Catch an interview with Jake McMullen and head to his website for a download of his new single.
What got you interested in music?
Jake McMullen: Way back when, when I was only ten or so, I saw a really good friend of mine playing the guitar - I forget where - but I saw him play a show and I just kind of instantly knew music was for me. After that I bought a guitar and started learning stuff and I've always been a sports guy, I played baseball through college, but I knew that music was what I wanted to do.
Do you play all the guitar on the EP?
I play most of it and then a friend of ours from the band Civil Twilight, his name's Kevin Dailey, he plays the other guitar.
Are there any artists you look up, musically or otherwise, who inspired your sound?
Yeah, I was really into Springsteen and Dylan and then, lately, it's been a lot of The National and Ryan Adams.
How would you characterize your sound?
It's probably like that line between indie rock and the ambiguous Americana singer-songwriter stuff.
Is that the sort of sound that we can expect to hear on the forthcoming EP?
Yeah, I think so. There's going to be some stripped down stuff and we're trying to finish the rest of it and experiencing with some different stuff, but along that line, I think.
We'll open up another single probably at the top of the year, January or February, and the EP itself will probably be out in Spring some time.
What do you keep in mind while writing new songs?
I don't know. I always try to look for something that I can live in. For me, I'm making stuff that I wanna hear or stuff that means something to me because I think that if I'm not doing that then there's no point to it but, yeah, I guess just something that I can live in and really relate to.
Is there any lyric or song that's held a lot of meaning for you?
I don't think there's a specific line, but something that I've really been inspired by is Field Report's new record. His writing is absolutely phenomenal and I could pull several lines from there - I can't think of any off the top of my head - but their writing and their record is fantastic.
What do you hope people can take away from your music?
I think if they can relate to it or find something they can take away, something like 'oh my god this gets it'. If I can live in it then hopefully they can live in it with me or just knowing that somebody sort of gets it. We all keep these things in and we're not all just doing 'okay' all the time, I think that when people say they're doing okay they're just brushing it off but, with my music, I was trying to pull out what I was thinking and that way other people can realize like, hey, it's okay to feel these things, like, not everybody is always doing okay. So, just something that they can sort of take away from that, that there's some sort of honesty.
Anything you want to say to your fans?
Of course, thank you. I'm kind of overwhelmed by the response; I get texts or emails from people saying that it's really beautiful and they enjoy it and that really means a lot, when it's something that means a great deal to me that's being received well by others.