Playing live is the greatest thing in the world – we hear from Nathan Ball as he reflects on his musical journey.

Through words and chords, Nathan Ball has unfolded his own picturesque world, filled with marvels and mysteries. I sat down with the singer-songwriter to discuss inspirations, touring and his recent single Cold Hands.

Cramming into a weird seating area in a side room at Omeara, Nathan gets the pleasure of holding my phone as we try to overrun the sounds seeping in from the soundcheck next door. Exuding a natural calmness and distinct charm, it is easy to see why fans might be drawn to this guy.

“I got my first guitar when I was 14, and then pretty much started writing songs straight away actually,” he tells. Being a self-taught guitarist, Nathan is humble in his approach to the instrument. “I never became technically amazing at it. It was always just enough to write songs.”

Having practiced the art of songwriting from as young age, surely a lot of inspirations have come and gone.

I’ve always been a huge music fan so I guess it was just copying idols at the time. I grew up listening to a lot of indie bands. And then my family has always been into people like Van Morrison and a few more of the older classics.

From his breakout single Right Place to his most recent Cold Hands, there’s a distinctive angle to Nathan’s lyrical narrative. His honesty and emotive poetic landscape is immensely capturing in the most natural way. When I ask about what inspires him lyrically, it takes a moment.

I’ve been listening to The National a lot recently and have become weirdly kind of obsessive with them. I love how honest they are. It’s really awesome to hear. It doesn’t make you think too much, it’s kind of obvious what the story is –  he explains passionately.

To just totally pour your heart out and not even leave it up to questions, like the crowd always knows what it’s about.

Nathan has certainly drawn from this in his own writing, yet his musical inspiration is anything but obvious. “It’s quite funny. I weirdly listen to a lot of house music,” he laughs.

There’s a label called Innervisions, and there’s a few DJ’s called Dixon and Ame and it’s really kind of emotive house music. And I try and take elements of that and bring in. It’s seriously weird but that’s one of my influences.

Maybe unexpected, but he also brings in inspirations from The War On Drugs, The National, and Daughter into the concoction of his soundscape.

Music is everything at the moment, it’s my life.

Having recently finished a few European dates with Matthew And The Atlas, including a few dates in Holland, and the Dutch crowd has seemingly made a great impression.

The crowds out there are just amazing, there is a totally different atmosphere to playing over here. It feels like there’s a lot less worry about being cool and the crowds there are very much on your side. Like, they want you to have a good show, and they sing along to everything. Whereas here, it’s a bit more reserved.

Would you encourage people here to be a bit more ‘less cool’?

“Yeah, well it’s up to them,” he smiles, admitting that people could “certainly be a bit more open-minded.”

Being crammed into a van for an extended period often brings out some fun stories, and Will, Nathan’s drummer took the duty of entertainment upon himself.

He always keeps us entertained. I remember once he bet us a can of coke that he could hold a mouthful of water for the rest of the journey, which was like two and a half hours. He spat it out at the service station and his cheeks were like red raw, but he was like passing out while he had it in cause he was falling asleep, and still had the water in his cheek. That was fun. Nothing too wild though.

Nathan’s latest single, Cold Hands, is a delicate track filled with naturalistic allusion, counterpointed with crispy beats. Nathan’s soaring vocals stand as a beacon throughout the tune.

I was down in Cornwall in the winter. It came quite quickly actually that one. It was just messing about. I had a heavily distorted guitar, and it got really atmospheric. I get influenced by the seasons a lot, and winter was coming. It all felt pretty hectic, quite stormy and ‘Cold Hands’ came out of that.

Nathan Ball’s marvellously unpretentious and open approach to music is refreshing. His honesty in his craft is sparkled with a sense of urgency. “Music is everything at the moment, it’s my life”, he reflects.

Also, playing live is the greatest thing in the world. To bring songs that I’ve written in my bedroom to play in front of 350 people, and for people to sing the words back – that’s just an incredible feeling.

And on that not we leave Nathan to prepare for his live show tonight.