I interviewed Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn backstage at Yoshi’s in San Francisco long before Patreon became one of the world’s most influential platforms for creators. At the time, they were building Pomplamoose—an inventive independent band whose videos were already finding a devoted audience online.
Around that same time, I had founded FORA.tv and later launched ShowGo.tv, a livestreaming platform that broadcast performances from iconic jazz and blues venues on three continents. Like my FORA interviews with authors and public thinkers, ShowGo gave me the opportunity to sit backstage with musicians before they performed.
I first met Jack when we appeared together on a panel at Brian Zisk’s SF MusicTech Summit about the future of live music streaming. Brian later became an early investor in ShowGo.tv—we met for pizza in Bangkok years later. Jack, meanwhile, went on to found Patreon, which has transformed how countless creators support their work.
But I’ll always remember Jack as the exuberant, open-hearted musician and creative experimenter performing alongside his wonderfully talented partner, Nataly Dawn.
On why they don’t use backing tracks:
“Our arrangements have a lot going on musically — there’s glockenspiel, there’s background vocals, there’s extra drum layers. Some of our songs have 60 layers, and we can’t reproduce that on stage without a big orchestra… so we just kind of replace the orchestration with fun. And it tends to work.”
On playing with their live band:
“We haven’t done that many live shows, so every time we get together with Ryan and Carlos it’s so much fun. They’re like our best friends — they come over to the house all the time anyway, so getting to play music with them is the greatest thing in the world. Usually our fans are so into it — they know all the lyrics, they’re singing all the background vocals. It’s just so much fun.”
On songwriting as a process, not just chasing a song:
“I really enjoy writing processes a lot, because I feel like that helps you write a lot of songs. You can either work on a song — that’s like trying to catch a fish — or you can work on a process, and that’s like learning how to fish. Then you can catch a bunch of fish. I love experimenting with processes.”
(He describes hooking his old guitar pedals up to his keyboard on a whim and losing track of time: “I stayed in the studio for like six hours… the process is always changing, and I like to deliberately change it to keep writing new things.”)
On the essence of a Pomplamoose song:
“When Nataly picks up her bass, I sit down at the keyboard, she sings a melody, I play some chords — that’s really the essence of Pomplamoose. Bass, chords, melody. It starts with pretty old-fashioned instruments, and then we make it as modern as we want. That’s why we’ll play everything from ‘Mr. Sandman’ or ‘Puttin’ On the Ritz’ to ‘Single Ladies’ and ‘Telephone,’ to our recent stuff, which has been super electronic.”
On finding inspiration in an old instrument:
“I found this little parlor guitar — the one that was on stage tonight — from around 1930. You form this relationship with an instrument, and suddenly it’s inspiring you more than any other guitar you’ve ever played. I have an old piano I’ve written songs on for the same reason — I don’t want something brand new and pristine, I want something that has tone, something that’s lived in the world.”
On the arrangement influences behind Pomplamoose:
“Harmonically, the king of harmony in my view is Brad Mehldau — he’s got something nobody else has, harmonically and even melodically. I draw a lot of inspiration from him, and I’ve blatantly stolen a lot of his chords for Pomplamoose arrangements. Arrangement-wise, I grew up listening to big band — my dad loves Frank Sinatra — so there’s a lot of that same counterpoint, instruments filling in the holes and talking to each other.”
On meeting fans after every show:
“After every show we stand at the merch table and greet people until there’s no one left in the room — sometimes that takes two hours. I think it’s because we’re still a new band, and I hope we hold onto that appreciation. People tell us about their grandma who heard a song, and it makes them think of certain lyrics. I remember faces, I remember community.”
On shooting a fan-powered music video:
“We just shot a music video and invited our fans to come shoot it with us — a hundred people showed up at the park. We had a pizza party, bought way too many pizzas, and hung out with everyone all day. It was the best day ever. That’s really just about having fun, connecting with people, and having a nice time.”
This interview is part of my archival series featuring conversations from my years producing FORA.tv and ShowGo.tv. Explore more interviews, books, documentaries, and my oral history work at Electric Memories.