Awake music is the 4th solo album released by Chicagoland native Nate Leslie. In true early-Reznor fashion, he writes all the music, plays all the instruments, and does all the recording and production himself. A poster boy for the modern day home recording artist, the sounds that he conjures up are anything but small. Instead, he opts for crushing guitars, atmospheric washes, pounding drums, and lyrics that will sometimes inspire you, and other times push you towards the brink of emotional collapse. Nate's previous albums have all had a significant electro-pop influence, but on AWAKE MUSIC, he purposefully chose to keep the sounds organic, raw, and in-your-face. 98% of the instrumentation you'll hear on this release was made by guitars, bass, and drums, with absolutely minimal synth and midi-work. This is a return to form for Nate, as he spent his teenage and college years playing raw indie-prog rock with his original band Paradigm, where there was nothing electronic about their sound. Nate takes influence from a wide variety of artists, many of whom are independent underground artists like himself, but he does pay musical homage to bands such as Smashing Pumpkins, Sigur Ros, The Joy Formidable, Appleseed Cast, The National, Tool, interpol, and more. Nate takes pride in the unique sound he has developed over the last 6 years...you won't find anyone that sounds quite like him.