Come out of sadness from
brokenhearted.
Nathan Pacheo has become a friend of
mine. I've sailed with him several times
now on the Momentum cruises with Go and
Do Travel. His voice is incredible. His
presentation is edifying. And he's
hosting a trip with Go and Do Travel,
Momentum Italana, October 2nd through
15th of this year, 2025. Where do they
go? They go to Milan, Bari, Cotor,
Corfu, Katakan, Greece, Dub Bronik,
Croatia, Venice, Italy, Florence, the
home of the Renaissance, the Vatican
museums, and Rome. It's an amazing trip
and he's accompanied by tenor Jerry
Westberg and Shane Mickelson and Elaine
and Steven Dalton. To find out more, go
to goanddtravel.com.
Put in the code CWIC5.
CWIC 5 and create an amazing memory
here. I'm really happy to bring you this
interview with Nathan Poacheo. So, when
did you know that you had an
extraordinary voice?
Well, I guess the verdict's still out on
that one. Do you like my voice?
Absolutely. I I I say that with absolute
confidence.
Oh, well, thank you. You know, I've
always loved to sing, but it's
definitely been a work in progress. You
know, I grew up singing in church and
then in the high school choirs and
musicals and then I started to dabble in
classical voice lessons when I was in
high school. And that is when I
officially started to sound like Kermit
the Frog because you know if you try to
you know before you fully your voice is
fully matured. So when you're high
school age, your voice hasn't fully
matured and you listen to recordings
like Pavarati and the other three teners
and when you try to mimic that kind of
mature sounding oporatic voice, it's
very easy to grab all these tongue and
throat muscles to kind of manipulate the
sound in your own ears it sounds good
but you know as you listen to recordings
of yourself you realize h that kind of
sounds like Kermit the Frog. So I went
through my Kermit the Frog phase and you
know over the years I learned how to
support properly and kind of do this
oporatic classical technique without
sounding like Kermit. And you know, it's
been a work in progress, but it's been a
very thrilling and exciting experience
because when you do get it right, when
you're supporting properly and you're
just able to kind of just ride this wave
of emotion and you're not thinking about
technique, but you're just connecting
with the emotion of the music, that's
when it's a magical experience where
you're more most likely to connect with
the audience and everything. And so, you
know, I don't know if I have a
definitive answer to when I know I had a
great voice, but I do I am sincere in
saying that it is still a work in
progress. I still take lessons with my
voice teacher in Manhattan and there's
always polishing and there's always
things to to improve. Some days I feel
like I sound great. Other days I'm like,
do I even know how to sing? because you
know your voice is part of your body and
sometimes
you're just you don't feel good and and
that your fatigue and everything
especially on tour when you're traveling
from city to city that affects your
ability to sing and so it's it's a
really interesting journey.
So how much of that you know I I I don't
sing but I do
because it takes the pressure off and it
helps me enjoy it so much more. And I
think that when we stop requiring
perfection from ourselves, that's when
the magic is more likely to happen.
That's where when we're more likely to
connect with people and and have that
magical moment on stage.
We get into that more in just a bit
here. What now? How much for someone
like me who can't sing? I I mean, I
really can't sing. People tell me I have
a good radio voice, but I I I I'll come
into a new ward sometimes and and I'll
say something in Sunday school and the
the choir leader will say, "Oh, do you
sing?" And and it's like, "No, no, I I
don't sing."
But how much you you talk about how you
are still trying to perfect your voice
and and and improve on that. How much of
a sing how much is a singing voice
nature, right? God-given and how much of
it is nurture what you work on.
I don't know how to quantify how much of
each there is, but you know, there's
definitely got to be a certain level of
natural talent. You got to you got to be
able to carry a tune. You got to you got
to know when you're singing the melody.
And if you're tonedeaf, you know,
there's there's not really much that you
can do. But as long as you can carry a
tune, I don't think there's any limit to
what you can achieve. As long as you get
the proper training and you put in the
blood, sweat, and tears and you dream
big and you take risks, I really don't
believe that there's a limit to what you
can achieve. I, you know, I I've been
wanting to track down these old old
recordings of my voice lessons. Uh, but
I haven't found them. But I would love
to kind of do a comparison to show
people what I sound like today, what I
sounded like then. Mhm.
So much so that I'm not sure I would
have encouraged myself then to go after
singing if I heard myself
because I mean that that's how much
improvement there has been over the
years. But here's the thing is you never
know unless you put forth the effort and
the sacrifice in order to to learn
things. And and that's why I think it's
so important to take the requirement for
perfection out of the out of the
equation because there's no telling
regardless of how imperfect you may feel
you sound today. There's no telling how
how you could sound a year from now, 10
years from now, 20 years from now as you
just are are consistent with trying to
perfect your craft. So that's
now you've talked about this
perfectionism um and you've dealt with
some tough times in your life and and
you've talked about how it has held you
back in some ways maybe even in your
career or in your the confidence that
you're going to go forward with what
you're doing in this career.
How did you overcome that? And then how
do you balance that? Because you say,
"Well, I still take lessons.
I'm still trying to get better." And so
obviously you want to be as good as you
can be.
How do you balance that with saying,
"But I don't have to be perfect."
Yeah, man. I'm loving these questions,
Greg. I think they're awesome
because I think about this a lot. I I
think that what it comes down to is I
think it's amazing to have goals, to be
striving to improve. I don't think
there's anything wrong with that, but I
think that it has to be tempered or
balanced with how we feel about
ourselves in the process, how we treat
ourselves in the process. And
because that can be
as long as we have a healthy
relationship with ourselves, if you
will, then
then, you know, the sky is the limit.
keep on reaching, keep on dreaming. And
and that and there's nothing wrong with
that. Where it gets dangerous in my
opinion is when we start to define
ourselves by our supposed perfections or
imperfections.
And that's that's where things have got
dangerous for me at times in my life and
in my career where I've been so hard on
myself that I have I have assumed that
I'm not worth anything because of how
much I'm beating up on myself. And and
by the way, as you know, we are many
times a lot harder on ourselves than
others. It's like going back to what we
talked about of how you know many times
after a performance it's easy to beat up
on yourself and then other people are
like wow that was the best performance
you've ever given and sometimes it just
helps it's so helpful when people can
kind of help pull yourself out of your
head and your own kind of perfectionist
tendencies for you to see things as they
really are. And so
I think that we should all dream. I
think it's important and very healthy to
make goals and
and try to improve, but it has to be
tempered with
feeling good about ourselves regardless
and not up on ourselves.
I I think you can relate that
spiritually, too. It's I don't think
it's just your career, right? It's it's
a matter of,
you know, if I'm obviously I don't
believe that I'm perfect in in who I am
and what I'm trying to be and I have a
hard time overcoming certain things. So
if if I'm always saying my the state I'm
in right now
is not good enough.
Well, again, there's this balancing act
that says, well, I want to improve. I
want to get better.
Yeah.
But
I don't have to take this present
time right now and say this is who I am.
And I've I've heard this a lot, right?
I've heard I've heard the definition of
who you are is the sum of all your
actions and your thoughts and I've
always disliked that.
Sure.
I don't like that at all because I I
mean I understand it. I understand what
people are trying to say,
but you're always taking away your
future
when you do that.
Yeah.
Right. You're always taking away, well,
how am I going to improve? What are the
decisions that I'm going to be making in
the future? How can I change right
moving forward?
Right. But but that's that perfectionism
does I think act as a kind of
counterfeit
to to our identity and who you know and
and and and kind of takes away from that
balance of I'm where I'm at right now
but here's where I'm going.
Yes.
Does that make sense?
I think that's perfectly said.
Yeah. Um now you've worked with uh some
bigger artists like Yanni.
Yeah. What what did you learn? I don't
know what what what at what point were
you at in your career when you started
working with him and going on tour with
him? What did you learn about, you know,
professionalism? What did you learn
about performance
as you went around on these large tours?
I mean, all over Canada, US, Latin
America.
What did you learn about yourself?
I learned so much. And that was actually
the very beginning of my career. I got
so incredibly lucky just right out of
college. I did a few auditions and one
of those auditions resulted in me
auditioning for Rick Wakeake. He's a
vocal producer that had wor that worked
with Selene Deion back in the day,
Mariah Carey. And I was I was
auditioning for him and his business
partner in this New York City apartment.
And Rick said, "Okay, you know, I'm
about to do this project with Yanni and
I'm trying to get him to work with
singers because, you know, that's my
expertise." And so, how about this? I
want you to write lyrics to one of
Yanni's pre-existing melodies, and I
want you to sing it for him. I'm going
to set up an audition for you down in
Florida in his studio, and you know, you
go for it. And so, that's how it all
started and it ended up resulted in a
project that's now known as Yanni
Voices. It was me and three other
singers. And so that was that was the
very beginning of my career. And to this
day, you know, I look back and I could
not have been more fortunate because
that kind of set the stage for my
career. It allowed me to be mentored by,
you know, this incredible composer and
musician who had, you know, 30 years or
so in the industry at that time. I was
able to write music with him, record in
his studio, learn how all of that works.
And then once we hit the road, I was
able to, you know, be in front of these
ginormous audiences
from everywhere from Radio City Music
Hall in New York to to other places. And
it was an incredible
crash course. Don't know if that's the
best word, but
incredible experience where I was just
immersed in everything about the music
industry. And it taught me so much and
helped prepare me for my solo career
that came a few years after that.
Had you written lyrics before this time?
I had, but this was my first
professional experience. And so,
yes, I I've I had loved writing and
composing for a long time, but I had
never done anything professionally. And
so, I kind of went out on a limb and
just kind of went for it. And I'm
grateful.
You're you're writing the melody as well
then, obviously, at that time as well.
So he had the with the songs that I did
with him, he, you know, the melody was
already there. I did kind of tweak the
melody every now and then to kind of fit
more of like a tenor voice.
Uh, but, you know, the everything was
already there from the music basically.
And so it was mostly singing his melody
like uh like on this song called Adagio
in C minor. It's a da da da da da da da
da da. And you know that was the melody
that was already there. And so I just
kind of put lyrics to it and
and it turned out to be a very fun
fulfilling experience.
How did he like the lyrics? Uh
thankfully he liked them and you know I
ended up working because I wrote these
lyrics in Italian and you know I'm not a
native Italian and so I ended up
collaborating with a couple Italians who
lived in Miami at the time and you know
they helped me polish things but I was
able to put together like a rough draft
and what I wanted to hear and then
they're like okay let's you know change
a few things here and there and so again
going back to you know perfectionism had
I wanted everything to be perfect before
I did at the audition, whether vocally
or with the lyrics, I would have never
taken that step. But I'm grateful that I
just took that leap of faith. And
imperfection and all, things worked out
and I was able to learn so much about
actually that was one of the best
experiences for me as far as my vocal
training is just being in the studio
recording and then listening to what I
was doing and getting feedback. I mean
that was just as helpful if not more
than many voice lessons because you're
like being your own teacher in a way and
so that along with collaborating with
other professional songwriters and
producers it helped me learn and it was
a beautiful experience. So with that
experience of all that touring early on
in your career, what would you say makes
a great performance?
You know,
for me, a great performance is defined
by whether or not I feel connected with
the music and connected with the
audience. That's what I live for. Those
are the moments where
you just feel these
not sure I can do justice in describing
it, but it's kind of like a a heavenly
experience where
you just kind of feel close to heaven in
a way. You feel close to each other and
it's facilitated by music. And the music
allows you these emotions that are
expressed through the music, the
emotions that we that kind of tell the
story of our experience in life. It's
it's neat to be able to express those
through music and to be able to connect
with people through those emotions and
kind of just, you know, feel one for a
few moments.
Yeah. I think is as a as a
you know as a member of the crowd
usually is you usually go to an event
maybe it's an event or a concert or
whatever else it is you know you're
listening to yourself or someone else
and and you sit there and you're having
a certain experience
and and so I think a lot of people think
about that obviously because that's
their personal experience but you're
having a certain experience
as the performer right you're having a
certain experience with the crowd just
like they're having an experience with
you.
Yes.
And and that's really important and it's
it's to me anyway in the little that
I've got my big toe in that area.
I
that is what wants you to keep doing it.
That's what wants you to keep going and
being in front of people. Yeah.
Because it's it's not necessarily I mean
for some people maybe it is. It doesn't
seem like it's necessarily the fame and
the popularity and and other things.
That's all kind of nice, but it's it's
in that moment, in that event, what what
that experience does to the person who's
performing.
Yes.
Yeah.
What how has your
how has your mission
uh affected your career and guided your
career?
You know, Brazil, is that right?
Yeah, I was a missionary in Brazil for a
couple years. And
you know, it's funny that you asked that
because I I loved singing as a
missionary. You know, you know, just
like we've talked about, music has a
beautiful way of kind of breaking down
barriers and and allowing us to to it
kind of creates an atmosphere of
friendship in a way. And and so it was I
would sing all the time and I would I
would even sing on buses for people,
sing on the sides of streets and then in
people's homes as would teach them. I I
would always love to sing for them. And
it was actually in Brazil that I
realized even more just how much I love
connecting with people through music.
And what a beautiful thing is, you know,
there I was in a country that I had
never been to before. I was learning a
language that I didn't know and there I
was meeting complete strangers and
many times it was through music that I
was able to feel close and connected to
them in a way and and it was just a a
beautiful experience. And so I left my
missionary experience realizing man I
just love I I love being able to sing. I
love expressing myself through music. I
love connecting with people through
music and and so, you know, even though
I did nothing professional as a
missionary, I was singing all the time
and it was just such a fulfilling
experience.
Did you ever use your voice in
discussions?
Oh, yeah.
Or in just visits with people.
Oh, all the time. All the time. I I
would not teach a lesson without
at least one hymn. Many times there
would be several.
Yeah, that is
we had uh I went to Mexico City and we
had a
That's right.
a a a general authority come visit us
once for a a a big zone conference and
and he comes in and he says, "Okay,
here's what I want you to do from now
on. I want you to go in and I want you
to when they open the door, when you
knock, and we actually didn't knock. We
never knocked on doors, but when you get
to an investigator's house and they open
the door, I want you to the first thing
I want you to do is offer to sing a
hymn.
That's amazing.
And and uh that's really good advice for
you.
That was not good advice for me.
And and it was it was you know, I tried
it and I did it and I just thought, you
know what, the spirit is not here. I'm
sorry. This is this is not good. This is
going to slam the door faster than
anything else will.
But I can see how that would really be
great. I mean, that would be an asset
that that uh you're going to have, you
know, there there are always things as a
missionary where I mean, there's a
liability issue, right? There's a uh
um they a lot of a lot of families want
or individuals want you to come to the
house and just talk to them and even
beyond the the discussion sometimes
where you're making a you're bonding
with them. But
what a great asset that is to be able to
sing and and create that bond through
music at times and and uh I wish I would
have had that. That's that's pretty
cool.
Uh, you know, it really was a lot of fun
and you know, and I think that it
probably played an enormous role in me
deciding to p pursue music as a career
just because of how fascinated I became
with how, again, like I said earlier, it
kind of creates this spirit of
friendship. And you know, it's I I've
learned and I'm still learning
in life that the most fulfilling times
are when we feel close to others,
whether it be our family members or
friends or others people that we just
meet. It's it's a beautiful thing to be
able to have this connection with other
people. And music is a beautiful way
that it does that and it brings people
closer together and
causes them to at least for a moment to
forget about differences that could
potentially divide and allows them to
just enjoy music together. I think
that's a beautiful thing.
Agreed. Now, in music and voice, you you
look up a lot to Andrew
Bochelli,
and
I mean, what is it about him that that
makes you aspire to be more like him?
Well, when I was
finishing up high school, he was really
on the rise here in the States. And
that's when he did his PBS specialist,
Sarah Brightman. And that's when David
Foster really launched him here. And I
was studying classical music at the
time, you know, more kind of oporadic
stuff, but I was absolutely spellbound
when I first heard him sing Time to Say
Goodbye. And then as I listened to his
other recordings, the way that he
blended pop with classical I thought was
absolutely amazing because it made it
more accessible. It's like it combined
the accessibility of pop music with the
strength and passion of the classical
tenor high notes. And I thought that was
so amazing because sometimes opera
music, even though I love opera, I'll
even be the first to say that sometimes
opera music can sound, you know, too
pompous and too out there and go over
our heads. But the way this kind of
classical crossover style that Andre
Buchelli, Josh Grogan, and others have
made so famous is is I believe it's so
it it kind of combines a few different
genres of music and like many times in
the verse it's more kind of like pop and
just kind of speaking like uh and then
in the choruses, you know, usually bring
out the high notes and they bring more
of the classical technique to to do
that. But I just and that is why I
decided to focus more on this kind of
classical crossover genre as opposed to
going the strictly oporatic route
because I personally feel more connected
to it and also I feel like other people
connect with it more than just like the
strictly opera.
Now you've taken this, right? What other
projects have you been working on
outside of just your voice?
Well, I I still love to write and
compose. You know, recently, I guess
it's been a year now, I released a
musical that I composed and wrote. I
released it as an audio book and also
just released the album. So, I've been I
was working on that for quite a long
time. And now I am working on making it
into a movie musical. And so I just
finished the movie pitch and we're going
to submit it to Angel Studios and other
movie studios out there. And the goal is
to, you know, take it to the big screen.
And just like The Greatest Showman and
other musicals, we've seen it on the big
screen over the past few years. The goal
is to take this musical that I wrote
called Beloved. The goal is to take that
to the big screen and then eventually to
take it to the stage. And so I am very
passionate about writing and composing
and
I and so I've been working on a lot of
things with that. My uh speaking of The
Greatest Showman, I heard that Disney
Theatrical Group is releasing is taking
that to the stage finally. It's going to
start over in in the UK and then
eventually it will make its way to
Broadway here in the States. But it's
ever since I saw that on the big screen
in the movie theater a few years ago,
I've always wanted to be PT Barnum. And
so I'm auditioning for that and you
know, fingers crossed maybe I can have
some good news for you in a few weeks.
That would be a lot of fun.
Yeah.
So yeah, I have been, you know, working
on those those things, working on other
music as well and
preparing for different shows.
Great. Now, one of the things that you
do and you and I have been on the uh go
and do travels momentum cruises several
times together.
Uh there's another one that's coming up
and that is the momentum Italia. Tell us
a little bit about that.
Yes. So, I so I didn't even like to
cruise a few years ago and then Brian
Nicholson with Go to Travel, he reached
out to me and was like, "Hey, you want
to do this Italy cruise? You know,
you'll sing this Italian music da da
da." So that was pretty much the first
cruise that I did with Brian and I kind
of fell in love with this experience.
And then like you said, we've done these
momentum cruises at the beginning of the
year where you know they put together
all these neat presentations, presenters
like yourself and performers and it's
just been a very uplifting and
fulfilling experience. And so the
Momentum Italana cruise that I'll be
doing in October, it's I I'm so excited.
Actually, I was just over in Greece for
another event. That was my first time to
Greece. But on this Momentum Italana
cruise, we're going to go to Greece as
well. We're going to start out in Italy.
We'll start out basically in the Venice
area, and then we'll go to Croatia,
Montenegro, Greece, and then go back to
Italy. And I'll be singing on the cruise
ship, and I'll be singing, you know,
lots of songs in Italian, of course. And
and so it's the reason why I love these
experiences so much is because I love to
travel. I love exploring different
cultures. I love good food. I love good
music. I love being with my family. And
you know, since I'm not bouncing around
from city to city like I do when I'm on
tour, but we're just kind of staying put
on a cruise ship, you know, I bring my
family with me. And it's just a neat
experience to have my family with me
while I'm working.
and to also meet great people, eat great
food, enjoy good music, and so it's it's
a really
I've had a great time so far, and I'm
really looking forward to the momentum
telling you.
Yeah. And you're kind of captured for
the audience, right? You're you're
you're with them for however long the
cruise goes. And so you you know, you're
accessible
and you get to spend some time with them
and get to know them a little bit
better. That's that's
I do my best to kind of give everyone a
VIP experience in the sense that, you
know, like after shows normally
when I'm on tour, you know, I'll have,
you know, these, you know, sign
autographs and CDs and take pictures.
And so I try to give people a giant VIP
experience when they're on the cruise
ship so that you know take good care of
them and and make sure that they have a
great time.
Yeah. And this Momentum Italia is
October 2nd to October 15th. We'll put a
link in the description box for people
to check out that trip and and learn a
little bit more. Nathan, really enjoy
spending time with you on those cruises
and to finally be able to interview you.
I' I've learned a lot about you, learn,
you know, met your family and really
appreciate what you do.
Oh, well, thank you, Greg. Likewise.
Sadness from wherever you've been. I'm
brokenhearted.
