Spring Term on being a "Kiddo"
By Sophie Griggs
Spring Term is a colorful new artist from Indianapolis, Indiana. With a degree in music technology, and with experience sharing the stage with acts like Yoke Lore and Coast Modern with other bands, Nathan Davis stepped out on his own and developed Spring Term. Davis’ six song debut EP, Kiddo, gives us a musical and lyrical dive into childhood, showing us a story chronologically. Starting with innocent games to hopscotch all the way to considering mortality for the first time.
Ease Up: How did Spring Term first start out? What is your origin story?
Nathan Davis: I’ve been in a few bands before, kind of before COVID. I was also in music school at the time of Spring Term, so really Spring Term first came out of just wanting to do something on my own for the first time. Then also, being in isolation and writing music for school projects, those three things all came together to get the first initial ideas for Spring Term.
EU: Where did the name “Spring Term” come from?
ND: It came from a few different places, partly because it started at school but also, I believe in being a life-long learner. So I love the essence of that, that comes across. Spring is a significant season to me, I always want to write music the most in the spring and I was born in the spring, I met my partner in the spring. So yeah, it just has a lot of significance to me, so it felt appropriate.
EU: Where did your passion for music start?
ND: It started in middle school, I would say. I had a friend who went to a Christian middle and high school, and they had a worship band there, and my friend was in it, and really wanted me to be in it. I owned a guitar, but I didn’t know how to play that well. So pretty much learning the guitar for the first time for that, that’s when I started playing music. Then I started writing music in high school, in between rehearsals for that class period with another friend. That was when I really started to fall in love with music, when I started writing.
EU: Are there any other sources of inspiration for you and your music?
ND: The seasons for sure, nature. For this specific project: just time periods, so like childhood for this project. That’s definitely a heavy concept in this specific project. But in general, the people I’m around, and other music. Honestly, that’s the biggest thing that makes me want to make music is loving music.
EU: So, your new EP, how are you feeling about it being out?
ND: So excited, a little relieved, Being in bands before, and also working with outside producers in those previous bands, this was a little bit more nerve wracking than other releases have been because I produced everything myself, and it’s just me. This is just a solo project, and I’ve never experienced being a solo artist before. But it feels great. I’ve been releasing singles for almost six months, but really all the singles were meant to be a full project that are listened to in context. So it feels really good to have them out in that final form now.
EU: When you start writing music, what is your songwriting process?
ND: I feel like this is a classic answer for that, but it really does vary so much. For example, Kiddo, the song, was a guitar song that was just on an acoustic guitar, wrote most of it and recorded it on a voice memo, and then figured out how to produce it. So like, that was one but then Tell Me Your Name was a song that was really inspired by like a Kenny Beats. I made a beat, and then wrote melodies over it. Then Hopscotch was like a whole different thing where I wrote that for a live looping kind of performance. That was one I wrote for school, and so I was writing it as I was producing it and the structure kind of looks different at the start. So it really, really varies, but my go to is just with a guitar because that was my first instrument, and that’s how I started writing music. So that’s the easiest way for me to write.
EU: So for Kiddo, you said before that the overall theme seems to be childlike, is that the theme of a lot of the songs?
ND: With being a solo artist, I wanted to find a way to really, honestly, and vulnerably introduce myself to people even though it’s not under my name. I have a boring name, Davis, like how many Davis’s are there in the world? So it’s like, whatever. So it’s under Spring Term, just as a little bit more of an alias, and it’s a little bit more faceless. But I still want it to be open with my first release. So that’s one reason. I’ve also always just wanted to do something more conceptual. So even though this is just an EP. The whole thing is chronological, and I really put a lot of thought into the sounds that I used and the melodies that I used and all those things. So yeah, the concept is definitely all about childhood in general, and using my specific childhood experience…You hear psychologists talk about this a lot, and it’s starting to get more trendy, but just how much our childhood affects how we view the world as an adult. And I already thought that but I became even more convinced of that as I was writing these songs. Because I was like, I’m doing this concept album about childhood. But I’m still this way. And this is still just like how people like work and stuff. So it is about childhood, and also isn’t at the same time.
EU: What was your favorite song to write for the EP?
ND: Probably "Kiddo". That one just like came out so naturally, and it’s like, I think Kiddo because it was easiest. It was like probably one of the harder ones to nail down production on but yeah, especially the chorus. It just like, all happened at once, that just doesn’t always happen. Sometimes it can feel like, I’m really kind of digging for what the right melodies are or something like that. But yeah, the chorus of that one really just kind of fell into place. So that’s always a good experience.
EU: Is that why you named the EP Kiddo?
ND: I think Kiddo is a word that is like interesting to me. People have like very different emotional attachments to that word. It can be really comforting or it can be really demeaning. It’s also kind of slang, so it’s not really a word. It’s like a nickname. I just like how it looks too.
EU: I kind of like how you brought up that it has two different feelings because I feel like the songs in your album have that too. You start off with “Hey!” and it’s very bright and bubbly, and then you ended off with “Lune” which is sleepy and melancholic at the end. And then, your song “Jellyfish", that song is very bright but I feel as if the words have a deeper meaning. What were you trying to portray in “Jellyfish'' specifically?
ND: "Jellyfish" was kind of like to me, the last song with the traditional structure on the EP, and I wanted to end it with the most kind of complex theme. So for me … I was very fortunate to not have anybody like close in my life pass away, growing up. Other than like a pet and even that was later on in my childhood. But I did have a lot of friends who had grandparents pass away, and that was always a strange experience if I felt: I still kind of feel very naive to death. But I was still really aware of it because I had friends who were grieving their grandparents when I was seven. And they’re like, what does that mean? So this song is kind of about just that weird place of knowing that something exists, but not having experienced it.
EU: In your EP, are there any other deeper meanings that you feel you want your audience to know about in your songs?
ND: I think there’s so many things that I could dive into, because like I said, I was pretty meticulous with why I made certain choices, even with instruments or where melodies popped up and that kind of thing. But more than anything … I hope that it helps people to think back on their memories. And that’s also why going back to your previous question, why I ended with “Lune” is because I wanted there to be a moment of almost meditation or reflection on just like, what are you feeling right now? Or did this make you think of anything? And just to give people a moment to breathe after listening through these like six songs in 15 minutes. It’s a pretty quick pace. But I mean, the deeper meaning I want is like, regardless of whatever literal stories those songs are about, I want people to think about their stories on those songs.
EU: What do you see in the future for your music and your sound?
ND: I mean, definitely more music soon. I’ve got some things in the works that are reworkings of some of these songs that I’m super excited about. So those are happening. I also, as Spring Term, I’ve done some music for short films before, so I’d love to keep doing some more of that kind of work and very interested in just other outlets of music. I love pop music, but I want to bring some more avant-garde and experiment stylings of things and just ways of making music. I would like to bridge that at some point in my career, like figure out how to bridge those two things even more.
EU: What short films did you make music for?
ND: I’ve done one recently, I just kind of started doing that so I don’t have a lot of back catalog, but I did a film. My friend Eric Thein produced it here in Indianapolis, he’s a local filmmaker. The film is called Dream of Me.
EU: The last question that I have is, well, I guess you kind of already answered this but maybe if want to go a little bit deeper on it. Why music? Why is music important to you, or what does music mean to you?
ND: Ever since feeling drawn to it when I was in high school and started writing … There is something about music that, you can’t see it, you can’t feel it and it’s not a physical thing. Lyrics are important to me, and can touch people. But there’s something about just music that can make you feel emotions, and can make you feel not alone, or can help you to process what’s going on in your life. There’s something very magical about that. I don’t know why that’s the case, and music seems very unique in that way. So there’s a lot about music that I just don’t understand, and that’s really interesting to me. So I want to explore that.
EU: Is there anything else you wanted to talk about?
ND: The main thing was just I really want people to engage with these songs … to allow themselves to let their minds wander with it, and to project their life onto it. And that’s another cool things about music, is that it becomes associated with memories or can take you back to memories. But also, the first time you heard an album that you love, that brings you to a specific period of time in life. And it always will for the rest of your life. I really hope people can make memories with the music I make. That’s my dream.
Spring Term can be found on Instagram and on YouTube and Kiddo can be found on Apple Music and Spotify. Spring Term has a newsletter called Sight/Sound, where he pairs pieces of art with a music playlist twice a month. The playlists are available on Spotify and Apple Music as well.