GENTLE NATURE
Nick Gendian-Feig aka Gentle Nature was raised a LA-native, having been born in the San Fernando Valley of California. His love of music began at an early age, while listening to his Mom’s favorite bands as they rode in their '87 El Camino. It wasn’t until he turned 24 that Nick picked up an instrument for the first time. Most his entire youth had been spent playing baseball, until injuries and bad luck derailed his playing career. Needing something to fill the void, Nick turned to music. Learning to make music had always interested Nick but he had never had the time to invest in learning how to play. That all changed when one day he came across a beat-up Squire Precision bass at a thrift store and purchased it. He sat for hours trying to play until he got the hang of it. He soon became addicted to making something from nothing and went down the rabbit hole of researching and learning how to play other instruments.
Four years later and with a much larger gear collection, Nick sought out to make music that paid homage to sounds from the past. In doing so, he hoped to reintroduce those sounds to people today. Nick was finally able to settle into a studio space, thanks to his good friend Raul Hernandez, and began recording his new material as Gentle Nature.
Gentle Nature's debut self-titled release was entirely self-produced, written, recorded and performed over 2022 at his studio space in San Fernando, California. The EP is a creative exploration of psychedelic soul & cinematic funk, which includes heavy ‘70s-inspired bass and drum tones. Also joining in on the record is Dala founder, Billy Aukstik, on trumpet and horn arrangements. Gentle Nature makes this music to pay tribute and put a personal yet modern twist on the influential sounds of the past.
After their successful collaboration on Gentle Nature’s debut EP, Nicholas and Billy Aukstik continued sending song ideas back and forth to work on together. Their collaboration naturally morphed into Billy taking on a bigger production role and recording not only horns but also various rhythm section elements. Having toured for years on trumpet with Charles Bradley, Sharon Jones and The Daptone Records artist family, Billy was perfectly suited to arrange over Nicholas’ soulful recordings and the resulting collection of songs evolved in both sonics and composition. The album was entirely self-engineered and performed by the duo and features Nicholas on drums, bass, guitar, vibraphone, percussion and Billy on trumpet, flugelhorn, vibraphone, piano and organ.Growth Habits also sees Gentle Nature stretching out of the purely instrumental realm and collaborating with vocalists Kim Foxen (Still Brothers, Paul & The Tall Trees, Kyle Lacy) onCount Your Blessings and Dala’s own Billy the Kid on Whatcha Gonna Do?.
