Photo courtesy of Nat Puff
Left at London is the stage name of Nat Puff, a trans woman and singer-songwriter from Seattle. Originally known for her Vines, Puff is now an up-and-coming musician who has released several EPs, most recently Transgender Street Legend, Vol. 1, and will soon be releasing her first album, You Are Not Alone Enough. She is currently touring the West Coast with synth-pop musician Valentine. She will perform at Octapas in Olympia on Saturday, Feb. 8. Tickets can be found on the Octapas’ Facebook page. I spoke to Puff on the phone this week while she and her team were driving to Los Angeles.
Did you always know that you wanted to be a professional musician?
“From kidhood, I have been pretty much aspiring to do that shit. Since I was a kid, I remember my dad was really into music, my sister was really into dancing, and so I was always growing up around music and so it just felt natural for me to be involved in music. But actually, I started out as an actor and then I went back to music after I realized that music was cooler. I’ve pretty much aspired to be a musician in one way or another, in some small portion to a large portion, pretty much all my life.”
Your music and poetry are both very honest and personal. Does it ever feel scary to share your personal experiences with the world?
“Certain feelings are scary to let out into the world. For example, with ‘Blacknwhite’ [her latest single] I think of anger as a bad emotion to have, even though that’s not true—you need to express all emotions—but at the same time, the anger that was coming out in ‘Blacknwhite’ was sort of happenstance because of the situation that inspired [it]. So it was kind of hard for me to release that without feeling like people would think of me as coming off too angry. I also feel like that’s sort of a side effect of womanhood, you know, feeling like anger is an improper response to anything. But overall, with a lot of the poetry I’ve released, I’ve felt very relieved to reveal those details about my personal life and from some of the people that have contacted me about my songs and poetry, it’s helped them too, so I’m happy that I do it.”
You’re currently touring the West Coast. What does that look like for you as an independent musician, and what are some of the challenges you face because of that?
“Sweaty feet. That’s foul. And I’m driving my mom’s car right now … [which is] an added risk. Like this trip, for example, from San Francisco to San Pedro, I’ve currently driven about five and a half hours and we’ve got 30 minutes left until we make it to the actual destination.”
What are the most rewarding parts of going on tour?
“Honestly, the conversations that I get to have while signing posters have definitely been one of the most rewarding things. That and the people I’ve met out of happenstance. For example, one of my favorite moments so far was meeting these two super nice bartenders at this bar that we performed at. They’re chill ass people. And also, I mis-scheduled something so we essentially had two extra days where we were doing nothing, so we stopped at the halfway point which ended up being Weed, California, and we had a very chill time in a very snowy area. We went to a sauna and stuff. It was gorgeous.”
Your new songs “Blacknwhite” and “6 Feet” are stylistically a departure from your EP, Transgender Street Legend, Vol. 1. Is this the direction of your upcoming album?
“The album will be going in all sorts of different directions. The thing that I like about my songwriting style is that there’s no particular set genre. That’s not to say that I’m doing wild crazy shit, but at the same time, there’s a song on here that has a trumpet, and then there’s another song on here that has a synth solo. It’s a buffet. I don’t want to say a smorgasbord, so I’m just gonna say the next best thing which is a buffet. What’s the difference between a smorgasbord and a buffet? I feel just, like, the emotions behind the words.”
How, as an artist, do you stay inspired and motivated to keep working?
“For me, it used to be my troubles, but now it’s more based around the people around me. People around me have started to push me a little bit more, like Valentine’s [her tourmate] a great example. Being with her on tour has sort of reignited a lot of my love for songwriting in a specific way that I haven’t felt in a while, like since writing ‘Blacknwhite.’”
What advice do you have for the trans/nonbinary community at Evergreen who want to pursue music and the arts?
“My practical advice is, when it comes to the industry, and that’s whatever artistic industry that you’re in, being seen as ‘the artist’ is not the only opportunity that there is. For example, I learned this from my dad, he works as a music copyist, and he still works in music and he still plays studio musician shit, even though his original intention was to be a musician. But he loves his job because he still gets to work in music. For a lot of these people, they also lead you to network into opportunities to collaborate with other artists. For example, I met the producer of my first EP through my dad because he knew the producer from somebody else.”
“My advice in terms of being trans and an artist is [to] only censor yourself after the fact. If you censor yourself while you’re writing a song, it’s gonna break your art down. There’s a limit to being self-aware. With ‘Blacknwhite,’ for example, I have this whole other version with completely different lyrics that were also honest but they were honest in a way that I wasn’t comfortable sharing. So I scratched a lot of those lyrics but I kept the other half of those lyrics and I tweaked them and I made what I think is honestly a better song. I tend to find, a lot of the time, being mentally ill and trans, there have been points of my life where I wanted to censor myself a lot more and that held me back. So basically, if you do feel like you need to censor yourself for safety reasons, do it after writing the song. Otherwise, you’re not gonna finish a song.”
What’s next for you?
“Valentine and I are cooking up some shit. I’m cooking up You Are Not Alone Enough [her upcoming album], putting the finishing touches on that so it can be actually fucking released this year. Festivals are around the corner, let’s hope that I get on the rosters, you know?”
Anything else?
“I’m gonna say what I said during my last interview: Fuck Trump, RIP Mac Miller.”
