009: Nate Farrington, on stage and on-screen in Hollywood

Summary
What would you do if you showed up to an audition and heard, “OK, when I give you the signal, play something intense. Then on the next signal, more intensity!” Well, that’s exactly what happened to double bassist Nate Farrington. Except he was auditioning for a national Honda TV spot, and the mysterious voice belonged to the director!

Nate is one of those friends who’s always up for a project: he’s the guy I’d call if I needed to paint a fence, set up a gas grill, or transport a big piece of furniture. Come to think of it, isn’t that last one a big part of the double bassist’s life?

But Nate is also the guy I’d call if I needed to whip up a duo program in two hours’ time. Or if I needed a pair of expert ears to hear an audition list. He’s always ready to go, and he has a broad array of musical and extra-musical skills that makes him the perfect fit out here in Hollywood.

So even though he spends much of his time playing in symphonies (he’s the new principal bass of the LA Opera Orchestra), his interests range far and wide, and he’s equally at home creating music as he is re-creating it. He’s a frequent collaborator with Rocket Jump Studios, and as you’ll discover, he’s already spent some time on camera out here as well.

Nate and I talk about how to win those juicy commercial roles, as well as the (also juicy?) orchestra auditions. Here’s a hint: they both involve lots of preparation and then a letting-go of control!

We also get into the differences between some of the big symphony orchestras. Nate has played with just about all of them over the years. He’s a real inspiration for finding your own musical voice, or deciding where you fit in the ever-expanding musical universe.
Transcript
Nathan: [00:00:01] Hi, and welcome back to Stand Partners for Life. Along with my wife Akiko Tarumoto, I am Nathan Cole and we are stand partners for life. But today I’m here instead with Nate Farrington, a good friend ever since I moved to L.A. five years ago. So Nate, thanks for being with us today.

Nate: [00:00:39] It’s my pleasure.

Nathan: [00:00:39] Thanks for being with me today. It’s not the “royal we” here. Nate is a bass player extraordinaire, and although we went to the same school the Curtis Institute we weren’t there at the same time. We met only five years ago when I moved out here to L.A.

Nate: [00:00:54] But I felt I’d known you since I was in school… you were, you know, the Nate before me at Curtis that everyone talked about. So it was interesting to connect, you know, to put a face with the name–that’s my name.

Nathan: [00:01:06] Back then everybody it seemed like all the adults called me Nate and everybody my age called me Nathan. So I sort of hedge my bets I go by Nathan but my website is natesviolin.com. So there’s the confusion but you’re always Nate.

Nate: [00:01:19] I am.

Nathan: [00:01:20] Now, you play bass and you play so much of the time in symphony orchestras as I do and a lot of the time with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. But you’re a traveling musician. You live in L.A. but you’re really all over the place. Tell me a little about how that works.

Nate: [00:01:37] In the past five years I’ve played with Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Columbus, Philadelphia, New York Chicago, Cleveland. I’ve done concerts in the past with Boston and National and Baltimore and so it’s been a pretty interesting ride to me. The Cincinnati Symphony as well and I was slated to play with the San Diego Symphony but but wasn’t able to make it that week. It’s an incredible variety of music making that happens all over the country. And you know the basic skill set is always the same. The same thing I’ve been doing since we were little children. But it’s interesting to go from spot to spot and see what drives each group differently and how they make their sound the way they do it. It all becomes evident pretty quickly once you start playing with a new group.

Nathan: [00:02:24] Now me,