The Soul Flies

First the facts.
Reid Norris and Nate Kantner, founding members of The Soul Flies, grew up in the United States of America, in parts of the country where horses are still pets that your school still has to feed if you ride there. When Nate was six, he was accepted into the Helena Boys Music Conservatory. His teachers found he “showed great promise,” but was “incorrigible,” as well as “tone deaf.” He was thrown out after two weeks. He returned home where he spent his childhood working; there were huckleberries to be picked in springtime and wood to be chopped come winter. His father, known around town as Kelley Nine Fingers, was unable to help him due to an accident with a window, in which the top quarter of his right ring finger was severed.
Always the fastest in the class, Norris excelled in every sport. Of course as an Indiana boy, his favorite arena was basketball, where he started for the Jasper High Wildcat varsity squad at the ripe age of ten. Unfortunately, the following summer he was severely injured jumping in front of a combine to save his twin sister. While recovering in the hospital, immobilized in a full body cast, he was visited only by his mother who came one time. She left him a guitar and ran out of the room. Reid lay in his hospital bed and listened to the Grand Ole Opry on the radio. There he sat, day after day playing that guitar wishing only that he could stomp his feet to the blues he sang. On the day Johnny Cash died he cut the cast off himself with nothing but a pocketknife and a positive attitude. He stole a car, drove it to Nashville, and wrote the song “All I Got Left to Do Is Go.”
The following few years were spent at our heroes’ respective universities. It was only a matter of time before each would have revelations of their true paths. Nate was in Seattle studying audio production and philosophy. While always keen on his studies, maintaining a 4.0 grade point average, he often times found himself in precarious situations after sundown, often inside casinos. Some say he paid for his entire four years of school with poker winnings. Others say his entire student loan debt can be attributed to gambling losses. One legend, which echoes on Aurora Boulevard to this day, tells of Nate on the run from a gang of thieves, while wearing flip flops and a straw hat. He is said to have seen his future while running barefoot up the Seattle streets…and the next three years of it were in Italy.
The explanation for Norris’ flight to Italy is not as clear. Some say it was to escape an old love affair gone cold. According to his father, Reid was inspired to learn the classic Italian dish, Pasta Tortura; the pasta that takes so long to cook, you’ll eat anything by the time it’s ready. Whatever the reason, Reid decided that he’d had enough of Villanova and traveled abroad to find his true villa nova somewhere among the rolling hills of Tuscany.
In the fall of 2004, the two met in Florence at a party that Reid was hosting. While Reid was stirring the pasta, he heard the usually reserved Nate yell from across the room, “Hey Norris! Why don’t you get over here and teach me some of that Indiana -combine-done-cut-me-up -full-body-cast-blues!” They sat down and worked out “Bloodshot Eyes” and one of Reid’s early tunes, “The Ballad of Symphony Slacks – The Armless Accordionist,” which was never released.
Reid and Nate were invited to open for a local band at a downtown hotspot in Florence. The show went as shows typically do with Reid and Nate dominating their set then proceeding to meet beautiful ladies from various countries such as America, Italy, France, and Reid’s personal favorite, Iceland. Shortly through the headlining set however, it became clear that the lead singer was too drunk to perform. While the singer spilled his beer on stage, chants of “Nate and Reid” spilled into the streets. Of course, the two returned to the stage and crushed the rest of the night. The two were asked to play a regular weekly show for the next year. They cancelled their immediate plans to return home and instead remained in Italy to further develop their music.
January of 2005, the two met up in Seattle to record together. The 2005 sessions were limited and never fully completed and as a result, have not been released. One track however, “Too Young To Know”, is included on “The Sole Fly” album released in May 2008.
Immediately following the Seattle recording sessions, Nate returned to Italy to continue his pursuits. He started a small group comprised of local musicians from the town of Perugia, and an old Seattle staple, Mike Bergquist. Performing in local pubs as “The Paint” the group made enough to cover their basic living expenses for quite some time. The experience has inspired “The Soul Flies” to plan a full Italian tour in the future. Nate has been back in Seattle since the summer of 2007 recording the latest project, a solo acoustic performance of Soul Flies songs beginning before 2004 and including tunes that have been recently added to the repertoire. Reid has been running San Francisco, like a west coast Jay-Z, where the two often convene to prepare new material. A new album is planned for the fall.
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