Tuesday, Aug 9, 2022 • 17min
Jake Lloyd at SXSW
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With everyone preaching the importance of personal branding and ‘niching down’ these days, the music industry can be one of the toughest places to just be yourself. Growing up in Austin, Texas with influences ranging from Prince to Paramour, Jake Lloyd always felt restricted by the confines of individual genres. With time, he realised he didn’t have to be.
Jake’s eclectic sound was born - a blend of all things RnB, soul, pop, and rap fused together with an undeniably magnetic stage presence. A rising star in the live music capital, Jake and his band are shaking things up in a town known for rock and folk, all while shattering everything we thought we knew about Hip Hop and RnB.
In this SXSW episode of The Mix, Cari sits down with Jake to learn more about his unique musical footprint, his thoughts on growing a local following, what it’s like tackling genre bias in a defined scene, and much, much more. Join us to discover a unique outlook on music experimentation and how to harness the explosive creativity that comes hand in hand with an open state of mind.
The Mix is an industry innovation podcast powered by Musixmatch Pro.
The song "sweat" was composed by Jake Lloyd, recorded as an episode of The Mix sessions by Matt Parmenter at Ice Cream Factory Studios in March of 2022.
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Jake Lloyd
Cari Quoyeser
Transcript
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Cari Quoyeser
00:01
Hello and welcome You're listening to artist interviews on The Mix, a
Musixmatch
Pro podcast hosted by me, Cari Quoyeser
, the artist community manager here at music's match and fellow musician, that tune you're hearing now is called Sweat: an original new song from Austin native, Jake Lloyd.Share
00:21
Recorded in studio during the mixed sessions at
South By Southwest
earlier this year. In the South By Southwest
episode of The Mix, I'll be chatting with Jake about influences, finding his band and overcoming genre bias. Please enjoy Jake Lloyd.Share
00:37
Thanks for doing this.
Share
Jake Lloyd
00:39
Of course. No problem at all. Thank you.
Share
Cari Quoyeser
00:41
I've been hearing about you for years, but unfortunately the first time I've seen you live and it was...
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Jake Lloyd
00:46
Thank you.
Share
Cari Quoyeser
00:47
Killer.
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Jake Lloyd
00:47
Thank you so much.
Share
Cari Quoyeser
00:48
So good. Off the record, do you have vinyl by any chance?
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Jake Lloyd
00:54
I don't, I've been trying to get into it. Obviously it's super expensive, but...
Share
Cari Quoyeser
00:58
Really expensive. Yeah.
Share
Jake Lloyd
00:59
I would love to have some, some stuff pressed, just haven't gotten around to it yet.
Share
Cari Quoyeser
01:02
I just feel like it would be great for your sound.
Share
Jake Lloyd
01:05
Yeah, yeah, sure.
Share
Cari Quoyeser
01:07
So first of all, your musical footprint is quite eclectic. How did you get to merging all these different types of genres in your music and did it evolve over the years?
Share
Jake Lloyd
01:17
It kind of did.
Share
Cari Quoyeser
01:19
Yeah.
Share
Jake Lloyd
01:19
Starting out, I mean, my parents listened to everything. Growing up, I was predominantly shown
R&B
, soul
and stuff like that: Motown
, Stax Records
, all that sort of stuff. And then I got to college and I met a guy named Lyndon Allen and he put me on so much other music.Share
01:44
We were at Corpus, there weren't like a whole bunch of black people in
Corpus
. So we kinda became friends and meshed and he started showing me some licks on guitar and like that's when we started listening to Paramour and people that I had heard of but never really like gave a chance. So he started broadening my horizon.Share
Cari Quoyeser
02:06
Are you saying he was black or he was not black?
Share
Jake Lloyd
02:08
He was black.
Share
Cari Quoyeser
02:09
Okay. Because I thought you were saying like there weren't a lot of black people, so I had to hang out with this white person.
Share
Jake Lloyd
02:13
No, no, no!
Share
Cari Quoyeser
02:14
Ahaha.
Share
Jake Lloyd
02:14
We both...
Share
Cari Quoyeser
02:15
Okay, I didn't know where you were going with that. Like I had no options, therefore I hung out with this person.
Share
Jake Lloyd
02:21
That's hilarious. I did kind of leave you out in the weeds there. But no, we just kind of started kicking it and we were in the same dorm and just kind of became friends over music and then he ended up moving to
Austin
and we still hang out. But my sound, originally I just wanted to be a rapper. I remember in high school, like that's all I wanted to do was rap, and then...Share
Cari Quoyeser
02:48
But you have such a beautiful voice. Did you know that?
Share
Jake Lloyd
02:50
Yeah, I mean I've sung my whole life, but I really like... I grew up really into rap music, that was my favorite genre of music and that's what I wanted to be. But when I first decided I wanted to do music, I was like, I'm gonna be a rapper.
Share
03:03
And then I remember in high school somebody was like dude everybody's rapping; you need to sing. And I guess it was because I really was like after that respect as a lyricist because you know I mean its rap. People a lot of times look at it like it doesn't take as much talent because you're not singing but.
Share
Cari Quoyeser
03:26
That's insane. That's insane: it's the hardest.
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Jake Lloyd
03:26
It's one of the hardest.
Share
Break
Cari Quoyeser
03:46
Do you also like see how few people there are, that's a master of both and that's what you're doing, you're like hitting these beautiful notes and then throwing in these really sick raps.
Share
Jake Lloyd
03:57
Yeah, I appreciate that.
Share
04:00
Yeah it took me a while to really understand that it's not black and white. I can do... I can do it all.
Share
04:07
And then I give a lot of credit to
Prince
which is my he's my all-time favorite artist and Prince
does everything and nobody could put him in a box and I just really took that and tried to run with it. Obviously I'm not like I'm not a savant, I don't play 100 instruments but like just...Share
Cari Quoyeser
04:24
But you got it, you know? When you start when you start playing, did you notice that everyone here crowded into this tiny studio to watch, because...
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Jake Lloyd
04:32
I did see it and that made me feel really good...
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Cari Quoyeser
04:34
It's special. Yeah, no, I Ilove it. I love what you're doing and it's different in that you're you have a whole, have a holistic approach to making your music.
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Jake Lloyd
04:45
I try I try, you know.
Share
Cari Quoyeser
04:47
The fact that you have a live band too, that's different. That's totally different. Who else is doing that?
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Jake Lloyd
04:53
You know, I'm blessed and happy to have the guys in my corner that I do and you know, Graham, Don, Jake, Danny, those guys, man, they bring so much to Jake Lloyd. I tell people all the time, like yeah, I'm Jake Lloyd, but there's so many other moving parts that make Jake Lloyd move and run. So yeah, the band...
Share
05:14
It's funny because when I first started trying to do music seriously, which was in 2010 when I met Danny, we knew off top, like we need a band. This is something we're in
Austin
, like it's already hard sometimes for like hip hop
acts or whatever to get respect. So you definitely need to have a band if you're gonna do any sort of, you know, hip hop
, rap, whatever.Share
05:39
So that was essential. We always thought that we needed that.
Share
Cari Quoyeser
05:43
I don't know what it's like for you, but for me we share a bass player, which is pretty cool, but like beyond just having people up there, that like on stage, it's people that have your back that you share your successes with, that you, you know, you grow with that, you have immediate feedback with, and it's hard to be a solo artist and put it out there by yourself.
Share
06:05
If you now you're Jake Lloyd, I'm
Cari Q
but I've always had a band behind me that like, makes me shine. Their talents, make me shine as well.Share
Jake Lloyd
06:14
No question, like, Jake picked up the camera, he's like our in-house photographer and he's helped shoot videos. Like Graham is looking for everybody's looking for opportunities and helping.
Share
06:27
It's not, it's not like, "Hey, see you guys at this show and rehearsal and then we don't talk for, you know, they're not studio musicians or sit-ins". Like, these are my guys. When I come to a show, it's gonna see Graham, you're gonna see Don, you're gonna see Jake and Danny.
Share
06:43
So I take pride in that, especially because I know a lot of guys people in
Austin
that, you know, they have sit-ins and there's nothing wrong with that, but I always liked the cohesiveness of having my band, these are my people, you know, so...Share
Cari Quoyeser
07:00
It also means though, that you have to, you have to be really good with planning on their behalf. Like I've fallen short in that as well when you book something that's three months in advance and someone's like, "Oh I have a show on that day!". Ah! I got to cancel the show, got to cancel the show or find a sub. But it's never good when you have it, well it's never as good when you have the sub, they played with you before for years.
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Jake Lloyd
07:24
So usually we try to like if something like that happens, like you said, we usually will cancel because I don't really you know, I don't have a whole bunch of subs because my guys are my guys, but...
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Cari Quoyeser
07:34
Yeah. So when it comes to your writing style, are you what do you what inspires you? Is it is it life events, is it like what's going on in the world right now like you and I were just talking outside the studio about like we have lived through so many disasters in our generation, it's been so, so much.
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Jake Lloyd
07:53
Insane.
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Cari Quoyeser
07:53
So does that affect your songwriting or inspired or do you draw your inspiration for something else?
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Jake Lloyd
07:60
I feel like it's kind of hard for anybody that writes to not pull from what's going on. It's just like life, we're living it, you know, that's obviously what you're you know, usually going to talk about.
Share
08:14
But I love movies, movies inspired me and honestly I think if I wasn't trying to pursue music, I will be trying to pursue you know acting and I know that's a super like, "Bro you can't just get into acting!".
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Cari Quoyeser
08:28
No, dude, you can! If you're creative because you're up there on stage, you have your persona, I know that it's a craft that takes work but I feel the same way I'm a different person on stage and total different person, I get to exercise something else inside of me.
Share
Jake Lloyd
08:43
Absolutely.
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Cari Quoyeser
08:44
And I see that.
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Jake Lloyd
08:45
For sure. And I love movies and I love quite a few of my songs are like based on like a plot of a movie or things like that and just I enjoy tv and sitcoms and anything that has to do with tv, I love and acting.
Share
09:03
So movies are a big inspiration, obviously personal life... Just what I'm feeling that day, you know what I mean? Maybe an argument that I had or I have two kids too. So...
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Cari Quoyeser
09:20
Do you actually?
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Jake Lloyd
09:20
I do I have a boy and a girl, Prince and Lorelei.
Share
Cari Quoyeser
09:23
Oh! so
Prince
really did inspire you a lot.Share
Jake Lloyd
09:27
Like I named my son after him, so...
Share
Cari Quoyeser
09:29
Is it... what is it about
Prince
that does it for you? Is it the versatility? Is it the fact that he was fearless with everything?Share
Jake Lloyd
09:35
Just about that's the fearless. The dude... People don't realize how smart
Prince
was.Share
Cari Quoyeser
09:40
He was good at everything. Listen to Jimmy Fallon talk about
Prince
.Share
Jake Lloyd
09:43
He was just a genius.
Van Jones
said that out of all the politicians and people that he's talked to, you said the person that asked him the most like, introspective questions was Prince
hands down. And I've read, you know, since he's passed, I've read so many memoirs and things about him and... The guy was just really smart and I don't think I realized or even thought that he would be as smart as he was because I mean, I just thought he was just a genius musician, but I love his fearlessness.Share
10:19
The dude just could do no wrong. When I think of cool, I think of two people to me when I think of
Pharrell Williams
and Prince.
In my mind, those are the two coolest dudes that have ever walked.Share
Cari Quoyeser
10:31
Talking about
Pharrell Williams
who had a hand in every major hit song for a decade.Share
Jake Lloyd
10:37
Thank you, and then cool.
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Cari Quoyeser
10:39
Yeah, and this is something that I actually think it's cool. Cool is not something that you aspire to, it's something that you are, it's like where you're placing it where you're placing your interests and I think, yeah, you're born with a certain degree of swagger.
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Jake Lloyd
10:54
Yeah, yeah.
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Cari Quoyeser
10:54
But the issue I have with some musicians in the industry comes from like an insecurity, so they're compensating for something, so they're not actually obtaining this, this quote-unquote cool factor. It's the people that actually spent hours and hours and hours in their bedroom running licks over and over. So it's second nature to them and exercising all those interests. That's...
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Jake Lloyd
11:14
That's cool. Absolutely. It's not something that you can strive to be, is you got it, you know? Or like you said, I think everybody has a certain degree of swagger.
Share
11:23
Everybody, like I think you just your your idea of swagger might not be the same as mine, but everybody has a little bit of sweetness, you know what I mean? A little touch. And when I look at those two guys, I just feel like nobody's trying, like
Prince
wasn't, he was just up there.Share
Cari Quoyeser
11:40
They say you're the most attractive to like your partner when you're in your element and those people didn't just have they were just in their element, they were defining an element, you know? Like they were an element.
Share
Jake Lloyd
11:53
They were the element! Like, you can be in this element that I created, you know? It's awesome.
Share
Cari Quoyeser
12:02
So one more question for you, and that's I guess it's kind of a loaded question. So, first of all, is it... has it been harder for you in the
Austin
music scene being that so dominated by rock and roll
, or folk or anything like that? Or have you found it to be the opposite that you're something fresh?Share
12:26
Do you perceive bias when you book gigs? Do you find it hard to...
Share
Jake Lloyd
12:31
Not as much anymore.
Share
Cari Quoyeser
12:32
Not as much, but you did.
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Jake Lloyd
12:34
Yeah.
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Cari Quoyeser
12:34
Tell me about it.
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Jake Lloyd
12:38
That goes back to that box I used to hate for the longest time. It's so ironic because when I first started, all I wanted to do was be a rapper and then there was a while there when people would call me a rapper and I would be like, "Don't call me that". You know, like I do rap, but I just hated being put in that box because
Austin
is so behind in the, the way we look at hip hop
music.Share
Cari Quoyeser
13:02
Totally.
Share
Jake Lloyd
13:02
You know? So for a while, Yes, I mean, not to the point where like I couldn't get booked and things like that, but like I remember when I want my only goal, I would write out the goals that I wanted every year to things that I wanted to pursue and like for the longest, I just wanted to get on KTX's regular rotation. Not just the brakes, which is their
hip hop
, R&B
show and Confucius Jones and Fresh have always shown me love, but I really just wanted to like, "I wanted Laurie, I wanted those guys, I wanted the main KTX rotation".Share
13:34
And ironically enough, if it wasn't for the breaks, I would have never gotten that. Then I was artist of the month and things like things like that. So now I don't feel like it's as much of a biased on me Jake Lloyd, but there's definitely still a
hip hop
, you know, there's a genre bias for, I mean it's Austin everybody, you know, when you think of Austin
, you don't think of hip hop
, you think of like you said rock and blues and pretty much anything else other than rap.Share
Cari Quoyeser
14:04
Yeah, totally.
Share
Jake Lloyd
14:06
So I like to think I'm, you know, I don't wanna just sound like I'm, I'm changing the scene because by there's plenty of Jakes and, people that are like, you know, eclectic and toeing the line, but I'm not the only
hip hop
act that's doing well in Austin
. But I'd like to think I'm contributing to changing the scope of rap, hip hop
music, even R&B
in Austin.
Share
Cari Quoyeser
14:34
Well, pioneers can be one of many.
Share
Jake Lloyd
14:36
For sure. And that's what I'm saying. Like I'm in. No way am I the only pioneer, but I like to think I'm, adding something to the pot for sure. So I love that.
Share
Cari Quoyeser
14:45
Well Jake thank you so much for talking to me today. It's been a pleasure.
Share
Jake Lloyd
14:48
Thank you for having me having us and can't wait to see the footage and hear everything and I'm super stoked. Thank you.
Share
Cari Quoyeser
14:57
Hey there. Thanks for tuning into The Mix for more from Jake Lloyd and other
South By Southwest
official artist features head on over to themix.musixmatch.com.
Look out for Jake's mixed session on the Musixmatch
YouTube channel and find us on the artist community and let us know what you think.Share
15:17
The Mix is a Musixmatch Pro podcast. See you next time.
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Jake Lloyd
15:53
[Jake Lloyd - Sweat]
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