Nate Covst Interview
A few weeks ago I had a chance to sit down with Nathan Tello, aka Nate Covst, and discuss his journey to becoming a DJ in addition to being a member of one of Southern California’s most promising up and coming music collectives; Püre Musica. We also talked about the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people, and the “Goldfish moments'' which have helped them be where they are today.
As I’m heading over to meet Nate at Püre’s La Habra Heights residence, I get a facetime call from Nate letting me know that he is grabbing his obligatory latte from a local coffee shop and that he’ll meet at the house in a few minutes. Upon arriving at the Püre Estate, aka the house on top of the hill, I was almost immediately overcome with this sensation that I am stepping into something that, in spite of its early success, is on the verge of taking a quantum leap. This sensation is no coincidence of course, rather, it is one which I can only assume is accredited to the environment that the guys at Püre have been working to curate since their first ever pop-up show in Laguna Beach back in 2020. While giving me a quick tour of a house that can only be described as similar to the one in that Beach Boys movie Love and Mercy, I had the pleasure of meeting fellow member of Püre and well respected Dj, Diego (better known as @likewise on instagram). After making a few jokes about mine and Nate’s short lived soccer careers (albeit at Nate’s expense), he welcomed me to the house and got back to work on what I imagine was some serious, no-bs, DJ biz.
How did you first find out about Püre and eventually become a member yourself?
Shyair [Long time friend and videographer] showed me a tik tok. A few days before the first pop-up in Laguna we were looking at Diego’s tik toks that he had dropped to promote the show. I remember being on our way there and just thinking, we gotta be doing this and collaborating with people like them, because they were on the come up as well. Afterwards they reached out and asked us if we could possibly shoot a livestream for them and then that led to Diego asking if we would be down to join them on a road trip, and of course I was like yeah I’m down. At the time I wasn’t even deep into electronic music, I had only heard very little. My plan was to just take dope photos and videos and then I went on the road trip and I felt what Püre is. At the same time they were really starting to feel like yo, we’re gonna do this. During the road trip a lot of things were just falling into place, like finding the location for the show the day of the show type stuff and getting away with authorities letting us continue with our shows despite initially trying to shut us down. I kind of think of it like we’re magnets, and after high school me and Shyair and the members of pure at the time were all pulled together. And so all of our skills combined kind of created this snowball effect, and we were growing this brand without even realizing what was actually happening. Then next thing you know we’re just part of this brand that had a positive effect on many people. When I first met them I didn’t know much about this type of music or how to make it or how to DJ. I would just ask them questions about the production side as well as what they’re actually doing when they’re behind the board; and having an open mind definitely allowed me to pick up on it quickly. What’s cool is that almost exactly one year after meeting them at that first show, I dropped my first song.
What kind of stuff were you doing prior to becoming a member of Püre?
Me and Shyair were just doing little creative projects and making money with other cameras, and I was working in retail at Abercrombie & Fitch at the time. We were definitely on the wave of like, we just wanna do stuff that we enjoy doing. That was always it from the beginning. I think the biggest difference is that people see other people doing cool stuff, that they would wanna do, and it never crosses their mind to ask how they can actually do it. It’s more like that’s cool, good for them, but I’m gonna go to school because it’s a big risk to pursue something seemingly unrealistic. For me it was like okay there are certain ambitions that I wanna have, so why wouldn’t I go for it?
How do people react when they find out you guys are drug and alcohol free which is something relatively rare in the rave scene?
One of the big misconceptions that comes up when people hear the word rave, is that they often immediately associate it with drugs and alcohol. A lot of people who we’re trying to do business with: venues; brands; etc; that’s their initial impression. And then when we start describing what Püre is and what we stand for and our message, then they’re like ohh okay, this is something different. What separates us as well is how organized we are and our attention to detail with our marketing and our content.
What makes Püre different from other shows going on right now?
When shows stopped because of the pandemic, the underground music scene really blew up. In a way it kind of leveled the playing field because the bigger festivals couldn’t do shows. What we did was we created an experience that’s unique that any person can go to and have a good time. Instead of having just another show that’s lowkey and has drugs, we wanted to curate an experience that for lack of a better term, was Püre. On top of that, we made “Where music meets nature” one of our main slogans and we really wanted to push the idea of an event that any person can come to; regardless of age or any other factors like that. So you see Püre and it’s like clean; it’s professional and organized and you have this group of kids who are just making things happen and progressing and doing it in a smart way.
Why do you think the current group of guys in Püre works so well together?
More than anything, we’re all genuinely good people. Every member knows how special Püre is and how it has the power to really make a difference in people's lives. I think all of us know this, that we can make a difference, so we all know that we’re doing this for the right reasons; rather than for quick fame. We all have a relationship where we’re able to be completely honest with each other, which allows us to keep each other in check without clashing heads. What’s cool about our dynamic is that we all love and care about each other and we don’t let our egos get in the way. What it is is we all have a good amount of self-awareness, both individually and collectively. And we’re not doing this stuff just so we can be famous or be rich or like for the clout. We’re doing it for the music and because we love it, and also to influence people who love music in a positive way.
Collabing with Goldfish who has over 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify is a pretty huge deal. How did that come about?
The way we met them, we were hiking and setting up equipment for a pop up show in San Clemente and they happened to be hiking the same trail. So they saw us and they were like, “Hey, what are you guys carrying speakers for?”. And so we told them we were gonna have a little show here and they asked us what kind of music we were gonna be playing. We mentioned we were gonna be playing some house and techno stuff like Kyle Watson for example and they go “Oh KW is our friend”. Their artist name is Goldfish, so whenever we have those coincidences in life where we’re like how did that even happen, which happen surprisingly often, we call them Goldfish moments. Afterwards they followed us on instagram and saw what we were doing, our marketing/content, and down the line reached out they were like “Hey, we wanna do a livestream and we want you guys to help us out with that”. They told us they already had a spot in mind so went and scoped it out and told them we could for sure do this for them. So we made a livestream, which is already up right now, and then they asked us to do a music video for them as well. Because we were able to build that relationship, they’re gonna be one of the special guests at Püre in Coachella Valley. They’re obviously super excited and eager to perform in front of a crowd again, but they had to make sure it made sense you know. They’re big artists so they don’t wanna show up to something that’s gonna be messy. Luckily our event was something that they wanted to be a part of.
How did you guys land on Coachella Valley for a show and choose this specific venue?
Immediately after the LA show, we were thinking of what was next for Püre. We were like okay, do we go on another road trip; do we do more pop-ups; live streams; or do we just focus on making music and stay kind of on the low. One of the main factors in deciding where to take the next step was COVID, so we weren’t sure what move to make. It was so random how we actually came across the venue. One night me and Diego were up like way past midnight editing one of the Püre videos and then one of our friends called us and he was like “Hey do you guys wanna make some quick cash and drive me to Indio? I wanna buy a truck”. And so we were just like yeah, we need money we’ll take you. So we drove two hours to Indio, and the guy who was selling him the truck used to work as security for Coachella. We told him about Püre and what we do and at that point he didn’t even care about the truck anymore, he was just talking to us about music. And then he told us about how he knows a woman who has a ranch nearby that she rents out as a campground for Coachella. So he referred us to her, and we just kinda kept that in our back pocket in case it ever made sense. Then later we reached out and had a meeting and got a tour of the property and we knew we were gonna do something special there.
What was it like planning this event considering everything that’s going on?
In the beginning, it was a lot of like yeah it could work, but we have to wait and see depending on the restrictions for public gatherings. When we first met up they told us that we weren’t gonna be able to do it without a permit. So we tried going to the city of Riverside and talking to the sheriff but they just weren’t giving out permits at that time. A few weeks ago they announced that on April 1st, outdoor events are gonna open up. So the girl was like “Yeah it’s just meant to be”. When we did the LA show, there were a lot of people who were like, why are you guys doing this during a pandemic? Even though we were doing temperature checks at the door and also required masks upon entry. Surprisingly with this next show we didn’t get anybody coming at us in that way. It was more so people asking how many tickets we were gonna sell so they knew when they should buy their tickets. We try to do our events in a way that’s both safe and enjoyable for everyone.
How big of a role has social media played in helping you guys grow as a brand?
Utilizing platforms like tik tok and instagram have really helped us pop-off and increase our engagement. Also uploading vlogs and live performances on youtube has helped grow our audience. There’s a girl flying from Kenya to go to the show in Coachella Valley, and there’s people who have flown in from Chicago so it shows how far our reach is. And there’s also been people who have messaged us and were like “Hey, are you guys doing any other shows? I’m from Amsterdam but I can’t go yet because of my visa”. We definitely make sure we interact and engage with our audience as much as possible on social media to help build a community of people who are there for the music and good energy.
What are some memorable moments from the shows you guys have had so far?
One of our main motives for doing the road trip last summer was to bring people together and enjoy music in nature. We wanted to provide an escape from the violence and negativity that was going on at the time because of the riots. For our first pop up show on the road trip the park rangers of Joshua Tree came and tried to shut down our event. After explaining Püre’s message in front of the entire crowd, the Rangers not only let us go on with the event, they even escorted us to a closed campsite that they opened up just for us. I remember sticking my head out of the window and recording a whole caravan of cars following our RV.
Any words of advice you have after over a year of being a member of Püre?
There’s so much knowledge out there than you can use, so much free knowledge; youtube, podcasts. Whether you’re starting to make music or you’re starting to build your brand; you have to start somewhere. So just put the hours in because you’re not gonna get there without doing that. Before releasing my first song, there were a number of projects that I had that are never gonna see the light of day, because they suck. But I had to learn why certain things sound good with each other and the structure of a song. It takes time to learn those things that you can’t just tell somebody and then they’re gonna be able to apply it right away. There’s some things that you just have to experience to learn, and that goes with everything in life. You’re gonna be good at certain things and you’re gonna be bad at certain things. You just have to have the mindset where if you try something and it didn’t go as expected, you just have to be like; okay, how can I learn from this so that when I try again I can do it a little bit better. A lot of people are so hard on themselves, what you shouldn’t do is compare yourself to someone who’s killing it; because that person who’s killing it sucked at one point. Honestly the biggest thing that's helped me is that I love this and I love the process of doing it. A lot of people have one foot in and one foot out, and it doesn’t work. You just have to really commit to it and try to dedicate your life to it. I’m lucky to have three friends who are on the same wave and all of us are all in. It’s hard when you’re doing it alone, and there’s challenges that arise when doing it with other people, but it definitely helps having a team around you.
I Hope you enjoyed the interview and make sure to follow @puremusica on instagram so that you can stay up to date and not miss out on future events. Also make sure to follow the rest of the members so that 5 years from now when they’re international sensations you can brag about how you were there during the early years!
@Puremusica
@rodri.ghost
@bencadden
@likewiseofficial
@mx.sound
@teakmakai
@jay_loez
@shyairlopez
@natecovst
@Michael.tanaka
@thepuredog