Q&A: Jake Minch is Enveloped in Gratitude After Release of Debut Album, ‘George’
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY FAITH LUEVANOS ☆
Photo By Adali Schell
WEAVING VULNERABILITY WITH GENTLE, INDIE FOLK BALLADS – singer/songwriter Jake Minch is taking his debut album, George, out on the road. The 22 year-old artist has been on the rise as of late, known for his effortless kindness and sheer talent as he makes his mark on the indie music scene.
His debut album comes from a place of personal reflection about his experience of leaving home, and the person he was that he doesn’t even recognize anymore. There’s something very special here in Minch, and George is a testament to that. His unfiltered honesty, paired with an acoustic guitar, opens up a space for others to resonate with the album on their healing journeys.
The Luna Collective sat down to chat with Minch in the midst of his tour to discuss his Los Angeles shows, his creative process, George, and more. Read the full interview below.
Photo By Adali Schell
LUNA: You recently played a couple of shows in LA. What were those experiences like for you?
MINCH: It's been really cool. There really is no feeling like it. I’ve played a lot of this before, opening for people just me and a guitar, but the privilege of getting to play with the band has been super nice. I think I learned a lot about myself and my individuality. I do struggle with pride and ego, but every night, having to lean on people is humbling in a really great way. I'm grateful that I'm not paying attention to how the rooms are doing or how the songs are streaming. Getting to share these songs with people twice, getting to walk around and look out at everyone, and make eye contact and see who I've seen before is really nice.
LUNA: Now that you’ve enjoyed your experience playing with a band, do you think that’s the direction you’re moving toward from now on?
MINCH: Honestly, I think I'm going to have fun keeping people on their toes. I've got this buddy named Isaac, who's one of the greatest guitar players ever, and it'd be really fun to do a bunch of B locations in a caravan, keep it super lowkey. That'd be fun.
I have this daydream of doing a jazz covers EP. I definitely think that I will do the Phoebe Bridgers thing, where it's like an album every time I really have something to say, and then spend time making music with friends to fill the gaps. I feel like I have a really hard time making art when it doesn't feel sacred. So post-tour, I'm going to need a real cool down. I'm not going to be able to write a song on tour that means a lot to me, because it's going to come from a little place of pride.
LUNA: Your new album, George, explores your personal experience of leaving home and the difficult feelings that can come with that. Can we dive deeper into that concept together?
MINCH: This album takes place in the two years that I lived in Los Angeles. I had basically gotten everything I ever wanted, but in my head, it was all of the money I needed, but none of the resources to enjoy what was happening. I kind of thought that I was the only person in the world who this had happened to, and I was the reincarnation of Elliott Smith. My entitlement had kind of grabbed me by the bootstraps. It's really an ugly album. It’s me announcing my failures and putting it out there. It was definitely scary, but it's fun to see people resonate with it in a way that is healthy and not glorifying it.
LUNA: Once the album was released, did it bring a sense of closure for you?
MINCH: It was so beautiful to get to look back, because by now it's been less than a year, but it was nice to stop and look back and be like, “He is a different person than I am, and he was hurting, but he isn’t hurting anyone anymore.” It was nice to look at him with the same eyes that it felt like everyone else got to look at him with. Putting out the album took forever, though.
LUNA: Was that due to the vulnerability of the album or other factors?
MINCH: I think it was merely how long it takes to make an album, how treacherous the road is, and how quickly I am to be like, “I don't want to f*cking do it anymore.” There were songs that I was super passionate about, and Tony [Berg] was like, “Not this record.” I was like, “Ah, f*ck this. Five more miles to the trip.” And then we finished recording in January, and nobody tells you how long it takes to mix and how delicate that process is, and how sometimes a weird mix will take a vulnerable song and make it so bad that you don't even want to look at it anymore. The process of mixing the album really almost finished the job for me and my mental health. I was living at home with my mom, and I had quit nicotine, so I was listening to these songs about my mental health struggles, and then I was going through genuine withdrawal. I was a monster. And then, whatever was happening in the White House had begun happening, and it truly felt like the darkest period I had ever entered.
LUNA: So now that it’s out, I’m sure you feel like a massive weight has been lifted.
MINCH: You should have seen me on the night it came out. I was just like, “I'm done, I'm done, I'm done. Music is over. “Put something in front of me that I could absolutely destroy.” I think I ate like a whole tub of ice cream and half of a cake. I was just so over the night, but then the next day, I woke up and I went on a 12-mile run, and I was like, “Oh my god, none of it matters.” [laughs]
LUNA: While you’re writing and creating, do you feel like you need to be in a specific setting to do so?
MINCH: Honestly, it's kind of all over the place. For a while, I definitely had to be in the comfort of my own room, and if I knew that anyone was listening, I wasn't going to be able to write a song. Now I'm exploring more. I've written songs on planes, not singing them out loud [laughs], but that's fun.
Post Grace [Enger] tour, I spent some time literally and metaphorically learning to sleep with the door open, and because of that, I got to hear my own voice in a room shamelessly. My pursuit of trying to learn how to be funny and live with less shame has been really cool. We did these songwriter nights in Brooklyn, and so I’d go and bring a couple of songs, and I'd hear myself singing them out loud, and I'd be like, “Oh, I don't think that verse survived the room.” So now these songs take a lot longer, but it's definitely reformatting and reshaping.
LUNA: Who are some artists that you’d like to collaborate with on future projects?
MINCH: My Mount Rushmore of collabs would be Phoebe Bridgers, The National, Samia, and Christian Lee Hutson. I don't think MJ Lenderman and I could make anything of substance, but I would love to sit in the room with him and see what would happen. I think those are my peeps. Oh, and Advance Bass.
LUNA: When you need to take a break from music, what do you like to do to reset?
MINCH: I am going to take some time to hang out with visual art. I just read Just Kids by Patti Smith. It's so good. I am super into drawing and sketching, and keeping it light, but I do want to take some time just to see what would happen if I did this in the way that I've always wanted to, so that would be fun. I'm really into running, although I started doing it in a not-cool way, but I have a dream of doing a marathon and getting to brag about that [laughs].
LUNA: What’s coming up next for you?
MINCH: Well, I'm always dabbling. I have an idea now, where if anyone says anything that's kind of fun, I'll write it down. I’m going to share some of them [laughs]. So, we have “Mars Wyoming.” We have “Money back guaranteed if you don't have fun.” “There's no good synonym for wish.” And, “Don’t call a sound guy a sound guy if you want your music to sound good.”
I hope they work their way into songs. I just kind of peek at them every time I'm on a plane, and then see how many of them I can string together. Every time I have no service, that's my new favorite thing. I used to play Block Blast, and I’d listen to old voice memos for melodies. I’m going to spend some time gathering new stuff to write about.
LUNA: Any final messages for fans?
MINCH: It's corny, but thank you a lot. It is so cool to get to do this. I really am learning so much. If there's one consistent feeling I have all the time at this point, it is gratitude. That is not the feeling that I thought I would be having all the time, so it's pretty cool.
