An Interview with Patton Magee of The Nude Party
Interview by Sophia Fascenelli
February 26, 2024
The Nude Party at The Constellation Room (Photo: Sophia Fascenelli)
A few weeks ago, I had the lovely chance to interview Patton Magee, frontman of The Nude Party. Here’s what Magee had to say:
Your band has quite a unique name, what’s the story behind “The Nude Party?”
Well, we started as a band while we were all going to college together in Boone, North Carolina. We were all super nervous to play our instruments and perform in front of people, so we’d play butt naked down at these basement shows we’d host. After we started doing that, people started calling us the “Naked Party Band,” but we didn't like how that sounded, so eventually we stuck with The Nude Party.
Your album “Rides On” recently came out, what was the inspiration and creative process creating that album?
Well, we’ve been a band for nine years now. We started this project as teenagers and through that we all moved a lot. With us going to college in North Carolina, to us moving to upstate New York together, we’ve been on a trip together, good and bad. We were doing well as a band, we were opening for The Arctic Monkeys, Jack White, tons of festivals; we were getting a ton of exposure out there, but then 2020 hit the brakes hard with covid. We went from soaring in the sky to a immediate stop, which was hard because we were getting used to that upward progression. Our record “Rides On” was about re-grouping from that downfall, and I think it’s the best record we’ve made so far.
I see you guys are co-headlining a tour with Futurebirds soon, how did you guys meet? What made you decide to do a co-headlining tour?
You know, it’s funny we haven't actually met yet. We got recommended through mutuals because all our family in Louisiana knows them and they all said we’d be a great mix for tour. We have musical crossovers and different fan-bases, but we’re different enough to be similar enough to mesh well together.
I see you guys are playing a few festivals this season, are you excited for that?
Yea we’re super stoked to play Boonerang, since we went to college there, super tiny college town that should be fun. I’m super stoked to play Landlock Festival in Waco, TX. It’s super cool it’s a festival at a water park. I can’t swim that well and I’m kind terrified of the ocean because of the sharks, but they have a surf simulator thing at Waco Surf that I really want to try so I’m mostly excited for that one.
Bouncing off the festival question, there’s some great artists playing Green River Festival and Boonerang, are there any artists playing that you’d love to collab with there?
It’s kinda hard to collab with our band because we’re already a seven-piece band, but Pearl Charles is opening up for us on tour and I’d love to collab on a song with them. I love collabing on songs with female singers because their vocals are just amazing. I love to just take a step bac and do backup vocals with a women’s voice as lead. There’s just something about female vocals that I love, that’s why on every tour we bring our opening on to sing a song with us. Music to me is like looking through your eyes and soundtracking different scenes. Like when I’m taking the subway I listen to the Velvet Underground, it’s just the vibe that fits the scene, or when I’m working out Three 6 Mafia is the perfect music to workout to. Something about the beat is perfect for push ups.