Interview: Jacob Lloyd
Seventeen year old singer/songwriter Jacob Lloyd releases his new album 'See In Colour' in February. LTTM spoke to the teenager to find out how he started out so young and what inspires his music.
For those who haven't heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got involved in making music?
I'm Jacob, I'm 17 and I write what is probably best classified as Acoustic Pop. I started writing after a pretty tough experience of bullying at my first high school. It was a time where I really needed some form of escape and a way to release the pain and frustrations I was feeling. That's when I began to play guitar. Playing provided me with an outlet to escape the hurt, but more importantly I really feel that God used music and particularly my song writing to help me almost convince myself that I was still good enough, that it wasn't my fault and that God was right there with me!
I felt called to share my stories through my songs, which is why I started recording and eventually gigging and now i continue to write about and share my relationship with God through the songs and stories that I perform at gigs across the country.
Tell us a little bit about your forthcoming album 'See In Colour' and what the inspiration behind it was?
The album contains a lot about my personal relationship with Jesus and how that has got me to where I am now both as a musician and in my personal life. It's got a lot of my personality in it and reveals a little about my strange song writing techniques... namely feeling inspired during the early hours of the morning. My inspirations come from all over the place, but the one thing I always to get into an album is the weather, unfortunately with the British weather to inspire me it's usually rain! I guess overall it's an album of hopefully inspirational and feel good songs inspired by a God that deserves to be sung about!
That's a tough question... The song I am proudest of is probably 'More Than Enough' however, mainly for it's reaction at gigs, I think 'Rhythm of the Raindrops' would have to go down as my favourite.
What's your song writing process?
As mentioned, it often involves being up at ridiculous hours and attempting to play quietly so as not to wake the rest of my house. When it comes to the great question of 'which first, music or lyrics?' or me it's always music. I get random little ideas all the time that get recorded onto my phone, but when it actually comes to sitting down and writing I like to have the guitar part written before I add the melody and lyrics.
If you could work with any song writer, who would it be and why?
For me I think it would have to be Jack Johnson. 'In Between Dreams' has always been one of my favourite albums and his writing style has heavily influenced my own. Therefore it would be amazing to actually write with him!
As such a young performer, do you find it hard to be taken seriously?
I guess at first I was only 14, so at that stage i did find it a little difficult to sing and minister to a room full of adults, but as I've grown and matured as a performer I feel I'm able to do just as good a job as people far beyond my years and people realise and respect that. I often get surprised looks when people realise I'm only 17, so I i think people see that the music speaks for it's self and that age is irrelevant.
How would you describe your style of music and what are your influences?
Acoustic Pop is probably the best description of my music and other similar artists such as Jack Johnson, Jason Mraz and Ed Sheeran are influences for that reason. That said, I listen to a really wide range of music styles and try to vary what listen to so I get a good variety of influences.
How would you define success in your career as a singer?
For me, I try not to define success as a singer, but as an evangelist. The music provides me with a fantastic platform, but ultimately what I do is about telling people about God. So I guess on that score, I define success as people hearing about God for the first time, or even giving there life to Jesus after maybe a little of my influence. That's a bigger success than anything else I could imagine!
You're stuck on an island, it's hot, you only have enough battery life left to listen to one song on your mp3 player. What track is it?
That's an answer that could change rather frequently! Right now I think it would be 'It's Time' by Imagine Dragons.
What does the next year hold for Jacob Lloyd?
The release of my new album 'See in Colour' and hopefully touring that around the country. I hope to continue to break into more Christian Festivals after the success I had at Greenbelt and the Elim Festival this summer but, overall I just hope to get to play and minister to more and more people!
Find out more at jacoblloydmusic.com
