👋 Meet Pat Nelson

Greetings fellow creatives! My name is Pat, and I’m a creative and musician based out of the Chicagoland suburbs.

I’ve always been surrounded by music and creativity. I started taking piano lessons when I was seven (25 years ago, now) and immediately fell in love with the instrument. Music came naturally to me. I’d classify myself as equal parts left and right brained (my ENFJ, enneagram type 2w1 would definitely reinforce that), so the mathematical science of rhythm always intrigued me. As I started learning more about music theory, I realized the beauty inherent in making the complex, simple, like dissecting a piece of music into its basic elements: rhythm, melody, and harmony. Piano was a wonderful instrument for that, and I still visualize almost everything I write on the keyboard. I played and studied the standards and the greats: Mozart, Kuhlau, Beethoven, Bartok, Chopin, etc.. I also love experimental piano pieces that push the envelopes of harmony, tempo, and style. That led to a love of jazz music and a study of Duke Ellington, improvisation, chord changes, and lead sheets.

Fast forward a few years from my first piano lesson, I began expanding my musical point-of-view. I picked up trumpet in fifth grade, then drums in seventh; I taught myself guitar (with a little help from my brother - thanks Matt!) as a freshman in high school, and once I had that down, I started digging into songwriting. I’ve always been a singer and began nurturing that skill as I started writing more music. Melody comes naturally to me; lyric writing can be harder. I formed my first band (as the drummer), Resonance, in high school with some friends; after writing three songs, I pushed for us to record them. So in 2005, I bought my first interface, a pair of cheap studio monitors, and some microphones. I had no clue what I was doing - hah! But, hey, you gotta start somewhere, right? We produced an EP, played some gigs, disbanded, and two years after that I recorded my first solo record under Pat Nelson Music; it was super emo 😅, but what do you expect from a guy who listened to a lot Dashboard Confessional and got dumped that year?

In 2008 I started, The Introduction, a pop punk/alternative band influenced by equal parts Forever the Sickest Kids and Jimmy Eat World. I played guitar and sang lead. This band was SO FUN. When we had written some songs, we decided to hire a professional to record our music (wise choice this time around). Our first single “Spread Your Wings” was a hit and even helped me get runner-up in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest in 2008. We gigged quite a bit, where I started to come into my own as a performer. Like my first band, we disbanded as we all left for college.

I attended Augustana College to study Music Composition (first to graduate with that degree) and played trumpet throughout my career there in the Symphonic and Jazz Bands. We toured all over the world sharing the gift of music. My most memorable moment was playing Puccini’s Turandot opera at his home town church in Lucca, Italy. People were weeping. It was epic.

Oh, also, my freshman year of college I met a guy named Joe Skager and well, we became friends; the rest is history! 

With my Music Composition degree, I chose an emphasis in Film Scoring as it seemed like the perfect combination of my love of classical music, storytelling, and modern “pop.” I don’t mean pop as-in “bubblegum pop.” Think music that’s accessible to all with a memorable hook that reinforces and supports your emotions and maybe even gets your toe tapping. The great John Williams scored many of my favorites growing up (see Mood Matters from season 1) And he became my hero and inspiration. In 2010, I studied under Hummie Mann (Robin Hood: Men in Tights) through the Pacific Northwest Film Scoring School in Seattle. It was an incredible experience learning many of the writing principles that I still use today in my composition. I graduated in 2012 from Augustana College and stepped boldly into the “real world.”

I’ve been on staff at Community Christian Church in the Chicagoland area since 2012 where I’ve worked as a Creative Arts Director and most recently as the Communications and Marketing Director. In addition, I play keys and lead worship with Community Music, our church’s music collective, which is most known for our single Make Room (just topped 12M streams on Spotify!). 

I met my wife in 2013 at a performing arts center; she taught dance while I taught piano lessons. We fell in love and were married in 2015. We live outside of Chicago with our two-year old daughter Avery and have another girl on the way due in August 2022! Outside of music, we love to travel, experience new things together, be outside, hike; I love to cook, entertain people, create things. Life is good.

Joe and I have been songwriters and collaborators together for a long time, and Rosefinch opened up a door for us to collaborate together in a new way. Like we’ve said before, this is the long put off dream we’ve both had, and it’s a joy and honor to write music to enhance our clients’ creative projects. Mood does indeed matter!

You can find me on all the social media platforms, but, like every good, older Millennial, I prefer Instagram — @pcnelson (profile below! 🎉)— give me a follow, say “hey,” and let’s create something together!