Meet Jake David

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jake David. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jake below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Jake with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

I guess it was built like a brick wall, one layer after the other. Some laid with cement, others just sort of lodged into slots like Jenga blocks. This imagery will feel a lot more apt in a minute, I swear.

First off, my parents told me at a young age that I was going to college. However, my grades had to be so incredibly exceptional that grants and scholarships would pay for the tuition. We couldn’t afford it otherwise. That challenge was hammered into me more times than I can count, and I never really questioned it. Whenever the neighbors asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said “robotic engineer,” mostly because I really liked (actually, still like) Transformers toys. Turns out what I didn’t like was math.

As of today, I’m not an engineer, robotic or otherwise. Sorry, Optimus Prime. Instead, I went to film school! Okay, I was a film minor. You might wonder what my parents thought of that, and if I ever hold a seance, I’ll be sure to ask them about it. In hindsight, I don’t think they really cared what I went to school for, as long as I went. Maybe just going was the point? We can debate the merits of that later.

Either way, prepubescent me didn’t want to disappoint them, so I went along with the game plan, worked my butt off for years, and graduated Valedictorian. College came right after, which means their plan worked, I guess?

The other half of my metaphorical Work-Ethic-Wall™ came from my hometown’s local theatre scene. Theatre kids get a bad rap for being “extra” or “overattentive” – I’ve been called all that and worse – but performing in shows like “Little Shop of Horrors” and “The Sound of Music” were some of the best experiences I had growing up. I learned personal accountability and teamwork from acting in a theatre troupe, literal and metaphorical harmonizing. I still kinda suck at the former, though…

Ultimately, my creative and academic pursuits coalesced into the foundation for how I approach my work today. And that sounds like a good thing, right? But here’s the problem with the whole “wall” metaphor (I told you there was a reason for it!):

Once you build up this big, strong “thing” in your head, you suddenly can’t see anything past it.

You forget why the wall was built in the first place.

Was it a ladder to success? Was it a shield against the cruelty of adulthood? Was it built just because you were told to build it? Suddenly, there’s a huge, unwieldy tower looming over you, full of sky-high expectations that lead you to overworking and burnout and crossing the line from excellence to exhaustion.

All that to say, some of the bricks in my foundation don’t quite fit anymore (you can guess which ones), and now I have to rebalance the whole darn thing!

My new goal is to make each “brick” work for me. That starts by prioritizing my interests, putting a higher value on my time, and only working on a few goals at once so I’m not in the constant spiral of “Oh crap, I’m X years old and still haven’t accomplished Y!” And that’s about as much algebra as you’ll get out of me.

Maybe there’s a lesson to glean here so you don’t build up a wall like I did. And if you already have, I’m not saying to give up and tear the whole thing down (though I’ve certainly entertained the thought). But working hard doesn’t have to mean working yourself to death.

Sometimes, you just have to pull out some bricks to see what’s on the other side.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

While my day job’s in animation production, I spend my nights writing, auditioning for voice acting gigs, and working on new music. I’m rarely satisfied doing one thing artistically, so I like to keep several marshmallows on the fire.

My latest project is building out my songwriting portfolio and connecting with collaborators. Lyrical storytelling is at the heart of my music, and I’d love to work with musicians who feel the same. I’m currently revising a handful of demos from the pandemic, and each track is a blend of personal reflection and commentary on our shared isolation that, in my opinion, still persists to this day.

Eventually, I’ll get them fully recorded, but I’ve learned that mixing and mastering isn’t where my heart is. Producers, hit me up!

I’m also returning to VA auditions since I took a break over the summer to focus on screenwriting and save up for a new demo reel. Those things are not cheap! Now there’s a half-dozen, half-finished script drafts sitting in my Google Drive, and it’s anyone’s guess which one will get done first. Maybe the one about cartoon dinosaur people?

My goal is to finish the year out with both a voice reel and a finished script in hand. Fingers (and dino-claws) crossed!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

~Number 1: Determination (AKA being stubborn, I guess?)~

Given the challenges I faced growing up (i.e., being a racial/sexual minority in small-town America in the 2000s + the aforementioned “parental seance”), the ability to keep moving forward under pressure is probably what’s kept me alive this long. There’s a line from my song, “The Last Weekend,” that’s like:

I’m not giving up ‘til they take the blood from my veins
Till you bury me, then dig me up, and steal me from my family
And drive us up to New York State
We’ll party like it’s the last weekend of our lives

My friend said it reminds them of Bright Eyes, which I take as a compliment.

Essentially, if I set a goal, I do whatever I can to reach it. Then, I just keep doing that over and over because I’m stubborn. My advice? Try being stubborn once in a while! Of course, some people can take it to extremes (me, I’m “some people”), but if artists never pushed themselves, they’d never improve.

~Number 2: Creativity (AKA just making crap up)~

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been driven to make things, to imagine more than what’s in front of me. Whenever I’d finish building a LEGO set per the instructions (mostly Bionicles™), I’d tear them apart and Frankenstein them together into something altogether different – and if you thought I was done with the brick metaphors, you were wrong!

Unfortunately, I think a lot of creativity is wrung out of people as they grow up, which is odd considering how much “creative problem solving” is a buzzword you’re told to put on your resume. Maybe people are afraid of being judged for bad ideas (I sure am!), but if you take a moment and think of your brain like a mineshaft, you have to dig through all the bedrock and dinosaur bones to get to those sweet, golden brain-nuggets we call genius. It’s all part of the process.

Sorry, I’ve got dinosaurs on the brain right now…

~Number 3: Acting (AKA making crap up, but with funny voices)~

The first two skills were pretty common (maybe even cliché, yikes), so here’s something really specific:

I think everyone should take an intro to acting class, even if they don’t want to be actors.

This isn’t just about “Zip-Zap-Zop”-ing or doing bad Bugs Bunny impressions. There’s a certain level of empathy you muster when studying other people’s thoughts, emotions, and justifications for their actions. In psychology, that’s called “theory of mind.” In acting, that’s called motivation.

And if you can understand other people’s motivations, you can start to understand your own. Acting takes self-reflection, which is more important in life than folks realize. Maybe they’d realize that if they self-reflected more.

It might sound like I’m trying to sell you on my acting workshop – which I don’t have, to be clear – but here’s why I stand by this thesis: If you commit to a good acting class, one that meets multiple times, it’ll challenge you to develop the other two skills I mentioned.

~Number 1: If the class pushes out of your comfort zone, but you force yourself to finish it anyway, that’s called determination (or, not wanting to waste the four-hundred bucks you spent because you KNOW there are no refunds!)

~Number 2: Your creativity will be challenged in novel ways, and you’ll be forced to examine situations from a new point of view. I always tell people that I get good ideas in the bathroom, and it’s because I’m walking away from what I’m doing and returning with a fresh perspective. And yes, it’s the perspective of looking down into a toilet.

~Number 3: Obviously, you’ll learn a bit of acting and (maybe, hopefully) you get to pretend to be a dinosaur. That’s just fun! Acting’s supposed to be fun, I don’t care if anyone says otherwise.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

Alright, enough acting talk. I’m here to talk about music!

As a songwriter, I’ve wanted to work with other musicians and producers for some time, and I finally feel like I’m in a place to do that. Also, the high school dream of being in a rock band never really died.

I take inspiration from artists like Bruce Springsteen, Brandi Carlile, and (weirdly enough) Weird Al, so lyrics are incredibly important to me. It’d be great to work with folks who feel the same, or at least let me ruminate over hyperspecific word choices for a hot minute. You say “rosy,” I say “rosé.”

If you’re in the music world, you can find samples of my songwriting and lyrics on my website: jakedavid.wixsite.com/music

For anything else creative, hit me up on Instagram @jakedavid160 and watch me shove the phrase “desperate, medicated mass” into a melody line. It works in context, I swear!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jakedavid.wixsite.com/music
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/jakedavid160/