Meet Nathan Young | Filmmaker, Composer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Nathan Young and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Nathan, why did you pursue a creative career?
Writing is my way of processing the world I live in. Directing is how I communicate my thoughts about that world to other people. For me, making art is a necessity. And for a long time, that scared me.

Growing up, the advice I always got was: “find a career you can tolerate, and make art in your free time.” I saw that advice fail a lot of people. Everywhere I looked, I’d see talented individuals spend every free moment just trying to recover from the ordeals of the regular work week. 9-5. Rush hour commutes. Scrape some food together. Try to clean something up. Shut your brain down for a bit. Sleep. Repeat.

And that was terrifying! I knew I had to make art to survive, and I knew that the “normal” pathways would sap my capacity to do so.

Fortunately, I discovered that you can actually make a living with artistic capabilities. It turns out that people need commercials filmed, events broadcasted, and content produced. I found ways to hone my craft while getting paid for it. And in-between the mercenary contracts, I work on my own things. My sanity depends on it. Hopefully one day, I won’t have to juggle my sanity and the need to afford health insurance.

Pursuing an artistic career is like being Little Red Riding Hood. You’ve got something special in your basket, and you’ve got a place you want to go with it, but the road is misty, and the marker’s aren’t clear. You’ve got to stop and rest every now and then. When you do, beware the flowers: they’ll tempt you to stay far longer than you should. Watch out for wolves, there are lots of them looking for bright-eyed girls like you. Hold on to the hope that grandma will appreciate what you’re bringing her.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
As a filmmaker and content creator, my stories are concerned with social technologies, systems and societies, and spirituality in a soulless age. Earlier this year, I won the Webby Award for “Best Original Score/Sound Design” for my work on a science-fiction audio drama called Desolate Eden, which I also wrote and directed. You can find it on whichever platform you get your podcasts through.

Desolate Eden developed out of around six years of iterations, spanning 17 different productions. That list includes short films, virtual reality experiences, live streams, podcasts, roleplaying games, and audio dramas, among others. They all ranged in quality from “pretty decent” to “downright awful,” and many of them were dramatic failures. I’m very proud of that! Each one taught me about the production process and helped me refine my ideas.

Each iteration also helped me get good at scrapping things together with whatever resources I can get my hands on. I did each one by tapping into whatever and whoever I had access to. Most of the time, that wasn’t much! I’m just glad I’m surrounded by enthusiastic people who are eager to try something new. That made it all the more surprising when I won the Webby Award: it’s kinda crazy that one young guy in a tiny basement apartment could win against professional teams of composers and sound designers, (working with real budgets!) But even if I hadn’t won the award, I’m proud of what I made during the months of long nights putting Desolate Eden together.

Because of everything I’ve learned through this process, I think I’m ready to take a big swing with my work. My team and I are currently raising money for a feature-length film– It’ll feel a lot like The Hunt For Red October in space with a dash of cosmic horror. It’s the culmination of all the projects that came before. We’ve got a strategy to secure a distribution deal and/or festival recognition to justify the large investment associated with feature film-making. Keep your eyes out! If the cards fall in our favor, you just may see see our work in theaters someday soon!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’d take my friend to the most iconic local restaurants. None of them are particularly remarkable, but one has a purple roof, and I’m certain the shakes represent my hometown well. While there, we’ll meet every teenager who lives within a 10 block radius of my parent’s house. Working weekends there is a rite of passage for the community’s youth.

My wife and I would elaborate on what the cryptic billboards mean while waiting in traffic. They’re references-inside-references, now 17 steps removed from the original ads the car dealerships ran in 2009. There will be some that even I can’t parse, despite the fact that I’ve seen every billboard on this road since 1997.

Soda bars (without actual bars) are a local obsession. The drinks are named for any band of note that ever came out of this community. My friend will be surprised by how many they recognize. They’ll be even more surprised by the line of minivans, of every make and color, in the drive through in front of us. “Dirty Dr. Pepper” is a family affair.

We’d have the choice of spending time in the mountains, hiking, longboarding, and getting altitude sickness, or spending time in the lakes, boating, floating, and getting rescued from the 12 feet of algae at the bottom. I vote for the first option: if we get in trouble, it’s easier to fall down the mountain than it is to climb out of the lake.

My living room has the finest selection of board games this side of the freeway. But between the teenagers, the billboards, the minivans, and the altitude sickness, everyone else will be asleep in their chairs by the time I’m done explaining the rules.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I don’t know what Stewart Shelley was thinking when he treated his high school theater students like adults– I’m certain that we frequently reminded him that we were, in fact, still children. Yet, I never saw him lower his expectations. I never saw him surrender to the entropy of bureaucracy or the criticisms of the ignorant. He was brave enough to push us, sincere enough to have hard conversations with us, and wise enough to prepare us for the challenges of the world that awaited us beyond his theater doors.

He was a living example of dedication to an ideal. He showed us how to pursue excellence without ignoring reality. He demonstrated commitment to goodness without fanaticism. He taught me how to navigate the complicated realms of art and culture without getting lost in its depths or stuck at its fringes.

I don’t know what Stewart was thinking when he treated us like adults– I’m certain that we made him question if it was worth the effort. I hope he knows that, at least to me, that effort has made all of the difference.

Website: celestialhorizons.io

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/celhorizons/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/celhorizons

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGNAMDqanKd_q9TOvVvWc1Q

Other: Email: nathan.young@celestialhorizons.io Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0XqCCvS8p1WTtkSKWbZOBx?si=f5d7430147384696 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/desolate-eden/id1652812509