The Gaylord alt-rock artist and looping wizard plays SpeakEZ Lounge in Grand Rapids for the first time on Wednesday, set to showcase virtuosic talent that’s impressed audiences across the globe.
From NIN to a Video Game Soundtrack: Some of Jake Allen’s musical inspirations. (Courtesy Photo)
EDITOR’S NOTE: All musicians can trace their inspiration to key recordings that influenced their careers. Local Spins today showcases music that changed the world for northern Michigan’s Jake Allen. Scroll down for a Spotify playlist of his picks, including a couple of his own tracks, along with a music video of his song, “If You Fall Apart.” Allen makes his SpeakEZ Lounge debut in Grand Rapids at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Details here.
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Jake Allen grew up surrounded by music. Not only did his parents have a large music collection, they were both musicians – both drummers, in fact.
“It was the common thing to do at my house,” Allen says of playing music. He wasn’t pushed into it, he insists: “I was led by example.”
Plus, his father ran a music store in their hometown of Grayling. Even better: The store had a studio downstairs.
“The studio was always fascinating to me,” he says. He would dabble on the drums, play keyboards and synthesizers, and soon picked up a guitar. By 14 young Jake had decided to make a full-time career of music. “That’s when I learned my life experiences could be alchemized into something through music.”
He absorbed his dad’s favorites, including progressive heavyweights like Yes, Genesis and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, but as he hit his teen years he found some artists to claim as his own. “As a teen I got into some heavier music,” he says, citing Nine Inch Nails specifically. “They all shaped my musicality in an interesting way.”
Jake Allen: Fingerstyle guitar prowess. (Photo/Myrna Jacobs)
Allen is a multi-instrumentalist who’s performed across the globe. While he often tours as a solo fingerstyle guitarist — endorsed by Takemine Guitars — using looping, tapping and fingerstyle playing to make it “feel more like a band,” he also plays bass and keyboards. Even drums with a country band, which he calls “hilarious.”
He toured extensively with northern Michigan alt-folk heroes The Accidentals and Keller Williams, and has released several albums, both with bands and solo ventures. His latest is a collaboration with visual artist Jennifer Mann entitled “Refractions Volume 1.” He discovered Mann was creating art based on music, and the album features her artwork done in response to his songs and songs he created based on her art.
Allen, who now calls Gaylord home, recently came off the road after working as a lighting tech for former Moody Blues bassist John Lodge. (He also was going to be the show opener before a change of heart by Lodge’s management.)
After playing the role of Ben in the off-Broadway, one-man musical “The Lion” late last year, Allen now is working as a duo with bassist TJ Rankin. They’ll play the Local Spins Wednesdays series at SpeakEZ Lounge at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday (April 23).
1. Nine Inch Nails, “The Fragile” (1999) – I was 13 or 14. Trent (NIN founder and songwriter Trent Reznor) created all the stuff in the studio, then he’d put together a band to play it. He’s like a mad scientist. It was a formative time for me. It’s a recording that shaped my overemphasized love of sonics and production. It’s like watching a movie, each song is like a painting. It feels like you went on a journey; there are threads through a record. I’m always into whimsical threads through a record. I’ve always been into that. I still feel pulled to make bodies of work (rather than single songs).
Listen: “The Fragile”
2. American Football, “American Football” (1999) – It was around the same time. It was a huge record for me in shaping melodies and chordal inspiration, the way the notes blend together. It could be like the start of emo. There are hypnotic guitars, like a hypnotic lullaby, with alternate tunings. The songs are about teen relationships. It was the soundtrack to my teen years. It was cathartic and enjoyable. The band reformed 20 years later and is still going strong.
Listen: “Never Meant”
3. “Final Fantasy X Original Soundtrack” (2001) – It’s the soundtrack to a video game. They (the Final Fantasy games) are known for their music. It pulled me into the world of Japanese composer Nobuo Uematsu and different ways of thinking about music. You don’t think of the emotional impact (of a role-playing game), but it’s like reading an amazing novel. It was pivotal. It prompted me to get into the music of Chrono Trigger, which I never even played. It’s an orchestral travel tour to Final Fantasy music.
Listen: “To Zanarkand”
Currently Loving: Kevin Gilbert, “Thud” (1995) – He was a bad-ass Los Angeles studio guy. He was a great lyricist. The songs were vey tidy lyrically, and the melodies were amazing. (Gilbert was part of the original Tuesday Night Music Club and Sheryl Crow’s boyfriend at the time.)
Listen: “Until I Get Her Back”
ALBUMS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD: Jake Allen’s Playlist on Spotify
VIDEO: Jake Allen, “If You Fall Apart”
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