote my second book and my second solo album. what was left of me seemed to fall apart completely. not only had i lost olivia, but i felt like i had lost everything, even myself.
2017 through 2019 were a blur. through this entire season, i could still hear olivia's voice: "hey, you're still here. come back." i could still see her light. not as bright as before, but still extraordinary. i kept coming back. i wrote another collection of songs (still unreleased!).
in 2020, covid turned everything upside down, this time for the entire planet. i felt a strange sense of relief... having the rest of the world upside down made me feel less alone.
in 2020-2021, i wrote another collection of songs about togetherness. i released one of them, masks, which streamed 135k times around the world!
in late 2021, we completed our move to chicago. a 7-year journey.
when i started my patreon page in 2013, many of you immediately jumped in and supported. some of you are still supporting 10 years later! none of us knew where things would go. 10 years, 3 more children, olivia's life and death, covid, a new home in chicago, 2 books, 2 albums, and 1 single later, here we are.
this has community supported me through it all.
i could not have made the art i made, or lived the life i lived, or kept our lights on (!), over the past decade without your support.
now, in 2024, we are entering a new season again. and again i can sense that where i want to go next will require the support and involvement of a community. this community. you.
olivia was an extraordinarily bright light. in order to receive her, i had to let go of so much. this included many layers of a life i had worked so hard to build and maintain. as i let the layers go, something amazing and unexpected happened: i rediscovered my own extraordinarily bright light.
a beautiful child, abandoned in the chaos of war, but never really gone, just locked away. i followed olivia back into the chaos, and found this child waiting. like olivia, an extraordinarily bright light.
i found my way back to myself. and it is clear as day to me how this same extraordinarily bright light exists in each one of us. maybe it is covered by a million layers, but it is there, waiting for you to come back.
olivia's light invited me back to my own light. she did this without the ability to talk or even think. she did it by being. and now, so am i.
throughout history, artists have led the way for humanity's most important steps. today, our world needs artists who are all-in, 100% committed to their craft, 100% embodying of their work. they are not creating "perfect" or commercial art (AI can do that for us now), but living, EMBODIED, enduring art.
this kind of art cannot be created without fully committing one's life to it. there's nothing wrong with art as a hobby, but this is another thing which requires the artist's full attention, a lifetime of practice, and ample time for exploration, experimentation, and rest.
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this kind of art cannot be created under the weight of financial worry or hardship. for art to flow, an artist must feel safe to explore, to be curious, to play. if there is a requirement or deadline by which time the art must "work," it won't.
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therefore, this kind of art must be created by a community. the artist to create; the patron to support. this cycle of generosity opens a portal for the living, embodied, enduring art which can, and WILL, lead humanity through its next season of growth, to flow.
i am one such artist.
my patreon is for people who want me to continue working. i am committed for life to continue going into the wilderness, bringing back what i find, and sharing it, raw and unfiltered, through music, words, and other forms of art. you are basically providing my salary, giving me the freedom and ability to create without the pressure to make things commercially viable, catchy, censored, polished, or constricting deadlines. you are making my work sustainable for the next 10 years, 20 years, and beyond.
we can do this easily if we do it together.
for an overview of how patreon works look HERE. basically, patreon charges you $1 (or more, if you choose) at the end every month. that money supports me and my team (musicians, engineers, producers, photographer, video editors, other artists) and helps me to pay my operational costs (my marketing, equipment, software, team, rent, my life, basically).
for a list of music and books i've released over the years, go here: http://nathanpeterson.net/music and http://nathanpeterson.net/books and
and there's a lot more to come.
patreon is a great platform for facilitating this kind of partnership. it allows those who can only afford $1 to join the community while people with a lot to give are also able to support. no tier is more or less valuable! each person is a treasured part of the community. not only for their financial contribution, but also for their feedback. this is HUGE.
often, i come across something i would love to share, but it doesn't feel complete enough for a newsletter, and it feels too valuable to throw out into the abyss of social media. patreon is a place where i can share these things—about life, work, voice, life, tools, coffee, my process. i don't expect you to read or comment on everything, but any feedback you do share is incredibly valuable to me, as is just having a community to share it with.
my patreon is my home base and my workshop where my ideas can first be realized and shared. some of what begins here becomes a full book or album. some of it is never seen by anyone but you.
we are figuring this out as we go. it's organic. it's community. it's alive!
whether you've been a fan of mine since the early days of hello industry, whether you've just recently found me, or whether you're my mom (hi mom 🙂), i invite you to join this community as we all journey together to rediscover our extraordinarily bright light.
join me at patreon.com/nathanpeterson
if you're already one of my patrons...THANK YOU. you are making this possible.
your friend, Nathan
p.s. if you have questions, submit them on the patron stream once you sign up, or send an email to patronhelp@nathanpeterson.net. if you have patreon-specific questions, visit patreon's support page and contact their support team directly: http://support.patreon.com