Jake Howden played Rugby League from the age of nine, and at 13 after walking past a guitar at the Morriset Mega Markets, and pleading with his Dad to please buy the guitar, Jake’s Father caved and got him an old dusty $100 nylon string guitar.
The guitar ended up sitting in a wardrobe for three years, but one day when he was 16 he decided to put more time and effort into trying to learn how to play music. A few weeks later Jake played his last game of Rugby League and decided to focus more of his time on his music. This meant spending hours upon hours practicing after school, and usually staying up until the early hours of the morning.
After being inspired by another local musician ‘Jacob Thomas’, one night Jake Skyped Jacob to ask what he thought of a cover he had been working on, this song was ‘Hallelujah’ by Leonard Cohen. “I had watched Jacob play for a few months and seeing him do his thing inspired me to give it a shot. We were Skyping one night and I worked up the courage to play him this cover. He said my voice had potential and to keep practicing. If Jacob had told me that night that I was no good I would’ve never played the guitar or sung another note ever again. I thought so highly of Jacob and was in awe of what he could do,” explained Jake.
The next night Jake posted a cover of ‘Hallelujah’ onto Facebook which received a bunch of surprising positive feedback. This support gave Jake the confidence to keep moving forward with music.
His first actual ‘proper gig’ was with a friend Ellis, at the regular Tuesday Open Mic Night at The Coast Hotel, Budgewoi.
“I was up there on stage with Ellis and I forgot every second word. It was only three or four songs, but I started to stutter and was sweating like crazy. We ended up getting through it, but I was so nervous. The next 'proper' performance I did was at my Year 12 Graduation with a friend, Brieanna. She was on the keys and we performed 'How to Save a Life’ by The Fray. I loved the feeling of performing. After that I decided to take every single gig that was thrown at me. I just wanted to gain experience of playing to a live audience and performing.”
Jake applied for The Voice 2014 but didn’t make the cut for the Blinds. This motivated Jake to work even harder and to write and release more of his own music. His debut EP ‘In A Picture’ was released worldwide in April 2015, and it eventually peaked at #6 on the iTunes Singer/Songwriter charts in Australia. After releasing ‘In A Picture’ Jake auditioned for The Voice 2015.
“I was grateful for the knock back in 2014 because it pushed me to improve. I wanted to show the producers how far I had come in such a short amount of time. It felt so much easier the second time around. I said to myself if I didn’t get through this year I’d never apply for any talent show again. So I felt like there was no pressure. I was going to keep playing music anyway, it wasn’t the be all and end all. But I felt like I was genuinely ready, and that I deserved to be there. I made it through to the Super Battle Rounds and it was a great experience. I just loved spending time with other people on the show who also loved music as much as I do. Being around all those talented people inspired me but it was also intimidating at the same time,” Jake said.
“Performing on such a massive stage was humbling yet daunting, but that’s what I love to do, that’s what I want to do. The crew were also amazing, everyone
who runs that show deserves a lot more credit than they receive. I loved my time on The Voice, but that part of my life is just another moment. I wouldn’t
like to be remembered or known as ‘that guy who was on The Voice’. I’d like to be known as that guy who writes and releases amazing music and can put
on a hell of a live performance. Hopefully with time people will forget I was on the show and just love to listen to me play. I’m excited to jump that
hurdle.”
Jake loves the beaches and cafes that the Coast has to offer, but he left them for a little while to hit the road for his first National Tour. Stopping off at Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane in March and April of 2016.
“I just want to put out good music, and hopefully people enjoy it. But for me, my main focus is on writing and releasing music I love to play. When I first started writing I’d write songs and think ‘oh, that might get radio play, I hope Triple J likes it’, which was a huge mistake! I’m not writing or recording music to get radio play anymore. I soon realised that I needed to write songs that come from a place that I care about. I needed to write words that meant something to me so that I can convey those words to a live audience with the proper intent. It makes a huge difference. And I think people can see that with the current live show.” Jake says.
You never know what’s around the corner. In the first year of Jakes EP ‘In a Picture’ being up on Spotify, each song had roughly 2,000 streams. Recently Jake was tweeted by a follower with a screenshot saying that the single from his EP ‘Lost Things’ was charting in the UK Viral 50, just under Zayn Malik and Lukas Graham.
"In two or three weeks it was up to 70,000 streams and by the fourth week it had hit 300,000 streams. I had no idea what was going on. ‘Lost Things’ was being played nationally over the UK on Capital-FM, but I don’t know what happened first, if they played it then it picked up on Spotify, or if they saw it was charting on Spotify then decided to play the track. It’s still a mystery,” Jake explained.
“I’d love to travel overseas and play a few sets in a place like the UK, they seem to have a genuine love for live music.”
In March 2017, Jake released his most recent single ‘Staples’, which is available throughout Australia now on Spotify and iTunes.
If you would like to check out Jake’s mix of electric and acoustic Indie-Pop, and to find out where he is playing next check out his website.
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