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On October 5th, 2018 at Schubas in Chicago, IL, Cheyenne and I had the opportunity to interview Jake from The Orphan The Poet (TOTP). This indie rock/pop band consists of David (vocals), Sam (drums), Ty (guitar), and Jake (bass). After their most recent release of hit single “Money,” this nationwide tour with The Score was highly anticipated by The Hive (the band’s fanbase). During this interview, we got a deeper insight into the band’s musical process, passion, and inspiration.
The Chicago date sold out one day before the show, which was exciting for all the fans attending. When asked how it felt to be playing a sold out show in Chicago, Jake replied, “It’s been insane. I mean, showing up to any show and it be sold out ahead of time is such a great feeling...North Carolina was sold out, um and I think there’s a couple dates on the tour that are on the verge of selling out. But this was only the second one that sold out ahead of time.” We were also curious (as dedicated Chicagoans) whether or not Jake had a favorite spot in Chicago, to which he replied, “It’s a new bar that just opened up. I think it’s Through the Record Store or something like that. It is a speakeasy bar and the back of a record store... I’ll plug the address. It just opened up, you walk through the listening booth in the back of the record store and then there’s a bar. It’s on West North Ave.” After some research, I found that the bar Jake is referring to is called Dorian’s Through The Record Shop. The link to their website is posted below, be sure to check it out!
We are always intrigued to see what bands are listening to in their free time, so when asked what his favorite release of this year is/what release he is anticipating, Jake said, “So, Bishop Briggs came out with a song called ‘Baby’, its about Landon from Sir Sly. Also, there’s this band called Fitness that they have a song called ‘Matter of Time’, it’s one of my favorites. They came out with an album called Karate. We played with them at a radio show in Cincinnati.” Jake also mentioned that he enjoyed the release of Twenty One Pilot’s latest album, Trench.
While the inspirations or favorite artists of a band are important to their sound, we were also curious as to what the writing/recording process looks like for TOTP. Jake described the band’s unique process, “It’s been different every day. Because we all have our houses in Columbus, we all have our little studios in our own houses so we’re sending each other ideas all the time. David, our singer, is like a machine when it comes to songwriting but for our most recent single ‘Money’ we traveled to Washington D.C. to a studio that we had rented out for three days with this producer named Matt Squire, and we showed up the first day with like maybe fifteen different demos...But when we were listening through all of them, our producer Matt said, hey, I know there’s this one you guys weren’t pumped on but there was a line in there that said all my other friends got money...what do you guys think about that line? And we were like well that’s a very relatable topic...he’s like what if we just spent today writing a new song, we’ll keep that line and throw everything else away...We wrote that song and put it out less than two months later. Right when we recorded it, we were already about to get ready for this tour and put out this song.” We are very impressed by the band’s ability to work together in producing such great songs, even in a short time span.
Two other great songs by the band are “Turbo Club” and “Birthday.” What’s special about these songs is they are only played live, they have yet to be recorded. We asked Jake if there was a reason behind this. Other than the simple fact that they haven’t recorded and released them yet, Jake said, “Its kind of fun now that its not been released. Its like a little club of people. Like seeing you guys tonight singing along to it, like that song is not recorded anywhere, well there’s a demo of it that we have that was just David singing it. He was like, I have this song idea that no one will ever hear. Its kind of cool to see like a club of people. The other crazy thing is just like I love playing it for people that don’t know it. ‘Cause it’s a stupid silly song.” Cheyenne and I agree, it’s fun that there isn’t a recording of them. If you see TOTP live, be sure to listen for these songs!
One of my personal favorite parts of this interview was asking Jake what the band wants fans to take from their music. Jake stated, “When I was growing up and kind of first discover my love for music as like a community...you’ve been hearing music all your life on the radio or whatever, but when I fell in love with bands like Green Day or Blink 182 or Fall Out Boy or bands like that, the second I got into those bands , I felt like I was a part of a community...Even though in high school, maybe I was made fun of a little more for showing up in skinny jeans and my P! ATD t-shirt, I felt like I was wearing like a badge of honor and I could go home and there were other people like me around. So, like being a part of a community and feeling like they are a part of something bigger.” This is one of my favorite things about The Hive, and something I think the band maintains very well. Every time seeing TOTP is like a family reunion.
In the future, we can expect more shows from TOTP, and Jake hopes more people continue to listen to “Money.” Be sure to check out TOTP’s music, and follow their social media, both of which are linked below. We at InAlternative want to give a big thank you to Jake for taking the time to meet with us!
Listen to The Orphan The Poet on Spotify.
Stream their latest single “Money”
Follow The Orphan The Poet on Twitter.