Working with Nate Mueller

Who is Nate Mueller?

Nathaniel “Nate” Mueller is a 22 year old Nashville-based drummer and content creator whose explosive chops, musical creativity, and undeniable stage presence have made him one of the fastest growing drummers in the game.

He moved to Nashville in January 2021 with nothing but an e-kit and a dream. That year, he grew to 100k followers. The next year: 1 million. He earned endorsements with Meinl Cymbals and BFSD, hit 100K on YouTube, and started landing gigs, sessions, and brand deals at age 19, less than 2 years after moving to Nashville. By 2023, he dropped out again—this time to pursue his music career full-time.

Now 22, Nate’s performed around the world with artists like Mike Shinoda, Sarah Cothran, Munn, Melina KB, Emblem3, and Lowsan Melgar. He proudly endorses Meinl Cymbals, Promark Drumsticks, Evans Drumheads, Big Fat Snare Drum, and Audimute. As he continues to tour, record, and collaborate, Nate is also focused on building a brand that educates and inspires the next generation of drummers.

What have I done?

I offered myself and my services to Nate, and since the start of 2025, I have been developing a new editing style, visual branding and scheduling for Nate's YouTube Channel. I have been in the YouTube game for a little over 4 years, starting up 2 main channels, an editing channel/gaming content channel, and another being a music focused, drum cover channel.

Through my time with these channels I have learnt a lot about the YouTube algorithm, and how this field works. I have also managed to spend thousands of hours inside of premiere pro editing my videos, as well as commissoned montages from members of the rocket league community. Reaching up to the largest freestyle YouTube channel, RLFX.

Example of Timeline

I create these YouTube videos by firstly creating a skeleton of the video, the blue footage. This is simply the master footage with cuts to hide stutters, and just parts of the footage that you don't want in the final export. I then go back and create graphics and text - the purple and pink. I then go back again for my third run through and add funny memes, and things of personal preference that I want to add, just final little touches. Then finally I do the SFX for the video

This usually contains the background music of the video, which in Mueller's case, his own backing tracks that he created after we had a meeting about a quick and easy way to make no copyright music. I then also add small SFX like little "Bings and Bongs" that makes the video a lot more engaging.

The Trade-offs: Quality and Effeciency

This is one of the main questions when it comes to video editing. How to create engaging videos without spending 50+ hours on a single video? This is what I have been trying to solve for years, however working with Mueller have allowed me to get one step closure to answering. And simply it is all about creating a much faster workflow, and cutting time wherever possible. Such as creating presets and constants in every video.

Create assets that can be used in every video that keeps with a consistant theme. Another big question is about the use of AI. Me personally am not fully against AI in some respects - such as transcription and subtitle generation, but as far as the main body of the video goes, I am hesitant. Such as auto-cutters, that cut out stutters and stammers. I am against these purely because it is reducing the human element of content creation in 2 ways at a time, getting rid of the human on one side of the camera's mistakes, as well as the one behind it.