Nate Ruess

=Nate Ruess=

Nathaniel Joseph "Nate" Ruess (born February 26, 1982) is an American indie/ indie rock singer-songwriter from Arizona. Ruess was the singer for The Format and is currently the lead vocalist of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fun_(band) Fun. ]

Early life
Ruess was born February 26, 1982 in Iowa City, Iowa. He is the younger of two children.

In 1986 his family moved to a farm in Glendale, Arizona, due to repeated bouts of pneumonia Ruess faced as a child. This is alluded to in fun.'s song "The Gambler" from their debut album, Aim and Ignite. Ruess remained in Arizona throughout his childhood.

His uncle, John Ruess, was a performer on Broadway.

Ruess attended Deer Valley High School and graduated in 2000. He joined punk bands in high school (Nevergonnascore, This Past Year) and upon graduation chose to pursue music. In an interview with American Songwriter Ruess states, "I'm not one to take lessons, so I decided that the only way I was going to learn how to sing, if what they were saying was true, was to go in my car and put on any sort of music from a vocalist that might be really hard to mimic, turn it on as loud as possible and try to hit all those notes". He took a job in a law firm as a way to support himself while he pursued his musical ambitions.

Circa 1998, Ruess was the vocalist for Nevergonnascore releasing an EP, The Byron Sessions. The band played regularly at the Nile Theater in Mesa, Arizona.

In 2001, at the age of 19, he launched the band The Format with his longtime best friend, Sam Means. The Format was his first musical endeavor to garner widespread attention.

2001–2008: The Format
After forming in 2001, The Format released a demo, titled EP, which generated local interest and led to the band being signed to Elektra Records in 2002. They released their first studio album, Interventions + Lullabies, on October 21, 2003, leading to more local mainstream success. The band's fanbase began to grow. The Format released their second EP, Snails, with Atlantic Records in April 2005. However, while working on their second album, Dog Problems, they were dropped from Atlantic. They eventually created their own label, The Vanity Label, and released the album on July 11, 2006. On February 4, 2008, Ruess announced through the band's blog that The Format would not be making another album. We have just put out word that we will not be making a new Format album. Please understand this was a tough decision and we're both upset about it. While we accept there will be false speculation as to why, understand that Sam and I remain extremely close and in fact are still passing the Twin Peaks box set back and forth in an attempt to figure out who REALLY killed Laura Palmer. We also want to thank everyone with and within the Format, particularly Mike, Don, and Marko, whom without, none of this would have ever even been fully realized. We both suggest you support their musical talents and whatever they decide to do. And lastly we want to thank the fans who made this the best 5 years of our lives.===2008–present: fun.=== Ruess performing with fun in 2010Immediately after the split of The Format, Ruess contacted Jack Antonoff of Steel Train and Andrew Dost, formerly of Anathallo, to form a new band called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fun_(band) fun. ] They released their first demo, "Benson Hedges", through Spin ' s September 20, 2008 article. Four months after releasing their first single, "At Least I'm Not as Sad (As I Used to Be)" through Myspace on April 6, 2009, fun. released their first studio album, entitled Aim and Ignite. Despite receiving generally positive reviews, the album was not a commercial success, peaking at 71 on the Billboard 200.

The band supported Jack's Mannequin on tour in both 2008 and 2010, and Paramore in 2010. On August 4, 2010, they announced that they had been signed to the Fueled by Ramen label.

On May 17, 2011, the band was featured on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic!_at_the_Disco Panic! at the Disco ]'s single "C'mon". They also opened for Panic! at the Disco during their 2011 Vices & Virtues Tour.

Their second album, Some Nights, was released on February 21, 2012 and featured production by Jeff Bhasker. The album's first single, "We Are Young", which features guest singer Janelle Monáe, was released September 20, 2011. The song was covered on Glee in December 2011 and featured on a Chevrolet commercial during the Super Bowl in February 2012, and reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on March 8, 2012. The album has become a big success throughout the world, selling hundreds of thousands of copies. The album's title song, "Some Nights", reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, and reached number 1 on the Alternative Songs chart. Ruess performing in Tucson in 2012.On June 10, 2012 they played at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee with an attendance over 80,000.

On July 9, 2012 they played at Scottish music festival T in the Park in Balado, Scotland. On August 4, 2012, fun. played in Chicago at Lollapalooza.

November 3, 2012 Fun performed "Carry On" and "Some Nights" on Saturday Night Live in New York City.

On February 10, 2013 Ruess, and the rest of the band, won a Grammy for their song "We Are Young." Ruess made the comment that "we are not very young." Fun. also won the Grammy for "Best New Artist."

Ruess features on the track "Only Love" on Anthony Green's second solo album, Beautiful Things.

Ruess is also featured on Pink's latest album, The Truth About Love, on the song Just Give Me a Reason.

He also co-wrote "Die Young", the lead single from Ke$ha's second album, Warrior.

Personal life
Ruess is currenly dating English singer, Ellie Goulding. He was dating Rachel Antonoff, the sister of fun.'s guitarist Jack Antonoff.