photo courtesy of Vaughn and Taylor - "
This morning I had the pleasure of listening to "handgun" by the very talented, complex, artful Jake Minch. The song is exquisitely stark and one of those kinds of songs that as it ebbs and flows, builds and deconstructs, you might hear things in your head like sparse piano, faint other guitars, and orchestrations that may or may not exist. For me, this 'happening' (for me anyway) is because the ambient sounds (drones of sound), percussion, the use of the most subtle texturing and Jake's use of self-harmonies are all perfect and sort of hypnotic. Like a crystal bauble swinging back and forth, the song puts you in a zone. A place where you lean forward to hear the story, the one Jake is expressing and the dozen's of stories from your own youth.
All this being said, I didn't like "handgun" after the first listen. Maybe because (at first listen) it felt like that kind of manipulative song that an American Idol would perform "my original song" and it would make Katy Perry make a pouty face and cry. The guitar shapes might (for this kind of song) feel done before, a bit derivative although I admit totally that this criticism could be me being grumpy or stressed this morning. I bring this up because after my slight disdain the pure storytelling started seeping past the cracks in my armor. AND the storytelling here is what this song is all about, brilliant in it's poetry and combination of youthful pain / angst / uncertainty.
Read what Jake shares about this track (and other things):
[Note: I am writing the handgun bio at 1:50am after a party and a week of acting so impulsively that I do not want to check my bank account or the liquor cabinet or my text messages. I think this is what “handgun” is about:
"The song takes place right before ‘doing music’ was on my mind. It lives in the morning, waking up after my first big party-weekend at a new school. My head hurt too much to move, so I skipped my Econ class to lay with my thoughts and a bottle of pedialyte. I thought about how much I wanted to not feel as dirty as I did, and I thought about how disappointed the people I wanted to love would be. Handgun is a song about bridging the gap between being a kid and being an adult and it is partially the act of jumping too far ahead, but it is more importantly the whiplash that comes with the guilt I felt about changing.
I wrote the song last April, with the intention of making a bad song, in an attempt to write music again after 2 videos grew my TikTok from 400 followers to 25 thousand in February. For so long, I was too scared to move. I wrote the song in an 8 minute stream-of-consciousness voice memo on my college dorm bed. A bed that had seen my first college hookup and my first night of drinking way too much and so many dab pen carts.
With this being said, the song, to me, is really fun. It’s written about the little things - like a journal entry folded into the front pocket of my backpack, an old uconn newsletter about Sandy Hook, and seeing the same kid with a shitty bleach-job in all 4 of my classes. Things that I thought about in my 3 hour bed-ridden purgatory, things I forgot that I had forgotten were such vital thinking points until I went to write the song and it all spilled out. I never wanted to put this song out, I wrote it and spent 2 weeks lip-syncing it in the communal shower because it was catchy and fun. This is really cool though-that it’s now coming out. Enjoy."
jake teamed up with fellow singer-songwriter Jeremy Zucker who produced the track and when jake initially teased the song online it racked up over 1.3 million views in addition to earning support from Noah Kahan, Lizzy McAlpine, Gracie Abrams, Fletcher, and many more. The track’s stark acoustic guitar complements his raw delivery. The song is a collection of stories & life contemplations from jake- from spilling White Claw on a crush, lightly strummed chords uplift a series of questions on the chorus, “Who gives a kid a handgun? Who gives a kid to a mom who doesn’t want one? Who let that kid fall in love?” It culminates with a cogent final word, “the worst part of growing up is learning how young you are.”
The lyric video focuses on a stationary shot of jake as he packs his bag to leave home before loading up the car to take off on a road trip. It just sets the stage for more music coming from jake minch very soon.]
All this being said, I didn't like "handgun" after the first listen. Maybe because (at first listen) it felt like that kind of manipulative song that an American Idol would perform "my original song" and it would make Katy Perry make a pouty face and cry. The guitar shapes might (for this kind of song) feel done before, a bit derivative although I admit totally that this criticism could be me being grumpy or stressed this morning. I bring this up because after my slight disdain the pure storytelling started seeping past the cracks in my armor. AND the storytelling here is what this song is all about, brilliant in it's poetry and combination of youthful pain / angst / uncertainty.
Read what Jake shares about this track (and other things):
[Note: I am writing the handgun bio at 1:50am after a party and a week of acting so impulsively that I do not want to check my bank account or the liquor cabinet or my text messages. I think this is what “handgun” is about:
"The song takes place right before ‘doing music’ was on my mind. It lives in the morning, waking up after my first big party-weekend at a new school. My head hurt too much to move, so I skipped my Econ class to lay with my thoughts and a bottle of pedialyte. I thought about how much I wanted to not feel as dirty as I did, and I thought about how disappointed the people I wanted to love would be. Handgun is a song about bridging the gap between being a kid and being an adult and it is partially the act of jumping too far ahead, but it is more importantly the whiplash that comes with the guilt I felt about changing.
I wrote the song last April, with the intention of making a bad song, in an attempt to write music again after 2 videos grew my TikTok from 400 followers to 25 thousand in February. For so long, I was too scared to move. I wrote the song in an 8 minute stream-of-consciousness voice memo on my college dorm bed. A bed that had seen my first college hookup and my first night of drinking way too much and so many dab pen carts.
With this being said, the song, to me, is really fun. It’s written about the little things - like a journal entry folded into the front pocket of my backpack, an old uconn newsletter about Sandy Hook, and seeing the same kid with a shitty bleach-job in all 4 of my classes. Things that I thought about in my 3 hour bed-ridden purgatory, things I forgot that I had forgotten were such vital thinking points until I went to write the song and it all spilled out. I never wanted to put this song out, I wrote it and spent 2 weeks lip-syncing it in the communal shower because it was catchy and fun. This is really cool though-that it’s now coming out. Enjoy."
jake teamed up with fellow singer-songwriter Jeremy Zucker who produced the track and when jake initially teased the song online it racked up over 1.3 million views in addition to earning support from Noah Kahan, Lizzy McAlpine, Gracie Abrams, Fletcher, and many more. The track’s stark acoustic guitar complements his raw delivery. The song is a collection of stories & life contemplations from jake- from spilling White Claw on a crush, lightly strummed chords uplift a series of questions on the chorus, “Who gives a kid a handgun? Who gives a kid to a mom who doesn’t want one? Who let that kid fall in love?” It culminates with a cogent final word, “the worst part of growing up is learning how young you are.”
The lyric video focuses on a stationary shot of jake as he packs his bag to leave home before loading up the car to take off on a road trip. It just sets the stage for more music coming from jake minch very soon.]
"handgun" is a sweet sing-a-long, a hug late at night and a stomach ache in the early morning. It feels like an appetizer for a novel or the prologue for one that you want to read, one that will have dog eared pages because you read it so often. Jake Minch might be too thoughtful, too empathetic, too fucked up for his own good but he is a hell of a songwriter.
-Robb Donker Curtius
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7Lfq2a2cpwQBdDzo7SW1HC
jake minch bio- by jake minch
"I am a loud spectator and an individualist.
Outside of music, I am scared of being corny and I am an anxious body. I used to like running and I spent a year waking up before the sun to run a 5k every day - and even though I don't do it anymore I like to bring it up because it was when I was most proud of myself and I want to do it again.
I like to hold doors open and pay for dinner, and my little sister tells me I have more friends than is normal, but I keep my close circle small, and have even them, at an arm's length.
I don’t have the attention span to read and every 2 months I start vaping again…and usually only quit when I am in a place where I don't know the places that won’t card me. I lie a lot, usually about the things in the last sentence…and also about my plans for future things…and sometimes I'll tell a story and fit a lie into it somewhere and I don't know why I do it, but I do. I often dig myself into these holes because of it and my closest friends are the people I can turn to when I am the bottom of one.
It's been a long time since I've been in a conversation and not felt like I was having a “fight or flight” response. I am performative.
I am most honest when I’m writing - it is the most me I can be around other people, and, with a possible correlation…I find myself hating everything I write within a few months of writing it (which will definitely make releasing music difficult).
I write at low points, and recently (unless it has spilled out of me), I've accumulated hours of voice memos of me mumbling with pretty guitar in the background. I like to make gentle music in contrast to my surroundings. I can tell when a song is gonna happen when I feel my heartbeat slow and I can focus; on a normal day my mind goes really fast and I am infamous among my family for losing my train of thought mid-sentence. When I was a kid and we were out in public, I would get distracted by something and leave whoever I was with and whatever I was doing to stare and walk towards it. My family would call that Jake's world. I find that I write my best music in Jake's world.
Growing up was hard. When I was three my dad passed, leaving my mom and 4 kids behind. My best friend Emily and I have speculated the story of my dad “falling down the stairs” since high school after learning that my family’s riddled with bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression, and ADD. It changed the way I see my issues. I am a hypochondriac, so there was a moment in time when I “knew” they would take me out. I don't want them to.
Anyways, we grew up poor in a wealthy town in Connecticut, and a red town in a blue state. Kind of pretty in a “there hasn’t been a new building since the 70’s” kind of way. That plus my single mom, 4 kids, and a minimum wage job resulted in a lot of running and screaming and guilt. I am quiet now, but I find myself carrying the running and guilt with me in a lot of my relationships with others. Speaking of relationships, I have never loved anyone as much as the guy I did at 17 years old, which makes love songs difficult. Most of my songs are about things mentioned prior."
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7Lfq2a2cpwQBdDzo7SW1HC
jake minch bio- by jake minch
"I am a loud spectator and an individualist.
Outside of music, I am scared of being corny and I am an anxious body. I used to like running and I spent a year waking up before the sun to run a 5k every day - and even though I don't do it anymore I like to bring it up because it was when I was most proud of myself and I want to do it again.
I like to hold doors open and pay for dinner, and my little sister tells me I have more friends than is normal, but I keep my close circle small, and have even them, at an arm's length.
I don’t have the attention span to read and every 2 months I start vaping again…and usually only quit when I am in a place where I don't know the places that won’t card me. I lie a lot, usually about the things in the last sentence…and also about my plans for future things…and sometimes I'll tell a story and fit a lie into it somewhere and I don't know why I do it, but I do. I often dig myself into these holes because of it and my closest friends are the people I can turn to when I am the bottom of one.
It's been a long time since I've been in a conversation and not felt like I was having a “fight or flight” response. I am performative.
I am most honest when I’m writing - it is the most me I can be around other people, and, with a possible correlation…I find myself hating everything I write within a few months of writing it (which will definitely make releasing music difficult).
I write at low points, and recently (unless it has spilled out of me), I've accumulated hours of voice memos of me mumbling with pretty guitar in the background. I like to make gentle music in contrast to my surroundings. I can tell when a song is gonna happen when I feel my heartbeat slow and I can focus; on a normal day my mind goes really fast and I am infamous among my family for losing my train of thought mid-sentence. When I was a kid and we were out in public, I would get distracted by something and leave whoever I was with and whatever I was doing to stare and walk towards it. My family would call that Jake's world. I find that I write my best music in Jake's world.
Growing up was hard. When I was three my dad passed, leaving my mom and 4 kids behind. My best friend Emily and I have speculated the story of my dad “falling down the stairs” since high school after learning that my family’s riddled with bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression, and ADD. It changed the way I see my issues. I am a hypochondriac, so there was a moment in time when I “knew” they would take me out. I don't want them to.
Anyways, we grew up poor in a wealthy town in Connecticut, and a red town in a blue state. Kind of pretty in a “there hasn’t been a new building since the 70’s” kind of way. That plus my single mom, 4 kids, and a minimum wage job resulted in a lot of running and screaming and guilt. I am quiet now, but I find myself carrying the running and guilt with me in a lot of my relationships with others. Speaking of relationships, I have never loved anyone as much as the guy I did at 17 years old, which makes love songs difficult. Most of my songs are about things mentioned prior."
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