No Good
April 23rd, 2021
After a nearly 3 year hiatus from his solo music, Jake returned with a fully produced single, “No Good”. With roaring guitars, impactful drums, and smoothly blended vocals. From the first listen it’s clear just how far production quality had improved over 2016’s “17th Street”. The former having a much tighter music arrangement and mix then the latter.
Lyrically, the song is a simple tune inspired by the relationship of two of Jake’s friends, however the choice in words and rhyme scheme shows a maturity to the songwriting. A maturity hinted at in 2018’s “Angels”, but now fully realized.
Angels
June 22nd, 2018
Released nearly two years after 17th Street in the summer of 2018, Angels was a small EP meant as a follow up to the album. Lyrically the songs all deal with the same issues and themes, but with a softer acoustic sound. At the time, I was playing a lot of open mics and a couple smaller acoustic gigs and had incorporated a much tighter and quieter sound because of this.
Though not as successful as 17th Street, I feel Angels brought a slightly more mature compositional style and sound to my music and gave some clues as to where I was headed sonically.
17th Street
August 17th, 2016
17th Street was released as Jake’s first solo project in the summer of 2016. Fully self produced and recorded, the album is a fantastic snapshot of his technical and songwriting skills at the time.
Coming just one year after Jake graduated from high school, the project explores the feelings of being unable to afford college, the eerie tone of a town with half his friends missing, the thoughts of lost love interests, and having to find oneself.
Featuring many local musicians and Jake’s closest friends, 17th Street is a small project that manages to wrangle many styles and sounds into one package.