Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile: NA

It's now time for our monthly Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile! This feature series once again looks at a metal, hard rock, or punk band from outside of the Soo area that just happens to feature a past or present Saultite in any of their permanent lineups, and we're taking a rare dip into the Michigan side of things this month for a late 2000s fixture in the Northern Michigan punk scene with a local tie! Here's what you should know!
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NA (Hillman, Michigan)

Lineup: (Saultites in RED, ex-members in italics)

Nathan Post (vocals/bass)
Dustin "Doc" Vanderveer (guitar)
Mikhail Swift (drums)

Official Facebook page: http://facebook.com/pages/na/140425965994799
Official MySpace page: http://myspace.com/risewithna
Official Reverbnation page: http://reverbnation.com/napunk

Local Info: NA's only member with a local residence was drummer Mikhail Swift, who is a 2012 computer sciences graduate from Lake Superior State University, and lived in Sault Michigan during his enrollment. While he played in the Lower Peninsula hardcore band She Screams Of Royalty during that time, he wasn't active in any local bands while in the Soo from what I can tell. Now residing in Grand Rapids, Mikhail's local tenure definitely counts for us to cover NA in this series!

Band Bio: Launched in August 2006 under the name Nothing To Lose, NA (short for The Noise Addicts) were a ska punk trio from Hillman, Michigan, a small town outside of Alpena. Debuting at that summer's Fieldstock Music Festival in Presque Isle, the band transitioned from covers to originals in 2007, recording their debut EP "Gotta Live Sometime" that year. Amidst various Northern Michigan concerts, the band recorded one final demo named "The Original Copy" that was released in 2008 featuring altered & new tracks. After sporadic concerts through mid-2009, NA went on hiatus, during which time Nathan Post & Mikhail joined forces once again in She Screams Of Royalty, before NA reemerged in August 2010. That band played their final announced shows at a Hillman church in early 2011, concluding with a show that June, and falling inactive for good by year's end, with members now focusing on separate musical projects.

Surviving media of NA is mostly limited to videos from their original 2006-2009 run (save for one studio MySpace track & the video below), but what I've seen & heard paints a promising young punk band! Nathan, Dustin, and Mikhail had good chemistry and had solid songwriting ability, especially considering their ages at the time, but I will concede that I don't detect a lot of the "ska" influence" in their media. Nathan had a solid voice for the genre, and I imagine NA had a good following, but give them a look to see what you think! The above links feature select videos and materials from their run, along with this MySpace video and a handful of videos on Dustin's YouTube channel, including this posthumous music video for their song "No More Incentive" featuring live concert, jam, and recording footage, and assorted other moments from their run together!


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I hope you guys liked this month's Saultites In Out Of Town Bands Profile! Next month in this series, we're planning to look at Parallel Truth, a multi-national progressive metal band featuring Saultite and former Gates of Winter collaborator Jon Morrison, so look for that on or around August 26th! That's likely all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes soon! Thanks everyone!