By DONNA BALANCIA
Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats made an appearance at The Village Studios on the West Side to chat with The New 88.5 FM to play a few tunes for a lucky few.
The Denver-based writer and performer of the popular hit song “S.O.B.,” told 88.5 FM’s Jeff Penfield that the song came about in the last moments of a gig and he never intended for it to break out as it did.
Hit Song ‘S.O.B’ Written as ‘Filler’
“It’s funny,” he told an audience of about 25. “That song was the last song we recorded for the last record. It was a song that I was on the fence about. I wrote it as filler at a concert to fill 30 minutes. I owe it to Richard Swift and the folks at the label for convincing me to record the song. I was like ‘Should we do this?’ And Richard said, ‘The people like when you play it live, everybody at the label likes it … we should probably do it.'”
Rateliff’s success has hardly been overnight. Rateliff has been playing drums since he was seven. He put his first band together at 18 and he built a following wherever he went. It was clear he would soon be tearing at the seams of success.
Rateliff a Multi-Talented Musician
Rateliff’s a multi-talented musician, playing guitar, and tabourine in compliment to his booming signature voice. At The Village, where many music superstars have recorded, he was relaxed and jovial with the audience. At one point he even squatted down to look at the words on a sheet of paper.
The Night Sweats are a Big Band
He formed Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats in 2013 and released the self-titled album in 2015 and A Little Something More From Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats in 2016.
Bandmembers are Joseph Pope III, Patrick Meese, Luke Mossman, Mark Shusterman, Wesley Watkins, Danny Rateliff, Winga Winga Woo and Andy Wild.
Oh, and while the song demands a drink from the listener, Rateliff says things could not be further from the truth these days.
“For some reason everyone’s drinks end up on my tab,” he said.