Jake Banfield Oklahoma artist

Jake Banfied. from OK, is making his way in Nashville.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
How good everyone is. I mean, it is, it's it's unbelievable.
The the competition is. I meanit's the top in the country, in
the world, one O six onethe Twister. This is my Tulsa with
Carla Cantrell. What's up, everybody. My name is Jake van Field out
of uh I'm born and raised inOklahoma. I love that Manford you said,

(00:22):
Yeah, I claim Manford is home. I moved around a little bit,
but Manford's where I where I callhome. That's awesome. Okay,
So what's your favorite thing about growingup in Oklahoma? Oh, my favorite
thing is the sports I grew up. I grew up going to Ou football
games with my Poppy my whole life. And then we got the thunder team,
the basketball team. So and thenI probably say the people. I
like, how how kind the peopleare here. I've been in some other

(00:44):
places where it's just not a commonthing, so I don't take it for
granted. When I get to comehome. Yeah, and the kindest Midwest,
Yeah boy, yeah, it canget a little and get a little
choppy up there. So so butyeah, I love, I love,
And then I probably just the outdoors. There's a lot of good fishing,
a lot of good hunting here,so yeah, it's got a lot of
good things going on. All right. So you're a sports addict, like

(01:04):
you know you're watching sports. Doyou play? I did. I played
football, and I played basketball,and I played in college. I played
basketball in college, So yeah,I played for like, I don't know,
twenty years or something. It wasa lot, like a lot,
a lot of big part of mylife. Holy ca. Okay, so
what made you pick up a guitar? Yeah? So I was playing in
college, like I said, atOklahall Wesleyan in Bartlesville, and I got

(01:26):
hurt, and then right when Igot healthy to come back and play,
we got sitting to quarantine. Soit was literally like I got to find
something to do because I'm not gonnabe playing basketball. So I just went
to a pawn shop and got aguitar and taught myself how to play.
And I grew up in church singinga little bit, so I knew.
I knew God gave me that gifta little bit, but it was never

(01:46):
supposed to be the playing. Sothen once I learned how to play the
guitar like three chords, then Ilearned how to sing with it. I
was like, Okay, well let'slet's start posting videos and see what happens.
Wow, that's what they say countrymusic. It's all about three chords
in the truth. So you getthat. That's a fact. I think
I probably got five in my bagnow, but but not, I don't

(02:07):
need I don't want to even learnanymore. I'll just stop at five and
call it good. I'm good atthat. That is crazy, That's that's
awesome. What a great story.Yeah, it's at Sometimes I question like
what am I even doing doing musicbecause it was just not supposed to be
the thing. But God has plansand you know I'm gonna follow it.
So yeah, that's that's what I'mdoing here. That's what I'm doing here.
That is awesome. What's the bestpiece of advice you've ever gotten?

(02:30):
That's such a great question to say. You're so you're so young too.
You probably haven't even heard all theadvice you're gonna hear. But what if
it can turn out better than youcan imagine? So a lot of people
want to think, they get veryanxious about what could go wrong. And
whenever I got the advice of whatwhat if it goes better than you can
even imagine it. I don't know. It lit a fire up in me
and it was just like it wasjust like, think about the positive instead

(02:53):
of going negative. Because I dothat, I think about what's the bad
stuff, the hard stuff, butjust think about the good stuff and then
how what if it just turns outbetter than anyone thinks? Then what?
So I just try to stay positiveso that that's that's probably the best piece
of advice. Oh that's great.Yeah, what's on your bucket list?
Look if you had to look atthis and go, Okay, these are

(03:14):
the these are the couple things thatI really want to check off on my
list. Oh, that's a goodone. I'd say, to play the
Bok Center one day, that'd bebig. I'm literally grew up all around
touss on my whole life. SoI've seen the bok Center. I've been
to a bunch of shows with theb Okay what else? What else?
I'm trying to think that's a bigone to be Okay Center. I moved

(03:34):
to Nashville. That was a bigone. Uh, that was that was
probably the biggest one. Is tomove to Nashville and pursue my dream there,
so I knocked that one off.And then I don't know, probably
just for people it sounds cliche,just people to connect with what I'm doing.
I don't I'm not gonna stop doingmusic. But if I can just
like keep affecting people in a positiveway, then I think I'll be I'll
be good to go. I'm I'ma pretty low maintenance dude, so I

(03:55):
don't need much to I don't needmuch to happen. But I'd love to
play the be okay, and thenfor people to just know, like me,
bring them good vibes would be wouldbe probably what I what I would
wish for, honestly. And yousound like Chris Jansen, now, yeah,
yeah, the good vibes. What'sthe thing that surprised you the most
when you moved to Nashville. It'sa great question. I would say,

(04:17):
probably how good everyone is. Imean, it is, It's it's unbelievable.
The the competition is. I mean, it's the top in the country,
in the world for country music.It's not even a debate. You
can go anywhere, like you cango to a restaurant, you can go
to a rooftop bar, you cango to anywhere and you're gonna see someone

(04:39):
singing who could be just as goodas you, and it just it just
it lights a fire on you orit'll make you discouraged. And it depends
which road you want to take,but it is it's like crazy, everyone
is good and it's like you gotto find a way to stick out.
And I don't know, it's it'sI love I. I come from the
basketball background, so I'm very competitiveand going there and seeing how good everyone

(05:01):
was, how good the songwriting was, how much it mattered, how much
the delivery mattered. It's just it'sjust like you can never you're always chasing
something. And that's probably what surprisedme the most. I knew there was
gonna be a lot of good people, but it's hard to even fathom and
it really can discourage some people.But NA just look at it like the

(05:23):
positive way. Let's compete, let'sget better than them. So are you
writing? Have you been writing withpeople in Nashville? Are you learning anything?
Yeah? So I actually started inLA writing, wasn't even doing the
artist thing. Got signed to kindof like a pub deal out there in
LA and was writing for other people. Wasn't even doing my stuff and then
went to Nashville and because that wasmore my style, and people in LA

(05:44):
were telling me La or Nashville isyour style. So went out there about
a year and a half ago,and I mean it was, yeah,
I've been writing last year. Iprobably wrote around two hundred songs, and
I was writing every day with people, and I was just a sponge.
I'm so young. I was asponge. I was in the room with
people who have done way more thingsthan me, and I was just soaking
it all up. And I stillhave a lot to learn. But it's

(06:05):
like I would say, from ayear and a half to now, it's
not even the same songwriter, Andit's just kind of it's kind of crazy
how that town will. If you'lljust sponge it up and just learn,
you'll learn a lot quick because there'sso many talented people there. I've always
thought that being in a songwriter's roomwould be amazing. Those are my favorite

(06:25):
performances to watch the songwriters performing theirsong because sometimes you get sometimes you give
it to another artist and it getsproduced and it just it loses what it
meant to the beginning songwriter, Likethe guy who actually thought of those words.
I always thought that that is themost brilliant thing to be in a
song room and have somebody go hey, that rhymes like right. No.

(06:48):
I probably played about fifty writers roundsin the last year, all in Nashville,
and then I went to Key West, Florida and got to play out
there, which is a big songwritingfestival with people who wrote their own songs,
so you'll hear Morgan Wallan's actual writersand people who wrote people who wrote
songs for these big artists and getto perform them. And it's been it's
I'm with you. That's hard tobeat because whenever you got the true everything's

(07:11):
right there. It's as authentic asit can get. And that's my favorite
too. So that's been a coolpart about nash as well, is how
how many songwriters get to actually showtheir talent. They're not behind the scenes
like usual, you know, Sothat's I love that part of Nashville too.
Yeah. I just think that Nashvilleis it's just grown exponentially the last
few years, so I know,I mean, just visiting you feel like

(07:34):
you get lost in the shuffle.I can't imagine going at the young age
of twenty three and being like,all right, I'm just gonna go in
this pond and see what happens.That's it. That's just what it is.
And I've always been like kind offearless growing up. I got my
mom's here, I was a badkid. I would just like go do
crazy stuff. And I've always beenkind of fearless. So it it was

(07:54):
kind of like a like I said, like a competition thing. I wanted
to go see what was up.And I love it it is. It's
awesome. You can't get bored there. You can't like there's always something to
go do or go chase or tryto achieve. So yeah, I love
it there. All right, youknew. I gotta ask you, now,
what's the craziest thing you've ever done? And would you do it again?
What is the craziest thing I've donein Nashville? No, just like

(08:16):
in general, what is the craziestthing I've done? It's the long list.
He's rolled the deck. It's agreat question. I knocked my tooth
out in a basketball game. Iwas going up in a basketball game and
got my legs taken out from underme and fell on the floor, and
both my top two teeth got knockedout, and they thought they were gonna

(08:37):
take me to the whatever you callit, the dentist thing and fix them.
And I was like, no,I'm playing. I'm playing the rest
of the game. So my nervewas exposed the whole games, so it
was it was think of like acold mint gum or mint gum with cold
water. I felt like that therest of the game. And I know
that didn't sound wild, but thathurt really bad. And I could have
not played, and I played,and I wouldn't do it again. It

(08:58):
hurt really bad. Did you winthe game? No, we lost the
game. It was our first lossof the year. That was That's what
hurt. That's what hurt. Yeah, I wouldn't do it again. That
sucked. That was really bad.Yeah, i'd say that probably though.
How do people get in your music? You can find me anywhere on Spotify,
Apple, Instagram, YouTube, JakeBanfield, B A N F I,

(09:20):
Y L D, and then Jakeobviously, so I'm everywhere on there,
and I think it's kind of aneasy name. So you just type
that thing in there and I shouldpop up, we'll hope. So,
and if you're in the Oklahoma area, have you got anything set. Are
you going to be performing here atall? So I'm gonna be So I'm
going to be announcing that on onon Instagram. But I am playing at
the river Wind Casino on December seventhat a jingle jam, so I would

(09:41):
be doing that. I think thetickets come out this week, so I
got that plan. But I'm wantingto come to Tulsa and but I don't
have a date yet, so I'llbe posting that on my Instagram, so
check it out on there, allright. Yeah, So well that's that's
the plans though. That's what yougot going on. Excellent, good good,
So nice to talk to you.Thanks for having me. It's so
good to talk to you too.Thanks. This has been My Tulsa with

(10:01):
Carla Cantrell, available now on theiHeartRadio app one O six one. The Twister