A CONVERSATION WITH: JAKE LOVE

JAKE LOVE IS RE-INTRODUCING HIMSELF WITH HIS ECLECTIC NEW INDIE-POP SINGLE “SOMEONE, ANYONE”, PACKED WITH PLAYFUL HOOKS, WEAVING IN ELEMENTS OF HIP HOP AND HIS OWN JASON DERULO-ESQUE ARTIST TAG. WRITTEN AND PRODUCED WITH MATTHEW YOUNG, HE CHATS TO US ABOUT THE TRACK BEING AN INTROSPECTIVE WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE AND MORE.

We’d love to know about your musical journey so far from when you first started singing and making music! 

I guess I first got into music in intermediate school playing drums which was my first instrument. I remember I really wanted a drum kit and I got a guitar for Christmas (laughs) so I started guitar lessons but at school they had drum kits so I got into drumming. I grew up in church circles, and with that I was learning a bit of everything. Then I fell back in love with the guitar when I got into songwriting, and now guitar is my main songwriting device - I write about 90% of my songs on guitar. 

Eventually I got involved with two quite separate things at once - I had a fun garage/punk band that I played in while I was also making this Mac DeMarco-y indie pop guitar stuff (laughs) and really that’s always continued to be my two worlds that I love. High production, intense kinda Prince-y guitar pop and grungy punk rock music (laughs). 

So dope! We’re loving your latest track “Someone, Anyone”! Can you tell us about the meaning of this track and the inspiration behind it?

Like a lot of great pop songs, a melody that I came up with in the shower (laughs) is the main riff that kinda stuck with me. Then I figured out how to work that into an idea which is a situation of looking for love and coming to terms with it. It doesn’t have to be this perfect dream fairytale love scenario, sometimes it ends up being the first person and it ends up being the best person just because you were looking for something and something was there.

It’s also about the places where that can happen. It’s a letter to my former self who, I’m not really in that same place now, but at one time in my life I was feeling lost and a bit confused with stuff. It was going to places where you wouldn’t necessarily go because you’re just trying to put yourself out there and feel loved I guess. It’s telling my younger self “you’re doing the right things - it’s about putting yourself out there and being okay with that”.

That’s definitely something I think a lot of people can relate to! What was the writing & production process like for this track?

My usual production status quo is that I’ll come up with some kind of demo whether it’s just a beat with some melodic ideas or if it’s more of a fully formed track. Then I’ll produce my home demo crappy version at my house (laughs) and then take it to the studio where I work with Matthew Young. He’s a great friend of mine - I’ve known him for like 6 years now and we love working together on stuff because we have a lot of similar, more niche influences that we have in common. What ends up happening is he kind of acts as a mentor almost to help me work the track from there, some of them get re-written, some of them just get adjusted a little bit.

For this one, he helped me rework the verses in particular, so we ended up scrapping the verses and writing the verses together which is really fun because I love writing with him. Then the chorus just got slightly adjusted but it was the cornerstone that this whole song hinged on. After that, it just became a case of refining the beat. At first I thought it was maybe a bit too hip-hop for my taste but I grew to love it. We were also trying to tweak the guitar in the post-chorus to get it just right which was almost right on the edge of nu metal as a sound (laughs).

I respect artists so much that have a singular vision that they have to execute it exactly how they want, but I’m so much more of a collaboration guy. I love listening to other people’s ideas and what input they have.

Awesome! Do you have more music on the way soon? If so, what can we expect from it?

It’s been a long process working on these songs - a lot of songs I started working on just before the first lockdown and became very hard to find the time to get into the studio and working on them. Also I struggled motivating myself during the lockdown, it was very easy to fall into the trap of “what’s the point, I can’t do anything with the songs” at the time. I know for some people it was a great creative boom, and for me I almost switched off with the music stuff. It was just a case of “I’ll get back to it after I’m done dealing with a global pandemic” (laughs). All the time in the world but none of the inspiration.

It’s only in 2021 that I’ve been working on what this new body of work is gonna become. I’ll be incorporating some similar ideas from my last EP and some new ideas, some pop ideas, and then pulling from other influences that I’ve been falling in love with again or finding again.

The very next song to come out is a track I’ve been working with Lévyne on and another buddy of mine Harry Charles who’s a producer. I love the way Lévyne writes songs and the way they work together as a team, and I just wanted to make something with them. I’m super excited about that one as well.

We can’t wait to hear all your new music! Who would you say are your biggest inspirations in music?

Generally speaking, I was one of the thousands of teenagers who discovered Mac DeMarco at the exact right time of life. So many people did in the guitar pop boom of 2017 or whatever (laughs). I love Mac DeMarco for the sounds he brings to things, and I really love his songwriting - that sort of crooning, love song thing that’s sort of about heartaches. David Bowie is also a big inspiration.

It’s gonna sound like a practised answer (laughs) but I love music that my friends do. I think part of the reason is because while there’s all these massive artists out there who do incredibly inspirational stuff and you can read articles, I love talking to people about the music they make and why they make it and cool choices and just getting to celebrate with them when they see success for something. In both the band community and pop community circles, everyone wants to see everyone else succeed and everyone wants to big ups each other. I’m real here for it.

Who are some of your favourite NZ artists right now and are there any songs in particular that you especially love & connect with?

Lévyne is obviously one of my faves - I think her songwriting is amazing. Matthew Young is incredible as well - I’ve worked really closely with him for ages and love every single song he puts out. There’s a Wellington artist Belladonna who I really love - she has really cool songs, especially her intimate personal songs. I’m close friends with the team from Daffodils - I like the way they worked in a world that was already existing but carved out their own real distinct sound niche that they work in. When you hear a song of theirs, you 100% know straight away it’s Daffodils. I used to live with Shannon Matthew Vanya - I learnt heaps about making music from him and MERK who he works with. Juno Is in Dunedin. There’s so many, I could go on forever! I have a lot of love for NZ music and NZ artists.

Such a great list! What do you love most about living in New Zealand? Do you have any favourite places to travel to or local spots to visit? 

I’ve always loved Bethells Lake (Lake Wainamu) as a summer spot - we always used to make our own slip-and-slides with boogie boards on the sand dunes and built ramps and stuff like that which was always really fun.

In greater New Zealand, I love visiting Wellington. I really love exploring new cities and urban areas, and Wellington feels cool because it’s a slightly different culture and I’ve got a lot of friends there as well that I love catching up with so I always enjoy going to Wellington. A lot of cool venues and a lot of cool ways for artists to get their start there.

I’ll give you a really niche tourist attraction to go to which was awesome - the Katikati Bird Gardens near Tauranga is this random cafe that sells you bags of bird seed and you walk these gardens and there are hundreds of birds that will come land on you and you feed them. I highly recommend it, it was great. That’s a niche spot for ya (laughs).

Wow amazing, I’ll definitely put that on my to-do list when I’m ever down there! What are some of the biggest lessons you’ve learnt as an artist so far?

One of the biggest things that I try to do, that I sometimes struggle with because it can be a hard thing to do, is being very deliberate with stuff that I do. I think there’s a real power in being really confident in yourself. Even when you’ve found the best idea or best way of doing things, it’s then picking that idea and working with that the best you can, as opposed to trying to make all your different ideas work together.

When I was younger with bands, it felt like everyone would bring their own different influences and we’d try and do all of the genres of music at once which don’t make any sense together. I had a lot of fun but now with any new music project that I start, I always think “what do I want this sonic idea to sound like” and look to make everything deliberate and cohesive first and then work from there. It’s worth having goals sonically, goals for gig and festivals, promotional goals and deliberately work towards them. I try to bring that to my live shows as well so it doesn’t feel like a band’s wandered on and off stage but more of a curated experience you will remember.

Some great advice! Lastly, if you could say one thing to every person in the world, what would it be?

I’m gonna go with people are people. I guess what I mean by that is it’s very easy to experience each day in your world with your things and your responsibilities and whatever you have to do, but it’s easy to forget everyone else has got shit going on too. Everyone is experiencing life just like you are and sometimes it’s worth looking at everyone else as a person.

THANKS SO MUCH JAKE! MAKE SURE TO KEEP UP WITH HIM ON INSTAGRAM, FACEBOOK, SPOTIFY OR APPLE MUSIC.