If you’ve found your way here through one of my videos, welcome, and thank you for taking the time to learn a little more about me. You may know me as the American sharing observations about life in Britain, but those videos are only one part of my story.
Three years ago, I left my hometown of Rockwell, North Carolina, and flew to Britain believing I was beginning a new chapter in my music career. After spending two weeks travelling through parts of Europe with my manager, I returned with her to her family home in Oxfordshire, where I planned to stay for a couple of months.
During those first few weeks, I began getting to know everyone in the house, including my manager’s father, Martyn Stringer. Martyn welcomed me into his home with a kindness, generosity and warmth I will never forget. At the time, Martyn had been struggling with his mental health. The treatment he received ultimately did not help in the way everyone had hoped, and he experienced a severe mental health crisis. One afternoon, after learning that doctors were coming to the house to take him in for further treatment, he became frightened and overwhelmed and ran from the family home.
We followed after him, but our worst fears became reality. Martyn took his own life on the road leading through the hamlet to the family home. My manager and her sister reached him first, and I arrived moments later. It remains one of the hardest moments of my life to put into words.
I had arrived in Britain expecting to pursue music and build a career. Instead, within my first few weeks, I experienced something that completely changed my understanding of life, purpose and what success should really mean. Britain became more than the place where I hoped to build a future. It became the place that reshaped the kind of person, and the kind of songwriter I wanted to become.
Before losing Martyn, I wanted to write songs people would enjoy. Afterwards, I wanted to write songs people could lean on: songs for the moments when life does not make sense, for the conversations we struggle to have and for the feelings we often do not know how to express. I especially wanted to speak to the men who have spent years believing they are supposed to remain silent, hide their pain and carry everything alone. From that point forward, music was no longer simply about chasing success or recognition. It became a way of giving people words for the things they may not have the strength to say out loud themselves.
My debut EP, Dreaming of a Memory, is not a retelling of what happened to Martyn, nor is it centred around that single moment. It was, however, created by someone who had been forever changed by it. The experience became part of my story, shaped my purpose and influenced the honesty with which I now approach every song. Blending Country, Americana and Folk influences with stripped-back production and Southern storytelling, the EP explores memory, loss, longing, hope and the desire to make sense of the past. The title track was once a song I was unsure I even wanted to release, yet it has since become my highest-streamed song and one of the songs listeners have connected with most deeply.
Alongside Why, Smoke and Mirrors and Shadows, those songs have helped my music reach more than 15 million streams globally But the numbers only matter if the music means something to the people listening. If these songs help someone feel understood, encourage one difficult conversation or remind someone that asking for help is a sign of strength rather than weakness, then this journey has become something far greater than the career I originally came here to pursue.
Thank you for taking the time to read my story. Whether you arrived through one of my Britain videos, through the music or simply out of curiosity, I am grateful that our paths crossed.
I hope that wherever life finds you today, these songs remind you that you are never as alone as you may feel.
— Nathan Leazer
