Ideally, growing up on an island can make young people comfortable and confident, able to express themselves in non-conformist and creative ways.
One would be hard-pressed to find a more positive example of this than Nathan Lamont Oldham, born and raised on Islesboro, who recently graduated with honors from the University of Maine at Orono. Oldham, whose Bachelor’s degree is in studio art, is also a performing multi-instrumentalist who writes original music, as well as a cartoonist, sculptor and painter. He acknowledges that his evolution as an artist and musician was enormously influenced by a nurturing home and community environment, combined with the island reality of having to make your own fun if you’re going to have any at all.
Oldham’s alternative band, Tomorrow’s Retro Future, is a new-wave style duo that combines the talents and personae of John W. (Nathan’s cognomen) and Conrad Marshall (fellow UMO student Matt Stanford). The band has built a substantial cult following, addicted to its quirky performance-art-style presentation of original music. TRF was one of only six local bands voted to join a slate of national acts at the Bumstock Festival 2004, held on the UMO campus. Their performance was given in the pouring rain, but that didn’t dampen their fans’ enthusiasm.
Tomorrow’s Retro Future offers a much richer, multi-level entertainment experience to their audience than the customary just-stand-there-and-play rock show mode. Screeching vocals, hard rock rhythms, slow ballads and quirky lyrics are combined with costume changes and full-screen, life-sized projections of band members simultaneously playing additional instruments to give an eerie, unsettling performance. Adding to the fun is Adolpho Rolo, a crazed, dancing skeleton who bursts on stage gyrating wildly to the music. His cheap, plastic, glow-in-the-dark mask hides his true identify, but Adolpho claims to just be out to have a little fun. Recently, Rolo’s counterpart, Evil Adolpho, was introduced to TRF’s fans at the band’s packed-house performance at the on-campus Pavilion Theater. The evil, red-skeleton-masked entity was chased offstage by the happy Adolpho, amid cheers from the audience.
Oldham performs with other groups as well, and has also released a solo CD of his own compositions, appropriately entitled Me, Me, Me, Me, Me. During his senior year of college, he hosted his own radio show, Skinny Tie Radio, at WMEB’s campus station, featuring a mix of new wave, 80s-style music, synth pop, local bands and a healthy dose of rock. He enjoyed that gig so much that he’s hoping to find another radio show spot where he can spin some tunes, perhaps at WERU, where his uncle Charlie hosts the popular Saturday afternoon show Stacks o’ Tracks.
As a studio artist, Oldham has explored a wide variety of media. An early childhood activity was drawing cartoons featuring his family felines Spare Parts, Digger, Dumper and Bob talking out their daily conflicts and engaging in various capers. An excellent storyteller, Oldham’s sense of humor and whimsy is apparent in these early escapades. While in high school, he met a local cartoonist who draws the “Lobster Man” strip, who advised Oldham to pursue art at the college level. During his college years, Oldham explored sculpture, painting, figure drawing and a variety of other media.
Oldham’s current interest is creating site-specific art, transforming ordinary space into something unusual and thought provoking. He likes the idea that art can occur unexpectedly in everyday life, like coming upon a startling image on a sticker stuck to a telephone pole. He has painted a series of chairs in various patterns, shapes, colors and verbal messages that suggest this theme of art existing in ordinary things.
Oldham’s latest art installation gave form to a fantasy related to him by his dad (ICS music teacher John Oldham), involving a secret hideaway nestled atop a cabinet in their local church – a place where one might retreat during a particularly tedious sermon. Nathan designed and constructed a replica of the space, and equipped it with a television, curtains, snacks and pillow for that comfy hideaway feeling. When his dad saw the sculpture, he recognized immediately what it was, much to Nathan’s delight, since he’d planned it as a surprise for his dad.
Meanwhile, back in the real, bills-paying world, Nathan will be back on Islesboro this summer, doing what many young people do there – a summer job. He plans to get married on-island this coming August to fellow UMO graduate Jennifer Wendel. Other summer plans of an artistic nature include releasing another solo CD as well as a Tomorrow’s Retro Future CD, publishing a comic book about TRF’s origin (featuring the mythic first meeting of John and Conrad), and writing and drawing a second issue of that comic series. He also plans to display some of his artwork in the island’s annual arts and crafts show this summer. As heavy a schedule as this might appear, it embodies a healthy balance between working hard and having fun, which bodes well for Nate’s future.
Small World Department: Bonnie L. Mowery-Oldham is Nate’s aunt.