Q&A: Art Imitates Life With nobody likes you pat’s “tired of going to bed”
THERE IS BEAUTY IN THE ORDINARY — especially when it comes to nobody likes you pat’s intimately relatable songwriting. In his newest single, “tired of going to bed,” he explores the vulnerability of what it’s like to be human, from the emotional rollercoasters to the pure moments. The track captures that moment between fighting and making up in a relationship, and it comes across like a journal entry with candid notes on growth, patience, and forgiveness.
It’s a song for appreciating life and all the simple things in it, even when times get hard. With a stripped-down, crisp production, clean acoustic guitar, and light touch of synthesizers, it inspires a nostalgic feeling, almost like someone went into your family archives and turned an old VHS home video into a song.
In it, nobody likes you pat writes candidly about love, including its most difficult moments. He depicts relationships as multifaceted, challenging, and strenuous, yet also as beautiful, rewarding, and endlessly meaningful. He shares that it’s within this place of radical acceptance of the reality that he finds hope for what’s to come.
We are reminded that the good, the bad, and the ugly are essential to show in media because life isn’t as polished and perfect as what we see on television or in the movies. With “tired of going to bed,” nobody likes you pat invites listeners to fight for who and what they love at all costs, to never forget where they came from, and remind them that there is a way to eventually get where you’re going.
“Tired of going to bed” is just one of 11 narrative-driven songs on nobody likes you pat’s debut album, imago which will release on Nov. 18. The album title is a play on the Latin phrase “imago-dei,” meaning “made in the image of God.” For nobody likes you pat, imago is a holistic take on humanity with no parts edited out because without the difficult parts, it would be hard to see the good.
Read below to get to know nobody likes you pat and get a sneak peek into imago and the thought process behind it.
LUNA: Your new single, “tired of going to bed,” paints an accurate 360-degree view of love that's not often seen in today's media. In what ways would you say the song's portrayal of relationships and marriage differs from what we see on the silver screen?
NLYP: I mean, I think I’m pretty idealistic when it comes to relationships in marriage. I've been married for nine years — I got married really young, and it was easy to see very quickly. Especially once you're out on your own and you're trying to pay rent or a mortgage, or you have kids or you can't find a job, or someone has health issues or whatever. Love as a concept is not the same thing as romance, but romance is an aspect of love. It's just one piece of what love can be. You know the ancient Greek word “agape” that means love, like unconditional, full, sacrificial love — that's what a relationship or a marriage needs to be like to thrive. I think in entertainment, a lot of times that gets so watered down to just be about the rush of endorphins that comes with romance, and that's a valuable part of our relationship but romance isn’t what’s holding you together when your wife is in the hospital or when you’re at unmanageable odds with each other. A kiss on the lips isn't going to solve that — you have to have a deep sense of commitment and promise. The song is about something beautiful and simple; it's about that space between “Why are we in this bad spot?” fighting all the time, and asking yourself, “What's going on with the communication?” so you can work on fixing it. You don't solve those things time after time with just romance.
LUNA: Speaking of what you were saying about the song and it highlighting that middle phase between fighting and reconciliation in a relationship, if you could give that phase a name or description based on how it feels to you, what would it be?
NLYP: I feel like that's a very normal spot to be in. It’s the reality. Like, my wife and I are always going through something. It's not that we're fighting all the time, but there are always things to work out. There's always communication to improve. There's always something going on that can create a little bit of tension and then there's something going on that can be really rewarding and enriching. Maybe it's not a name, but I guess it's just, like, to dub that what people are often looking for in a relationship versus what actually holds a relationship together. You have to accept that it's very normal to be in a spot where there's a lot of push and pull where you're always having to mold and work through things.
LUNA: On the same note, what part or parts of “tired of going to bed” are you most excited for your listeners to hear?
NLYP: I'm really happy with how the production turned out. I produced a lot of it myself, and I worked with a friend on some things too. I really like how the song kind of captures this very organic feeling, while at the same time it still has a popish taste to it. It has a nice blend of modern and more rustic stuff going on, which is something I do a lot so I'm happy about that. I happened to write it with a friend of mine, and I went into the session telling her, “I don't have anything to write about. I think I'm almost done with this album — I don't really want to write today.” And she said, “Well, we don't have to.” She brought the concept of the song up and it resonated. I think it's a good reminder for creatives that you never know when something is going to hit and something really good is going to come out of it. So sometimes you have to at least try. So, yeah, I'm excited for people to hear the result of that.
LUNA: Speaking about your whole songwriting production process, what was it like working with Savannah Sgro and Jack Vondrachek on the song?
NLYP: They both are old friends, Jack especially. He and I've been doing music together since we were around 14 and we're both 30 now, so that’s like 15 years. And we've been in a million different bands and projects, and at this point we know how each other works. He has a studio; he's an engineer and so it's nice when I'm feeling like I don't want to take on the technical side of things at my home studio, that I could just go to him and be like, “Hey, I have this song.” That's always really nice, and then Savannah I met in Nashville when we used to live there. I met her maybe six years ago or something like that and we always kept up, and we've written several songs together. I think she wrote a song or two with my old band as well. And so this is the first song for nobody likes you pat that I've written with her and it ended up being a great one, and she's a great writer. I always like working with friends. I have a hard time working with people I'm not connected with. I want to feel that connectivity, otherwise it’s not going to gel and translate into something real and impactful.
LUNA: Moving forward a bit here, I wanted to touch upon your debut album imago, pronounced “im-ah-goh.” It's coming out soon — can you tell us a little bit more about the inspiration behind the album? We know it comes from a Latin word, but how did that whole concept come about?
NLYP: Yeah, it comes out Nov. 18. So, the name it's Latin, and it’s kind of a blip of the phrase "imago-dei,” which means “made in the image of God.” Like, it's how human beings are described as being created in the image of God. We have properties that are creative, emotive, meaningful, valuable, and made with purpose, and the things we do have lasting meaning and power. So, when my old band was kind of declining around fall 2020 and I started nobody likes you pat, I knew that at some point I'd do an album and call it imago because I’m always writing songs that pull from real things and are relatable. My purpose in writing is to tell my own experiences and stories like a journal or an old home video that you’d pop in the VCR or DVD player. I imagine the image of God being very human and I wanted to really express that within an album. This album is me going through the things I go through, especially right now that I’m in this place in my life where I'm in a very human place because I turned 30.
LUNA: Can you tell us more about the story behind the album and what inspired it?
NLYP: Yeah, so, I had kids really young, got married young, I've moved across the country several times, and we just settled back in my old home state because it just felt like it would be a better spot for us and for me creatively and mental health–wise. So the whole leading up to that process was a return to the simplicity of what it means to be a human being instead of like so many of the smoke-and-mirrors that the music industry offers [as well as] just entertainment in general.
And frankly, our culture is so inundated with materialism and celebrities and there's so much in your face all the time, and I feel like that subverts our humanity, whereas I think if you really dig into people you're going to find that the times they feel most restful and at peace and like themselves are when they're not caught up in all these things that they're trying to create an identity with. It can just be something as simple as I'm sitting out on my porch smoking a pipe and reading a book and it's nice out and there's no one to impress and nothing to do. The point of the album [is to] just get back to … “What have I gone through?” and “What are some real things that I go through and [how can I] use those things to show other people that this is also the stuff I deal with?” It’s about the good and the bad. I really hope people can lean into these songs and maybe find some encouragement in them.
LUNA: Going off what you just shared, there were a lot of things you touched on mental health, figuring out what you wanted in life, dealing with changes, figuring stuff out in general, and translating that into an album. With all those aspects considered, if you could describe the album in three words, which words would you use?
NLYP: One thing I've consistently thought when it comes to this album and nobody likes you pat as a whole is that my songs are like pages in a journal. Each album or EP is another chapter or phase within that journal. I like to write about my lived experiences or thoughts and put those to paper and or to the Notes app. It's meant to be interpreted as a very open journal. In previous projects, I would try to hold more of a mystique or a mystery as an artist. I had this phrase I created with my old band that I still cling to that went, “My whole life is a work of art.” For me, it's intended to say that everything you do can be done with purpose and creativity, like your life is telling a story that other people can dip into and pull encouragement or lessons from. Some of that context comes from my faith, and going back to the imago concept in general, it’s like you can be determined to treat the simplicity and ordinariness of your daily life with high purpose and it doesn't have to be a calling, you know. No matter what we do, we all have immense value. I want people to see the ordinary beauty that exists in each individual life and each individual experience. So for the three words to describe the album, I would say “fuzzy” in terms of textures of the sounds and that nostalgic feeling of an old home movie. Maybe “rich”? Also, it's very transparent, like what you see is what you get. The people who know me as a friend will hear my songs and be like, “Oh yeah! I remember when you were dealing with that.”
LUNA: You talk about the album being a collection of your journal entries and wanting people to be able to go to it if they’re feeling sad, so they can feel related to. On the note of creating a safe space, could you provide a one or two–sentence little welcome note for someone who maybe is not feeling okay at the moment? It would be a way to say, "Hey, you can enter the safe space of the album — you're welcome to come here.”
NLYP: Maybe it’s cheesy, I don’t know, but maybe something like, “Welcome to my life — I know you’ve been there too” because it’s a special thing to feel like you’re part of a community. I think it's also valuable to remember that you’re not worse off being part of a community, and your purpose is to help others and let them help you. It's like there are people who have experienced the same things or in similar ways, and that's a good thing because if you make friends with those people who've been in those places, then they can encourage you when you're going through something that you don't know how to deal with. Yeah, I think it's important to value the people in your life and your community, and just people in general.
LUNA: Finally, in our last couple minutes here, going off that idea of creativity and purpose, what’s your biggest dream as an artist right now?
NLYP: I'll give two sides. On the side of thinking big and thinking about possibilities, I think it’s probably very common for artists to want as many people to hear them as possible. It’s like if I'm writing a song and I want to impact people with it, do I want 200 people to hear it or do I want 2 million people to hear it? I'm at a special place in my career where I'm getting to do what I love most, but on the other hand I also think about playing those massive shows and festivals — those ones where you can take your show production to the next level and just showcase every facet of the art. I think artists are like painters in that way you know because we just don't want art in one place — we want it everywhere. At the end of the day, as well, underneath all of that, it’s really important for me to know that the right people are hearing what I'm saying in my music and that they're being impacted. After all, what is art for if not to showcase truth and beauty to people?
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