Covering indie artists not covered by the Pitchfork medias of the world. Post a Comment. Thursday, May 11, New. 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. Read what Jake shares about this track and other things : [Note: I am writing the handgun bio at am 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.
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 followers to 25 thousand in February.
