Unexpected life events inspire revival of Archertown

Kyle and Natalie Archer moved home to Whitefish nearly seven years ago to heal and to take time away from the crazy music world they were living in — they did not expect to be performing together again as Archertown.

But after many years of healing and recovery for Natalie, who is a leukemia survivor, and a miraculous change of events, the Archers along with their friend John Kay were inspired to revive the band in 2019. This summer Archertown has had a full lineup of performances, including a Friday-night show on the big stage at the Under the Big Sky Festival in July. The band has quickly gained popularity in the Flathead Valley and was recently voted as the second-best band in the 2021 Best of Whitefish contest.

Kyle grew up in Whitefish, playing in open mic nights at the Great Northern Bar while still in high school. He moved to southern California after graduation to attend college and pursue his passion for music. While performing in the music scene in California, he received an opportunity over spring break one year to attend a songwriters circle in New York City.

Natalie hails from the East Coast, growing up around New York and Connecticut. She has been singing and acting since she was a young girl and starred on the FX hit television series “Rescue Me” for seven years. She was working in New York in the mid-2000s and on her way to a meeting with a music producer ended up in an elevator with Kyle.

The chance meeting was the beginning of a love story between the two and a wild ride through life as they knew it.

“The first day we met we were kind of like, OK I probably will never see you again,” Kyle recalled.

But that wasn’t the case. At the music producers that day, they listened to each other’s music and that led to them performing together at The Bitter End nightclub in New York City. Following that show, Kyle and Natalie were signed to a production deal as a duo after their chemistry together shined on stage.

Kyle moved to New York shortly after to be with Natalie and make music together. Later they moved back to southern California for Kyle to finish his degree while they pursued their music and acting dreams even further. Eventually, they were signed to a publishing contract as a songwriter duo and had the opportunity to move to the music mecca of Nashville, Tennessee.

“We spent a couple of years in Nashville and met a bunch of really cool songwriters and artists, and it was our longtime goal,” Natalie said. “We just wrote songs every day, all day. It was so fun, such a cool experience.”

Natalie and Kyle were living in Nashville for a few years working full-time as songwriters. During that time they were married and the wedding took place here in Kyle’s hometown.

The couple says while riding that high point of life, living the dream they had always wanted, they were hit with devastating news. At just 24 years old, Natalie was diagnosed with leukemia.

With a life-altering change like that, both felt they needed to step away from music and the hustle of the city for awhile. Natalie received treatment in a hospital in Nashville for about six months and then the couple decided to move to Whitefish, a place that felt like home for both where they would be surrounded by support from family. Discovering her illness changed the projection of their life in an instant.

“We came here and our idea was that we just need to heal and we need to take a break from everything; it’s an exhausting kind of grind for sure, but it’s something that has been a part of both of us for literally our entire lives,” Natalie said. “We were not inspired at all to write music, to play music — it was really something we needed, to take a breather.”

Following Natalie’s chemotherapy and treatments for her cancer, the couple faced many unknowns. Natalie and Kyle didn’t know if they would ever feel like creating music again; they wondered if her cancer could come back and the doctors said she would probably never be able to get pregnant after the treatments she received.

Four years went by as Kyle worked at his family’s excavating business and Natalie became passionate about nutrition and holistic health which led the way in her recovery journey. When the couple finally decided to try for a baby, Natalie says that despite what the doctors told them she felt deep down inside herself that it would work out.

Astonishingly after trying for over a year, Natalie became pregnant with a baby boy. Leading up to their son Bode’s birth, a flood of inspiration filled the Archers’ hearts and they picked up the guitar and sang together once again.

“I think it was such an inspiring thing because it was something we were told that could probably never happen for us,” Natalie said. “So I think finding out that news really gave us kind of a direction like this was all meant to be and it was going to be OK.”

Kyle says after Bode was born, it was a powerful feeling to have that responsibility of someone fully depending on him and that gave him a renewed purpose to live life to its fullest.

“I thought, part of that responsibility is showing him (Bode) it’s important to do something that you love,” Kyle said, “That was really inspiring.”

Natalie and Kyle realized after they started creating music together again that they certainly had a lot to say. Those thoughts and feelings bottled up for years poured out into their music and the couple says they have a series of songs from that time period that they don’t perform but are just for them.

“You go through something so big in your life, and you want to express it and write about it or whatever your outlet maybe, but we didn’t do that,” Natalie recalled. “So I think once we did it was like, oh my gosh we never wrote about any of these things.”

After the Archers started playing together again, their friend John Kay joined them as they revived their band Archertown. Kay, Kyle’s roommate from college and the couple’s good friend, had moved to Whitefish just a couple of years after the Archers moved back. Kyle and Natalie say when Kay started playing with them it motivated them to get back to performing as Archertown, this time as a trio.

“He’s always been our friend that has supported everything we’ve done; he literally has every single song we’ve ever written,” Natalie says.

Now Natalie and Kyle say they feel blessed to be back to playing music and performing while having the opportunity to raise their family in Whitefish.

Archertown performed at Under the Big Sky Festival in its inaugural year as well as the recent show in July. They also opened for Midland last fall and play public and private events at venues throughout the valley.

Their tagline, Making Music on Mountain Time, perfectly describes their relaxed approach to the future of Archertown. Kyle and Natalie say they would love to be writing music full-time again but are also enjoying every moment of being on stage.

“We would be so open and love to do any of it,” Natalie says about pursuing music further. “It would be super fun to be playing more.”

Archertown is looking forward to recording, putting out more of their music on streaming services and booking more gigs.

Having music back in their lives is proving to be a blessing, but Kyle and Natalie also have much more to live for now than music. The couple is soaking up moments with Bode while awaiting the November arrival of another baby, and are always striving to find the balance of both worlds while leading by example for their children.

“A big purpose why we’re playing now is to show Bode that it’s important to do something that makes you happy,” Kyle says.

For more information visit archertownmusic.com.