Episode Transcript
Intro
Welcome back to Sharkbelly Nation. Last time we met Jackson Wetherbee, the voice and main songwriter of The Elovaters. Today we move to the person who helped start it all: drummer Nick Asta.
Drummers rarely get the spotlight in a band bio. But in this band's story, Nick is there at the very first chapter, and he's tied to the shark imagery that gave this show its name.
The First Conversation
Let's begin with how The Elovaters got going. The band formed in 2014 in the Boston and South Shore reggae scene, and Nick and Jackson were the two at the center of it.
The origin story gets told a couple of ways. In an interview with Top Shelf Music, Nick said he approached Jackson at a local show and asked if he wanted to start a reggae side project. Other accounts, including coverage in the Boston Globe, say the two met at a bar one night and decided to start an original band. The details shift a little between tellings, but the shape is the same. Two musicians connected in a local scene, and one of them said, let's make something.
According to those sources, the goal was original music. That's a big step in a scene where plenty of bands live on covers.
A Drummer in a Six-Piece Band
Today, Nick sits at the back of a six-piece lineup, according to the band's official site. Jackson Wetherbee is on lead vocals and rhythm guitar. John Alves plays lead guitar, Matt Link plays bass, Greg Nectow plays keys, and Derrick Cabral plays percussion. Nick is on drums.
In reggae and reggae rock, the drums and bass carry the groove, and everything else rides on top. With a percussionist alongside him, Nick works in a band built around rhythm. His name is also listed on the 2026 album Shark Belly Motel, the record this show is named after.
I'll be upfront about one thing. I couldn't find a reliable source on Nick's childhood, his hometown, or how he first picked up drumsticks. Rather than invent a story, I'll stick with what's documented.
Time for a track. Listen for how the rhythm section holds the song together.
Song break: "Boston" by The Elovaters
The Shark Story
Welcome back. If you've seen The Elovaters' merch or stage visuals, you've seen the sharks. And Nick is one of the people who has explained where that comes from.
In a 2023 interview with Rock Cellar Magazine, recorded at the Cali Vibes festival, Nick said the shark imagery grew out of a long-running love of sharks. The band uses it in its merch and its onstage identity. He also said the theme later carried over into an Austin Powers-inspired tour name.
That's a fun detail, because it shows how a band's identity gets built. It starts with an inside joke, an obsession, or a shared love of something, and over time fans adopt it as their own. Today, a fan community like this one is called Sharkbelly Nation.
Building Something That Lasts
In the same interview, Nick described drumming for the band as part of a bigger goal: making music that lasts within the reggae community.
You can see that in the band's path. They started in the Boston-area scene in 2014, and over the years they built a body of work that leads to Shark Belly Motel in 2026. The Boston Globe covered the band ahead of a show at MGM Music Hall in Boston, so these South Shore players have clearly found a bigger stage.
Through all of that, the person who asked Jackson to start a band is still behind the kit.
Song break: "Wrong Idea" by The Elovaters
When it's done, head back to the Sharkbelly Nation playlist for more.
Outro
Welcome back. For tour dates, merch, band news, the Label page, and our new band member pages — Jackson's page is coming — head to sharkbellynation.com, and join the Sharkbelly Nation newsletter while you're there.
That's Nick Asta. We covered how the band began, where he sits in the lineup, and the story behind the sharks. Next time, we'll move to lead guitarist John Alves. Thanks for listening to Sharkbelly Nation.