Nate Manic has honed his skills among some of the world’s best and brightest over a career spanning more than 25 years, and is now starting to make an impact on the Electronic Music world through his production work.

Nate's life-long relationship with music started at the age of two and a half, and was borne after a Christmas Eve trip to church when he sat down at his older brother's organ and plunked out "Joy To The World" by ear with a full left handed chordal accompaniment.  It was shortly thereafter, at the age of 6, that his parents would enroll him in lessons and start his formal training.  After he discovered a singing voice in 5th grade, he spent most of the rest of his formative years in choirs and classrooms, teaching himself things like guitar, piano and enjoying percussive instruments.

It was during his high school years that he discovered Dance music through trips to the local Alternative club in Green Bay, The Option, where he was influenced by the sounds of Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Cure, Lords of Acid, Jane's Addiction, Sisters of Mercy, early Nine Ince Nails, Erasure, Depeche Mode, Deee-Lite and others.  After returning from a year-long exchange program to Germany his Junior year, Nate dove in headfirst to rave culture in the early 90's, which he would embrace fully while on a Music scholarship to UW-Madison.  It was also during his Senior year in high school that he would be introduced to an Ensoniq TS-12 sequencer- a keyboard that would change the trajectory of his life.  Over the next 6 years he would go on to work with a number of collectives in Madison producing Hip Hop beats and playing shows all over the Midwest.  He picked up his first pair of turntables in January of 1998 and threw his first (legal) party the following May at the Cardinal Dance Club with headliner Woody McBride.

Nate moved to Chicago in 2000.  Things took off quickly with residencies all over the city and guest spots in such far away places as London, Hawaii and the Burning Man festival in Nevada.  Eventually he was hired to be the Talent Buyer and Music Director for the legendary Chicago institution Smart Bar, where he served from 2009 until 2013.  His contributions there were plentiful and his work birthed a renaissance for the club.  He started Smartbar’s Sunday night party Queen! featuring residents Derrick Carter, Michael Serafini, Garrett David and the late Frankie Knuckles.  He established Smartbar's yearly Movement pre-party and BBQ at TV Lounge (Detroit), a longstanding tradition for many years.  He was instrumental in giving a helping hand to his at-the-time assistant and eventual successor there, Marea Stamper aka the Blessed Madonna.  He established long standing connections between the club and esteemed global entities such as Berghain/Ostgut and cemented Smartbar's reputation as a supporter of Chicago's Queer community.  And, he introduced an incredible amount of artists to Chicago for the first time including the entire Berghain/Panoramabar DJ roster, Aeroplane, Tensnake, Nicolas Jaar, Mala and Bicep among many others.

In 2014 Nate took a break from nightlife to relocate out to Oakland CA and enjoy some much needed rest.  2019 saw an energetic return to DJing as he enjoyed slots at clubs and institutions all over the Bay such as Public Works, F8, Dudes and Disco, Polyglamorous, Sutro FM, Fault Radio and many more.  The Pandemic led Nate to refocus his efforts and on May 7th, 2021- just one week shy of his 45th birthday- he released his debut artist album.

“Nate Manic- Self Titled”  ended up being an impressive effort, being fully composed, produced, performed and mixed by Nate himself.  It reached number two on Bandcamp’s House charts and number four on their Techno charts with a strong showing on their overall Electronic Best Seller’s list.  San Francisco publication Fault Radio declared that Nate “seems to have no trouble nonchalantly negotiating the introspective space and the dancefloor, while never sacrificing authenticity or fun in the process”.  Chicago’s 5 magazine applauded him for “mint[ing] an album in which it seems he’s done almost (or actually) everything”, and described “You Will Not Ruin Me” as one of the “marvelous highlights” of the album, with “more demonic ‘90s style android vocals and an acid line that is merciless.”

The lead single, "You Will Not Ruin Me", was remixed by the dream team of Bored Lord, Justin Cudmore, Lindsey Herbert and Mike Dearborn.  Two other tracks from the album, "Late For Work" and "It's Never Easy" received treatments by Canadian wunderkind Guillaume and the Coutu Dumonts and Chicago house legend Derrick Carter.  A limited edition run of 303 hand numbered records was quickly scooped up by Chicago distro house Groove Distribution. The record was also given a glowing review by international online publication Resident Advisor.

2023 provided more opportunities for him to push himself.  In March Nate was approached by local artist Maya Songbird to produce her ten song album, "Castro Kid"- a task that was given only three weeks to complete as the original producer pulled their instrumentals due to conflicts of interest.  With just the raw vocals and basic tempo/key info, Nate composed all ten tracks over the next eleven days, completing the album on time for the Women's Audio Mission of SF, who was sponsoring the project.  He was kept on to mix the album.  This has led to an Executive Producer role for the project.  He was able to source remixes from Chicago multimedia legend Ariel Zetina, Canadian super-producer Ciel, and the Bay Area's own incredibly talented Banned Practice and MahaWam.  The album will be released in the Summer of 2026 with the lead Single, "I Need A Lover" released prior to the official album.

On top of that, Nate was able to release a 2-track Acid EP titled "Acidic" in May of 2023.  The release featured artwork by Mexican/SF Queer artist Simón Malvaez and mixing/mastering by Chicago studio legend Ken Paul.

Currently Nate is working diligently in the studio to put out more lovely tunes for his adoring fans over the coming year.  He is also taking very select gigs in Chicago and across the West Coast.  As a DJ, Nate's sets are dynamic and filled with energy, never staying within the confines of one genre for too long.  His DJ talents have led him to share stages with everyone from New Order to Kehlani, and earn the respect of multiple generations of professionals and fans industry-wide.