Nate Mendel spent his pre-teen years listening to New Wave while traveling to BMX races throughout Eastern Washington. Bicycles gave way to skateboarding just as an encounter with the Black Flag album “Damaged” led to a decade-long immersion in the hardcore scene. Nate picked up bass guitar and soon formed the band Diddly Squat with a group of friends. Having nowhere to play, he began putting on shows for the band in their hometown of Tri-Cities. As the band and the scene grew, Mendel brought in national touring bands, and booked tours for his own band throughout the states.

Diddly Squat disbanded in 1989, and Mendel moved to Seattle to study journalism at the University of Washington and to join Christ on a Crutch, which was relocating to Seattle from Washington DC. Prior to his new bandmates’ arrival he filled in as bass player for the pivotal straight-edge band Brotherhood, and played on their LP “’Till Death.”
In Seattle Mendel continued to book hardcore shows and tours for Christ on A Crutch, though his musical influences were developing, and he found an outlet in the formation of Sunny Day Real Estate in 1992. After releasing two albums on Sub Pop records SDRE disbanded, but not before Nate met Dave Grohl at one of their final shows, who had just finished recording Foo Fighters fist album and was looking to form a band.
In 1995 Mendel joined Foo Fighters and almost immediately set out on tour with the band, which just finished celebrating its 20-year anniversary.
Last year Mendel put the bass aside to play guitar and perform lead vocals on his first solo album, released under the name “Lieutenant.”