Nathan Gregor Mendel was born on December 2, 1968. His first instrument was the violin and enjoys reading and snowboarding. Besides being the bass player for Foo Fighters, he also plays with Sunny Day Real Estate, along with ex-Foo William Goldsmith (drums). Nate is the strong but silent one in the Foos (every band has one), and is one of the original members, the other being Dave. Dave has said that Nate is great at thinking up a bass line to correspond with what he wrote. He prefers the Fender (the choice of all the members of the band) American Standard Precision Bass.