Artist Profile – Nate Haller

By Emily Ireland

Leading up to his performance at Boots & Hearts this summer we caught up with country music artist Nate Haller to chat about his music. If you have been dialled in to the country music airwaves recently then you will be no stranger to Nates sound – and if you haven’t heard his new single ‘Race To The Bottom’, this is your sign to look it up.

Since his debut as a solo artist, Nate Haller has cemented himself as one of Canadas leading country music talents. His first single ‘Lightning In A Bottle’ earned Nate his first Top 10 at Canadian radio, and since then has amassed 18.9M global streams! Nominations followed with multiple CCMA Award nominations (2023 Breakthrough Artist, 2022 Rising Star), winning multiple  CMA Ontario Awards (2023 Album of the Year for “Party In The Back”, 2022 Rising  Star), and being selected as one of four artists to participate in the 2023/2024 Allan Slaight JUNOs Master Class. Nate has also been named an iHeart Radio Future Star, an Amazon Music Breakthrough Artist of the Month, secured a spot on Spotify  Canada’s RADAR program, and appeared as the cover artist for countless prominent playlists.

When I spoke with Nate he was happy to talk about his Ontario roots and what sparked his interest in Music; I had many questions, but here are a few highlights:

If you were introducing someone to your music – your sound – for the first time, what song would you put in front of them to show them who you are and what you do?

That’s tough because the stuff I put out back during the pandemic, I love that a lot. And that feels like me, but this new stuff feels like so on the nose me. And so I’d probably show them my new song. And I’m not just saying that because that’s what I’m promoting right now.

Yeah. Probably ‘RaceTo The Bottom’ and I would just kind of hopefully explain that, you know, I don’t take myself too seriously. So even with these breakup songs and stuff, definitely part of my live show – a big part – is high energy and joking around. So that’s a big part of it as well.

And going off that answer with ‘Race To The Bottom’, what drew you to that song?

That song’s been around for a bit. I think I heard it, like, three years ago for the first time and it was a demo that had Griffin’s voice on it, and I was just always obsessed with the song. I would play it in my car all the time, I didn’t know when it would fit into a project, but I knew at some point I was going to try to do it. It just has the energy I love. I like to think about my live show a lot when I’m figuring out what I’m going to record, and it definitely has the live energy that I was hoping for.

How did you fall into music? How did you get there? Have you been, you know, obsessed since you were a little kid, or was it kind of one of those things that you grew into?

There’s always been music on in my house. Like, my parents always had a radio on. They’re from Timmins, Ontario so there was a lot of Shania going on in our house. And a lot of, like, old rock stuff. So their music was always in my life growing up. But I didn’t really start playing guitar until high school. And after high school, I saw this one concert it was this Australian guy named Xavier Rudd, he plays all these weird instruments, as, you know, didgeridoos and stuff. So after I saw that, I told my parents I’m not going to university. Give me one year to try music stuff out. And they were super supportive of that. But I got, like, a didgeridoo and I made all these wooden stomp boxes and mic’d them up and I was just obsessed. Starting probably – I think I was in grade ten. Yeah. So ever since then, I knew that music was something I had to do, had to pursue.

Do you think being a Canadian has defined a big part of your career?

Yeah, for sure. I mean, there’s so many unbelievable – like Boots – there’s so many amazing festivals all over Canada. There’s so many amazing artists. And I think that’s definitely in me and just how I came up, going to cottages and that sort of stuff. It definitely comes out. I have quite a few, I would say, dock songs or songs that would be heard sitting on a dock.

Our publication is located in what we refer to as Cottage Country. Have you ever had a chance to visit around this area? Any of the lakes around here?

Someone that works with me, with music stuff – his cottage is up on Stoney Lake. So I’ve been up there a few times, and actually, a lot of the photos for – I put out a song called Drive, like, a month ago and we shot all the photos up there.

If there was anyone you could dream about collaborating with in your career at any time, who do you think that would be?

I mean, I would love to do something with Jelly Roll, I think. That’d be cool. Lainey Wilson. That would be awesome. Those are pretty on the nose answers, but another person that I listen to, this isn’t country, but I love Tate McRae.

And if we caught you on a long road trip, this might be a similar answer, but what would be on your playlist? Is your playlist, like, varied as far as types of music that you’ll find, or is it mostly country?

It’s pretty varied, oddly enough. Right. This is also so weird, but I’m just gonna say it. I’ve been listening to a lot of Frank Sinatra. I used to live in a house with Stu from the Recklaws and our producer and I used to sometimes put Frank Sinatra on when we were working out, and they were not having it. I liked it. It fired me up. I thought it was kind of badass and cool, but they didn’t like it.

Ok, I ask this in all of my interviews. What kind of ice cream is your favourite? I get some very interesting answers, actually.

I think I’m probably pretty standard. Is there pralines and cream? Okay. I think that would probably be at the top, or just a classic cookie dough.

And when you’re home – not out on the road, and you’re not playing music. What’s a pastime that you enjoy that people might relate to?

I’ve been playing a lot of online poker. No real money. I do that with some of my friends. And we have pickleball. We have pickleball down the street from our house in Toronto. I got into that in a big way.

And my last question. What else can we expect for you for the rest of 2024? What are your aspirations? What are your goals? What do you have coming on?

So I’m obviously focused on ‘Race To The Bottom’ right now, and then festivals; but I’ve been writing for the past year or so and continuing to do that, so there’s definitely going to be new music coming out. I’m gonna play some new songs at Boots – and some covers and stuff. So, yeah, pretty focused on festival season and then getting new music out pretty soon here.

To keep up with all things Haller, check out natehaller.com or find Nate on all socials as @imthehaller.

Photo Credit Austin Chaffe