Joshua Nathaniel, who has previously performed under the names Niño Brown and Cortez Garza, has just released a new music video for the song “Deja Vu,” which was made in collaboration with Athens producer and DJ Low.again. “Deja Vu” is the first single off of an upcoming EP the two have been working on together. Influenced by drum and bass, the song marks a new direction for Joshua Nathaniel, whose musical career has included chapters dedicated to both hip hop and singer-songwriter styles in the past.
“My love for DJ’ing started when I was a teenager, so I wanted to dive back into the world and tackle some new sounds as a songwriter,” Joshua Nathaniel says.
Directed by Goodie, the video features a handful of local musicians and friends, several of whom have appeared in other videos of Joshua Nathaniel. The music video’s old-school, lo-fi camcorder aesthetic heightens a sense of nostalgia and desire to rediscover oneself.
“The name change was because Niño Brown was a ‘Slim Shady’ moment that sort of ran its course,” he explains. “Joshua Nathaniel is my government name, and I think I’d been trying to reconnect with that person for a very long time. The new project is definitely about identifying with the innocence I felt as a youth and all that it entails. You have a lot of artists that will name a record after their real name in an effort to really bare their soul—this is sort of like that, but I just named the entire project that.”
Joshua Nathaniel anticipates that the new EP will be out by September. Stay in the loop with future show announcements and album updates on Instagram.
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