Haines was born in 1972 in Takapuna on Auckland"s North Shore. His father, Kevin was one of New Zealand"s leading jazz bassists and with his guitarist brother Joel, they were playing International Jazz Festivals by the time they were in their early teens.
Haines played gigs with Joel across New Zealand, before moving to New York in 1991 to study jazz music He returned in 1994 and recorded and released his first solo record Shift Left, also released in the United Kingdom on the Verve Records label. In 1995 he moved to London.
His first release was a co-written 12 inch single on Metalheadz with drum and bass producer Jason Cambridge (DJ name A-Sides) in 1997.
The pair had several follow-up singles. In 2000 his first United Kingdom based solo record Sound Travels produced by Philosophy Asher was released on the now defunct United Kingdom label Chillifunk Records, and in 2003 the follow-up Squire Foreign Hire was released featuring Marlena Shaw, Damon Albarn, Vanessa Freeman, Rich Medina, keyboardists Kaidi Thatham, Mike Patto, Mark de Clive Lowe, and many others, and was certified Gold for album sales in New Zealand.
Both albums featured Nathan singing self penned jazz ballads including the popular Impossible Beauty featured on Sound Travels. New Zealand based albums since 2005 have included Life Time recorded with the 100 piece New Zealand Symphony Orchestra with arrangements by ex-pat United States based Alan Broadbent, Right Now produced with Chris Cox and released in the United Kingdom on Freestyle Records and featuring vocalists Marlena Shaw and Ty, and Heaven and Earth.
Both albums were released on limited edition vinyl.
lieutenant was released in New Zealand in November 2014 on both Civil Defense, download and vinyl formats and features vocalists Vanessa Freeman, Kevin Mark Trail with Mike and Nathan on recording and production duties with drum programming from 4 Hero producer Marc Mac.
