Natalie Prass: Celebrated singer/songwriter here to stay in RVA

Catch Natalie Prass at this very Friday Cheers! And be all “Oh, hey, I listened to you make charming jokes on RVANews, NBD.”

May 25, 2016; 1:04 PM • by Susan Howson

Lady who lunches, Natalie Prass.

Update #1 — May 25, 2016; 1:01 PM

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Original — February 19, 2016

This week’s Friday Cheers is the ever-popular RVA Music Night! Check out Natalie Prass, Lady God, and Sam Reed this Friday on Brown’s Island beginning at 6:00 PM.

BUT FIRST! Listen to our interview with Natalie, below.

Listen to the interview

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If you’re not into Natalie Prass’s self-titled album, then what kind of Richmonder are you? You’ve probably heard one or two of the tracks on it already, as the music world went wild for the Virginia-Beach-then-Nashville-then-Richmond songwriter last year. Natalie’s vocal stylings were always making audio appearances at Starbucks, on TV ads, and even in a coffeeshop in Brighton, England, where she would tell the barista “This is me!” only to get a blank look in return.

But, it can’t all be thrilled fans all the time! Natalie waited a couple of years for Spacebomb Records (the record label co-owned by other Virginia Beach ex-pat Matthew E. White) to release the album she recorded there. To keep busy (because one must), she landed a spot in Jenny Lewis’s band and got the experience she would end up really needing once Natalie Prass hit eardrums everywhere.

Since then, she’s made a permanent home in Richmond, although she hasn’t been able to spend much time here. Touring the globe and writing her new record in London has kept her away, but soon it’ll be time to record, and she’ll be stuck with us. FOREVER. JK, Natalie. You are free to make your living as a famous musician without worrying too much about how we feel. No, no. You go do your thing. We’ll be fine.

Conversations with Natalie are surreal sometimes–she’s all “Yes, I enjoyed those Bellytimber nachos very much, and by the way I’m going to be on that new HBO series Vinyl¹ and also here is a fart joke I enjoyed.” Only she doesn’t sound like a robot. I don’t know why I wrote it like that. She sounds like a regular, down-to-earth person who likes LARPing and deadpan humor and feels nervous about singing during an interview (sorry, I tried).

Well, don’t take my word for it. Hear our entire conversation about how one gets from Virginia Beach to dressing up as a werewolf to Richmond to signing autographs to eating nachos.