Born one of the seven children of Thomas and Gwendolyn East on December 8, 1955, in Philadelphia, PA, Nathan East and his family moved to San Diego, CA, when he was four years old to accommodate his father's aerodynamic engineering job. As a child, East would peck out familiar melodies on the family piano. He began playing the cello in the junior high school orchestra when he was in the seventh grade. When East was 14, he switched to bass guitar, inspired by his older brother David's mastery of the instrument. He began playing for local church groups and folk masses with his brothers.