Nathan talks new beginnings at home in Fermanagh: ‘I wanted to make changes’

Many in the industry hold Nathan Carter responsible for spearheading another revival of the Irish country music scene and making it ‘cool’ again.

Now, Nathan is ready for a reinvention and is preparing to take his music in a different direction.

He has partnered up with the writer famous for penning Robbie Williams’ most popular tracks, Guy Chambers, he’s separated from his manager of 14 years, John Farry, and his sights are set on television in a bid to shake things up after more than a decade of rocking the Wagon Wheel.

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Nathan told RSVP Country: “I wanted to make some changes. John Farry settled up at the end of last year and we’re both still talking.

“It’s amicable, I just wanted a fresh start. I wanted to be able to hire the people I wanted to hire.

“I wanted to be able to spend money on stuff like that. I’ve a lady Sharon Kelly who runs the office and takes the dates and then we use promoters like Peter Aiken for the gigs in Dublin and Belfast.

“We’re in the middle of getting a new promoter for the other gigs, and I’ve always had the same promoter in the UK.”

Getting a new manager was part of Nathan’s overall plan to move his career in a different direction.

He said: “I just wanted to freshen it up because it does get stale after a while. Every ten years I think it needs a kick up the backside.

“I’ve been doing a load of TV across the UK this year. I took on a TV plugger, which is like an agent for TV, and she got me on Sky News and recently I did a show called Jimmy and Shivi’s Farmhouse Breakfast on ITV, so I’m doing random stuff like that to try and raise my profile in the UK.

“[Talent agent] Noel Kelly is helping me at the minute too, to do more TV in Ireland and get a TV show in the future.”

What kind of TV show would he like to do? “We don’t actually know what kind of show it will be yet, maybe a music entertainment type show. I’ll probably present as well as perform.”

Nathan’s is also working on renovating his new home in Fermanagh.

The country music favourite said: “It’s an old bungalow on the lake. I’ve just got planning permission to tear down about 90 percent of it. So I’m going do that over the summer and then get a builder to come in and start building the new house.

“It’s going to be a two-storey Georgian, because I love old houses. My dad’s a builder but he can’t do it because he’s building his own house in Liverpool at the minute.

“So, I’m going to hire diggers and get to work tearing it down myself.”

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Nathan built a little boathouse down by the lake, where he will live in the meantime.

He said: “It’s got a kitchen and a living room. It has a toilet but it doesn’t have a shower yet, so I need to put that in.”

Nathan doesn’t believe in having a ‘forever home’.

He said: “When I was growing up Dad always bought houses, done them up and sold them. I lived in about six houses until I moved to Ireland when I was 17. So I’ve inherited that, unfortunately.”

Nathan started writing with Guy Chambers.

He said: “I want to go in a different direction. I want to get a new sound with a new album, and I think he’s the man to do that. I just want to do something new, freshen it up.

“I signed to Decca Records about eight years ago and that didn’t last too long, only about two years. They didn’t really know what to do with me, they didn’t get the whole country thing.

“But the guy who signed me was Steve Abbott and he left Decca after I did. Steve is now managing Guy Chambers and he has a house in Donegal.

“I bumped into Steve one day and he asked me if I was writing. I said not really, I had written a bit with Don Mescall. He said Guy would probably be up for writing so he put us together.

“I went over to his studio in London for three days and we’ve written three songs. I need to go back again because you need to write about 20 to get ten good songs.”

Read the full interview and see all the fabulous pictures in this issue of RSVP Country – on shelves now

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