Q&A: At All Things Go DC, Jake Minch Looks Back at ‘George’
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY SHEVON GREENE ☆
ALTHOUGH SINGER-SONGWRITER JAKE MINCH MIGHT’VE OUTGROWN—some of his songs from his debut album George, the songs stay exactly where he’s left them as they continue to resonate with his listeners.
Minch has spent more than a year learning what that’s like. George captured a messy stretch of growing up, leaving home and looking back at choices he wasn’t necessarily proud of. Now, after sitting with those songs long enough to see how they come to life, his relationship with them has changed in numerous ways.
On the other hand, some tracks he’s instead grown into. “For Leaving,” for example, once felt so uncomfortably honest that he couldn’t imagine playing it live. But with enough distance, he’s found a sense of empathy for the person who originally wrote it.
That shift comes at the perfect time. At All Things Go DC, even hearing his own voice and drums booming across Merriweather Post Pavilion felt unfamiliar. This fall, his own tour continues and next spring he’s going from rooms to European arenas supporting Gracie Abrams.
Luna caught up with Minch after his set at All Things Go to talk about meeting his songs from another side, figuring out how his headline tour set will translate in massive European arenas and how his fans have connected with his music. Read below for more.
LUNA: Your performance at All Things Go was great! How are you feeling after and what was it like bringing the songs into a festival environment? Anything that you’re still taking in?
MINCH: It was cool. I don’t think anything could have prepared me for hearing my voice at that volume and hearing drums that loud behind it. I don’t even know if there’s anything to take in. I’ve got a buddy named Michael who’s just like, “That was really cool,” and then it’s over. So maybe I will, but I think my mom does enough. She can do that for me (laughs).
LUNA: It’s been over a year since George came out, and you’ve spent a lot of time performing the songs and taking them in. Has your relationship with the album changed at all compared to when you first released it? Are you feeling any differently about it now that some time has passed?
MINCH: It was a really cool feeling to see my favorite song grow legs of its own in a way that the songs that I was told were good didn’t, and that made me feel cool. I think I did a good job of objectively having an idea for a song and making the song a living thing. There are no songs that I think are bad, but there are songs that I’ve outgrown.
And in the same way that there are songs that I’ve outgrown, there are songs that I’ve grown into. With “For Leaving,” when that was coming out, I was like, “I’m never fucking playing that. That is the worst thing I’ve ever done.” Imagine going on a date and that person knows that you’ve done that to somebody. Mortified (laughs).
LUNA: I get that. But that’s also the vulnerability of songwriting in general. It’s like, “I’m putting myself out there.”
MINCH: Yeah, definitely. But to get real empathy for that guy was cool. It was really special.
LUNA: You’re going on tour this fall, and then next year you’re opening for Gracie Abrams, which is so cool. Is there anything that you’re excited or nervous to learn about, both from the headline tour versus playing in bigger rooms?
MINCH: Honestly, right now I’m just really grateful with how scary today was and how I would have gone about it every day before today. But the people that were there with me were without the sacrifice of not taking the music seriously. So I’m excited to keep grinding, being like, “Let’s find a way to practice what it’ll sound like when the drums make it sound like a giant is clomping around upstairs” and get really into it. My buddy Liam and I have been through a lot together, and to get to share something of this scale has been really special. In my mind, I’m like, “Oh my god, me and the boys are going to Europe” instead of “I’m going to Europe.”
LUNA: As you start thinking about whatever else comes after George, do you feel yourself wanting to keep writing closely to your life and having that more intimate kind of songwriting? Or are you interested in pushing outside of that a little more or exploring different ways of songwriting?
MINCH: I have been writing a lot on Substack and that has been good for me to get my “this is really personal” fix out. There’s a song I wrote called “In His Own Way” that is a really personal song, but it’s not a “woe is me” song. It’s a weird way that I was able to understand the importance of community. And that’s been a big thing.
When I was making my first album, it made me aware that songwriting isn’t normally that personal. I don’t think I got it until I was working with this producer, Sam Westhoff, and we were talking about that. Because of that, we were able to be super curious about it. And then when he finally understood “In His Own Way,” he got properly excited, and that was a really great feeling. And also, I just think the song sounds incredible, and it doesn’t need a guitar that’s 500 years old. It can just be a good song.
LUNA: Has there ever been a fan’s reaction or interpretation of one of your songs that has surprised you or made you think differently about it?
MINCH: I try to steer clear of that, but it does remind me that on Grace Enger’s tour, I was singing, “Four years and you’re still not over it / For something that was shorter than a cigarette,” and a girl was in the crowd and she held out two fingers—her thumb and her pointer finger—and made it shrink. We both saw each other, and it was hysterical. So every time I sing that, I think of that moment.
