‘Yellow Peril’ musician Nat Myers on being proud of his roots
“Music to me … I think it's kind of the apotheosis of poetry,” says Nat Myers.Photo by Jim Herrington.
A raspy singing voice and steel guitar are essential to Nat Myers’ songs. His debut album “Ramble No More” is filled with soulful, “country blues” tracks with a modern message about civil rights and his Asian American identity. Now he’s out with a new album called “Yellow Peril” (a phrase that’s been used against Asian immigrants since the 19 century).
Myers, now age 32, was raised in Kentucky by his Korean mother and white American father, who met while his dad was stationed in Korea with the U.S. Army.
“I wrote the song [the title track, “Yellow Peril”] in particular because it terrifies me, and it makes me angry to think that some person could just coldcock my mom while she's getting groceries or something like that,” he tells KCRW. “So I just felt like, especially during that time, I experienced … this casual racism that I think, especially when something like the pandemic happened, and then the very overt politicization from particular sides of the aisle about what was happening, it put it in perspective — what really hateful rhetoric can turn into.”
Still, he says recording that song was fun. “There's a certain amount of earnestness in the song, with a certain amount of joy and celebration and turning the positive outlook. … It’s like how do we turn the Medusa into stone?”
Looking back on his childhood, Myers says he perceived himself as white. “A lot of my friends, as I've gotten older have been much more diverse. But where I come from, particularly Northern Kentucky, it's not a wide demographic of folks.”
His mom didn’t pass on much Korean culture/identity to him either, he shares.
“I'm very resentful of that. And I love my folks but … I think it was a little misguided in terms of their perspective. I brought up, when I was in my 20s, ‘Why didn't y'all teach me Korean when I was younger?’ And they're like, ‘Well, you didn't want to learn.’ It was like, ‘I was 7 years old.’ … It also gives me the perspective that they didn't want to teach me.”
He continues, “[My mom has] openly said to me that I ain't Korean to her because I don't speak the language, I ain't from the culture. But her desire to hold on to that identity is very strong. … Because I'm American, because I'm a first generation born here, to her it's not the same thing as being Korean, as being from the homeland. And I'm totally cool with that. But when my mom brings that kind of stuff up, I'm just like, ‘Mom, we're all Asian to everybody over here. There ain't too much distinction.’”
Today, Myers says he thinks of himself as “a human being just trying to do right,” who happens to be Korean and Kentuckian.
“I love where I'm from. I gotta give a lot of acknowledgement for meeting teachers when I was going to the University of Louisville, poets who taught me the concept of regionalism, being proud of where you’re from. Because I think a lot of people might agree with me, being where I was from, you just think about getting out. You get that Mark Twain sensation that everything's 20 years ahead of where you're at. … It feels different to get back into the home state.”
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