Sunday Brunch 12: Guest Host Aaron of Essex with Nat Cole

<p>Guest host <strong>Aaron of Essex</strong> takes the Sunday Brunch wheel again and welcomes <strong>Nat Cole</strong> for a lively, music-first conversation about building a <strong>“new music economy”</strong> on a Bitcoin standard. Nat frames the idea carefully: not just another platform or “ecosystem,” but a permissionless economic layer where artists can participate without gatekeepers, own more of their rails, and connect more directly with listeners.</p> <p>From there, the episode opens into Nat’s origin story: a childhood split between <strong>music and computing</strong>, with a Jamaican sound-system lineage on one side, early internet tinkering on the other, and formative years spent around studios, sound engineering, youth projects, pirate-tech curiosity, and anti-establishment energy that made Bitcoin’s freedom ethos click hard once he finally understood it.</p> <p>A big center of gravity is <strong>2140 Music</strong>, Nat’s culture-maxi bridge between legacy music and Bitcoin rails. He describes it as part education hub, part events engine, part curation/bookings layer, built to help artists understand the tools, perform live, and find real opportunities in Bitcoin-adjacent spaces rather than just getting dumped into the deep ocean of Spotify-style discovery. The recurring theme is that the goal is not simply to preach “leave Spotify,” but to help artists <strong>add sovereign tools to their stack</strong> and gradually own more of their infrastructure.</p> <p>Along the way, Aaron and Nat spin a five-track set from the 2140 orbit, including music from <strong>Air Klipz, Andy Prince, G-O-L-D, Sites,</strong> and <strong>Acme</strong>, using each song as a doorway into the artists, the camp, and the wider mission. One highlight is <strong>“Buffalo Gals,”</strong> which Nat describes as the unofficial mascot track for 2140 Music, anchored by the refrain that they “came to change the game.”</p> <p>The closing stretch turns practical and forward-looking: Nat previews <strong>Bitcoin Graffiti Jam</strong> in Brixton/Stockwell, more intimate education/community events, and a continued push to build new bridges from the fiat music world into an uncapturable network where artists can actually own the relationship with their audience.</p> <p><strong>Links</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="https://2140art.com/">2140 Art</a></li> <li><a href="https://primal.net/p/nprofile1qqsg8nw7q26ts3lmxleyykel0gq54gelhamp6dh0sxnxdagup3zrd7gus2zt7">Nat on Nostr</a></li> <li><a href="https://bitcoinessex.co.uk/new-music-nudge-unit/">New Music Nudge Unit</a></li> <li><a href="https://primal.net/p/nprofile1qqsvgj4kam4n5rjatjxc46p2ltgw89aal0yjqrta3lp7u99xn60hgrq5w3sr2">Aaron on Nostr</a></li> </ul>