Today, D.C.-based singer-songwriter Nate Bergman shares the video for his new single, “Lords of Water, Lords of Grain” in collaboration with Frank Iero (My Chemical Romance) and Per Wiberg (Opeth) from his upcoming album, Metaphysical Change due this Friday, May 20th via Velocity Records. [Pre-Save]
When discussing the song, Bergman said, “This is really my song about global warming. The destruction of the environment and the depletion of natural resources. Around 8 years ago I started reading articles about Coca-Cola and Nestle going into developing countries’ natural resources and purchasing and claiming land from the Government that holds crops and water sources. Reselling the water back to the people who live there at a huge mark up but initially making their own products cheap and readily available. In several parts of Africa and India they hold. They are doing it here too – major corporations have started to buy up all the water aquifers and literally own the rights to them”
Bergman continues, “As it gets hotter and water gets more scarce – along with the subsidies the government already holds for food and crop shares, it’s becoming very clear that these aren’t human rights and will have to be purchased. I tried to spell out what the future is going to look like. From the perspective of someone just trying to buy food and water as a scarce commodity and what it looks like from the viewpoint of the soldier who is ultimately protecting those resources on behalf of corporations. It’s bleak.”
Bergman is a curly haired Jewish kid who sounds like Sam Cooke after 400 cigarettes. Not only because all his great country-music-stories were written in the heart of metropolitan DC. No. Metaphysical Change was never gonna work because Nate Bergman got stuck overseas when the lockdowns hit. Thousands of miles away from his collaborators, studio and family, Bergman began recording demos all on his own, playing every instrument and stacking harmonies of his own voice. Nate felt Europe leaving its mark on songs like “Ode to Manchester” and “Goodbye Munich” just as isolation and loneliness began to leave their marks on songs like “Dark Horse, Sweet Horse” and “Into My Arms” and songs so full of longing, they just might burst inside your speakers.
The guest collaborations are a constant of Metaphysical Change that include Tyler Bryant who rips the solo of the year on “Highway Friend,” and Brit Turner from Blackberry Smoke who makes “Living on the Line” move, and shake paired up with Karina Rykman’s bass and Lucero/Chuck Reagan collaborator, Todd Beane who brings a handle of whiskey to soak the slide guitars on “Ode to Manchester.” If that makes Metaphysical Change sound like a who’s who of Southern Fried rock and roll, please understand that Nate’s roster is as deep as his musical scope is wide with Michael Ward from The Wallflowers/Ben Harper Band turning in stunning guitar tracks on numerous songs and Frank Iero from My Chemical Romance who is the perfect parallel to the hypnotic trance of Art Metal giant, Opeth’s Per Wiberg in the poignant album opener “Lords of Water, Lords of Grain.” Plus, Tucker Rule from Thursday lays down a punishing beat on “Repeats Until You Die” over menacing bass lines from Skindred’s Dan Pugsley and Travis Stever of modern proggers, Coheed and Cambria delivering epic guitar lines.
