His bands paint a musical history
Saturday, August 6, 2005
8:39 PM PDT
DAILY WORLD / KEVIN HONG From the antique jukeboxes
in his home to the years spent performing with local bands, Nate Whorton has
always had music in his life. Now 40, Whorton and three former bandmates are
reuniting for a show Saturday, Aug. 13, at the Northwest Passage in South
Aberdeen. The band started in 1979 with Whorton, Duke Harner and Tony Poukkula.
John Purdy later joined the group.
Daily World A&E editor
Nate Whorton Was Never An Average Kid
While other 8-year-olds doodled stick figures with No. 2
pencils, Whorton was taking art lessons from a disabled South Aberdeen woman,
mesmerized by her knowledge of pastels, oils, charcoals and
watercolors.
While his peers took out
the garbage to gain allowances or pursued paper routes to make a buck, Whorton
was being paid for working on cars at his father's auto wrecking
yard.
And when junior high classmates
gossiped in the lunchroom about the next school dance, Whorton was in the band
room.
He, too, was planning for the
dance and was with friends. But unlike the thralls in the hall outside Paul
Nelson's classroom doors, Whorton and friends weren't concerned with who the hot
couples were or whether Jimmy might break his wallflower ways and finally ask
Tanya to dance.
Whorton and pals were
preparing to play a more vital role in the event. They were the dance's musical
entertainment.
"We'd practice three to
five times a week," Whorton said. "We took it seriously after we learned we can
make money and play music, too."
DAILY WORLD / KEVIN HONG Whorton shows off his 1964
Corvette Sting Ray convertible. He drives the car every chance he
gets.
More than 25 years later, Whorton
is still an entertainer. Whether amusing co-workers at SafeHarbor Technologies
in Satsop as wig-wearing "Rockstar Nate," recording an original song in his
basement or playing a live set of cover tunes at a sold-out bar, Whorton appears
comfortable in that role.
Not surprisingly, all three childhood endeavors - art, cars
and music - are still part of the 40-year-old Aberdeen man's life. "Being
creative is important with all three," Whorton says. He's also talented in all
three, but it's music for which Whorton is best known. He's played with many
noteworthy local groups and written roughly 250 songs.
Saturday night, Aug. 13, it'll be mostly cover songs filling
the set lists at Whorton's gig at 8 p.m. at the Northwest Passage in South
Aberdeen.
It's a Black Ice reunion show
featuring the same three guys who played together at Hopkins Junior High in
1979: Whorton on bass, Duke Harner on drums and Tony Poukkula on guitar. Singer
John Purdy, who joined shortly after the junior high days, will be the fourth
member of the group.
"Duke and I have
been talking about playing again for quite a long time," Whorton says. The
foursome last got together in 1996 for a show at the now-demolished Liberty
Tavern in Cosmopolis. "It was a good show, and we packed the
place."
The band has practiced several
times for Saturday's concert.
"It's even
better than it was before because we're better musicians," Whorton
says.
Back In Black
Black Ice existed in various forms until the mid-1980s.
In addition to the four primary members, Doug George, Bill Pitts, and Chris Kycek played guitar. The
band played mostly cover tunes from popular hard rock bands of the day, like Van
Halen (Whorton prefers the David Lee Roth version), Night Ranger, Judas Priest
and Heart. For years, Black Ice's versions of the hits - and a few originals -
filled the air not only at school dances but also at wedding receptions, keggers
and more. Once, at a biker keg in Raymond, the then-18 year-olds were teased by
a motorcyclist named "Spud."
"The
biggest, gnarliest biker dude shows up on a Harley, wearing a German helmet with
spikes sticking out of it," Whorton says. Spud eventually passed out on the lawn
in front of the stage but not before Whorton's future wife, Becky, confronted
him. "She said, 'You're not so tough,' " Whorton remembers.
Black Ice was responsible for bringing Becky and Whorton
together in the first place. She was a student body officer at Montesano High
School and hired the band to play her school's prom.
"So we get there and she's not there," Whorton says. "Turns
out she wasn't there because no one had asked her to go."
Whorton eventually became her long-term date when the two
eventually met in person. They were together then married for 17 years before divorcing. The
couple has one daughter, Zoe, who is 10 and now lives in Olympia with her
mother. Zoe spends a lot of time with her dad, and the two recently enjoyed a
long Fourth of July weekend at the Whorton family property at Lost Lake, south
of Shelton. The lake is one of Whorton's
favorite places to be.
NATE WHORTON COLLECTION Members of Black Ice pose in Raymond in a 1983 photo.
From left are John Purdy, Tony Poukkula, Duke Harner, Doug George and Whorton.
Rock, Rock, Rock
'n' Roll College
In 1983, Whorton left
Black Ice to study business at Grays Harbor College. Almost immediately, he met
singer/guitarist Wil "Fingers of Fury" Tommila. Soon after, Whorton, Tommila,
guitarist Bill Pitts (aka "William Wayne") and drummer Darrel Harris (who would
later be replaced by Bill Raymond) formed their own group,
Sabre.
Sabre took up where Black Ice had
left off - playing hard rock cover songs - but soon began to focus on originals.
Befriended by Metal Church guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof, the band traveled to
Steve Lawson Studios in Seattle to record a four-song demo with Vanderhoof and
up-and-coming producer Terry Date, who has since gone on to produce hit albums
by Limp Bizkit, Soundgarden and Pantera, among others.
Sabre's music was similar to the popular hard rock songs
they'd been covering. The demo's first track, "Love Attack," was an all-out
rocker, while "I Am Yours" was a harmonic power-ballad closer. The band
eventually headlined many local events and opened up for Metal Church several
times.
"We had aspirations to be the
next big thing," Whorton says. When Sabre tried out for MTV's "Basement Tapes"
show, fate wasn't on their side. While preparing to record one of their shows to
submit it, their plans were halted.
"None of the cameras showed up," Whorton
says.
One of Whorton's most memorable
Sabre events was when the Melvins showed up to a gig and asked if they could
play on Sabre's instruments. "They came up and hit the drums very hard and turned
every amp to 10 and played 'I Am Woman' by Helen Reddy. It was crazy," Whorton
says.
Tommila left the band in 1986 and
was replaced by Brian Cokeley. The group changed its name to NYKKO, and its
sound to a lighter, more vocally harmonic style, and continued
on.
NYKKO At Night
As he had since he was a kid, Whorton, then 25 years old,
continued working with his father at Sideline Auto Wrecking, in addition to
playing with NYKKO at night.
NYKKO
played many of the same venues Black Ice and Sabre had - like Sidney's in
Aberdeen and the Raymond Hotel. Five of their original songs found their way
onto a 1988 demo, which was never released. One of those songs, "When You Were
Mine," was eventually released in 1995, on a KDUX radio station compilation
CD.
"It was really good," Whorton says
of the material NYKKO put out. "I'm surprised we couldn't do anything
(nationally) with what we had there."
NYKKO disbanded in the fall of 1988, when Cokeley left for
California to attend the prestigious Musicians Institute. Cokeley eventually
became an instructor at the school before returning to the Harbor to play in
several other groups, and is currently with Tony Wintrip's The
Posse.
Whorton, meanwhile, took a break
from the "band thing" and began focusing more on his own
material.
"I started writing and writing
and writing. I became a recluse and started doing some different
things. Some of it is rocking, some folksy sounding like Elvis Costello, who
became one of my favorites. He's just an amazing musician and songwriter." Nate Whorton
Whorton discovered recording
alone had its advantages.
"You don't
have schedules to consider; you don't rely on anyone else; you have more control
of a song," Whorton says. "The sacrifice is not having external input. But I
decided that it was a good trade-off."
Whorton's band hiatus ended with the first Black Ice reunion
show in 1996. That year, he also played bass at a few gigs with Olympia
songwriter Joseph Lee Wood. Whorton built Wood's Web site and still plays bass
and adds backing vocals to Wood's projects when asked.
'Nate Dude'
In 1999,
Whorton and Jay Lisk (aka Jay Dude), a booking agent who used to get shows for NYKKO, formed
The Dudes.
"One day we decided he would
sing a couple of songs with me, then we decided we'd just be two dudes," Whorton
says. "We had three different drummers, put out a cassette, got some airplay and
decided to have a band." His stage name for the project was "Nate
Dude."
Whorton played most of the
instruments on the band's only album, 1999's 17-song Humorous Eargasm. The album
- featuring hilarious songs in the style of Tenacious D, such as "My Dog Ate My
Homework," "I Hate Country" and "Rap is Crap" - sold roughly 700 copies. With
Bill "Metal Dude" Sweeney on guitar and Rick "Bud Dude" Neske on drums, the band played several shows
across the Northwest.
"We stopped
playing at the beginning of 2002 because I thought that the integrity of our
performances was lacking, and I was not willing to continue in that manner,"
Whorton says.
Career
Change
For personal and professional
reasons, Whorton quit working for his family's auto wrecking business in
1998.
"I was trying to figure out what
to do," Whorton says. "I tried to sell cars, but that wasn't me." He went back
to Grays Harbor Community College to learn computer network engineering and decided he
wanted to work for SafeHarbor, where some of his friends
worked.
"I interviewed twice and got
turned down twice," he says. Whorton was undeterred. "I got into my 'Vette (a
red, 1964 Corvette Sting Ray convertible), drove to Brian Sterling's house, and
we talked for 31/2 hours, mostly about music." Sterling was a founder of
SafeHarbor but has since left the company.
Whorton landed a job and still works there today, now
holding the title of "knowledge engineer," working as a technical writer and web
designer, among other duties.
Recently,
Whorton's been working on creating visual art more than music. "I'm practicing
for my retirement career," he says.
Whorton's abstract art dots the living space of his home.
Harner, his friend of 27 years and Black Ice bandmate, says his pal's eclectic
tastes make his music and visual art so interesting.
"Nate has always had such a wide variety of music around him
and he introduced me to a lot of different music, which I appreciated. All of this has helped him to write a broad range of music, and I'm sure
in some ways it influences the art he creates." Duke Harner Drummer for Black Ice
His Bandmate Says Whorton Also Has A Good Set Of
Values
"He is a trustworthy and honest
person," Harner says. ... We used to ride motorcycles, vacation, go
roller-skating, and played Babe Ruth baseball on the same team for years. ...
Bands and friendships are sometimes strange combinations; they're almost like
girlfriends.
"Some bands you get into
are great, but never go anywhere, some suck but they're still fun, and others
leave you asking yourself 'What was I thinking and please don't ever call me
again.' Black Ice was never like that."
Black Ice - the friendships and music created by the band -
will most likely never leave Whorton's life. There could even be another reunion
show down the line.
"I would like to
play a couple more gigs," Whorton says. "These guys are some of my best friends.
It doesn't hurt that we can kick any band's (butt)."
Whether it be alone in his basement or with lifelong
buddies, music will most likely always be a part of Whorton's life. Just as it
has been since he began playing saxophone at Alexander Young Elementary School
30 years ago.
"I still have a lot to
write; my influences change like the weather," Whorton says. "While it may sound
like fun to have a band or do gigs, I am plenty happy writing music and just
playing an acoustic guitar on the deck at the lake."
Jeff
Burlingame is The Daily World's arts and entertainment editor. He can be
reached at 532-4000 ext. 131 or via e-mail at jeff@thedailyworld.com
DAILY WORLD / KEVIN HONG Whorton plays the Rickenbacker 4001 four-string bass he's had since childhood.
Snapshot
Nate
Whorton
Born: Dec. 30, 1964, at St.
Joseph Hospital in Aberdeen.
Likes to
Travel: Has been all over the world and hiked 500 of the roughly 900 miles in
the Olympic Mountains, as well as many miles in national parks in the western
U.S. and Canada. Utah is his favorite place to hike.
Collector of: Cars. He's got a Tropical Turquoise 1957
two-door Chevrolet sedan he's had since age 15; a Chevy Monte Carlo SS and a
1964 Chevy Corvette Sting Ray four-speed convertible with the original 327
engine. Also collects guitars, jukeboxes and memorabilia from Seattle's 1962
World's Fair.
FAVORITE FOOD: Pizza,
chicken and cheeseburgers. "I prefer to create meals myself. I stray from the
corporate world as much as I can. The Jumps (owners of Hoquiam's Casa Mia) make
great pizza."
MUSICAL INFLUENCES: Elvis
Costello, The Beatles, Paul McCartney, Cheap Trick, Yes, Rush, Judas Priest and
Van Halen. "I like Soundgarden and Alice In Chains (and) my current influences
are Frank Sinatra (and) the newer Rod Stewart classics series. Toss in Motown,
Bob Marley and Eric Clapton. If I heard anyone's music, it somehow touched me
... whether I liked it or not."
NATE
WHORTON AT 50? "I see myself as a businessperson again. I will assist in
multiple businesses and possibly devote myself as a public servant/politician.
My integrity means everything to me and when the right opportunity occurs, I
will be ready. I sure hope I have found the next Mrs. Whorton by then. I want to
be an accomplished/successful artist. I really don't care about money or
fame."
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