April 10, 2025 • 27 mins
It is a privilege to welcome singer, musician, and author Jeff Michaels to The Jake’s Take with Jacob Elyachar Podcast.
Whether his music is being played during some of television's most popular reality shows or inspiring people in the aftermath of Boston's worst terrorist attack, he has entertained fans with thought-provoking lyrics examining today's most significant social and political issues while infusing them with his unique brand of humor. Jeff's dedication to the independent music scene has been a lifelong cause. Several of his songs have been licensed to over a dozen television shows, appearing in episodes of The Real World and Teen Moms (MTV) and the T.O. Show (VH1).
Jeff was also a member of pop band Luce, whose music appeared on major motion picture soundtracks for How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and 13 Going on 30! His willingness to use his music to commentate on some of society's most challenging issues has helped Jeff carve out a dedicated fan base. His song advocating equal rights, “Same F'ing Sun,” resulted in overwhelming fan support and attention from gay activist groups. Another of Jeff's songs, Boston Strong, captured the city's remarkable response to the tragic Boston Marathon bombing, resulting in Jeff receiving a personal thank-you letter from former Massachusetts Governor Duval Patrick.
Jeff's passion for creating extends beyond the world of music to published books. His comedic travel book, Please Hug Me—I've Been Delayed, was featured on NPR and the Chicago Tribune. Jeff is a vocal proponent of human rights when he isn't writing or creating music.
On this episode of The Jake’s Take with Jacob Elyachar Podcast, Jeff Michaels spoke about how his music was incorporated into classic reality TV shows, inspiring people after Boston’s darkest day with music and his new single: “Lost in the Night.”
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/jake-s-take-with-jacob-elyachar--4112003/support.
Whether his music is being played during some of television's most popular reality shows or inspiring people in the aftermath of Boston's worst terrorist attack, he has entertained fans with thought-provoking lyrics examining today's most significant social and political issues while infusing them with his unique brand of humor. Jeff's dedication to the independent music scene has been a lifelong cause. Several of his songs have been licensed to over a dozen television shows, appearing in episodes of The Real World and Teen Moms (MTV) and the T.O. Show (VH1).
Jeff was also a member of pop band Luce, whose music appeared on major motion picture soundtracks for How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and 13 Going on 30! His willingness to use his music to commentate on some of society's most challenging issues has helped Jeff carve out a dedicated fan base. His song advocating equal rights, “Same F'ing Sun,” resulted in overwhelming fan support and attention from gay activist groups. Another of Jeff's songs, Boston Strong, captured the city's remarkable response to the tragic Boston Marathon bombing, resulting in Jeff receiving a personal thank-you letter from former Massachusetts Governor Duval Patrick.
Jeff's passion for creating extends beyond the world of music to published books. His comedic travel book, Please Hug Me—I've Been Delayed, was featured on NPR and the Chicago Tribune. Jeff is a vocal proponent of human rights when he isn't writing or creating music.
On this episode of The Jake’s Take with Jacob Elyachar Podcast, Jeff Michaels spoke about how his music was incorporated into classic reality TV shows, inspiring people after Boston’s darkest day with music and his new single: “Lost in the Night.”
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/jake-s-take-with-jacob-elyachar--4112003/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Hello, everyone, Welcome back to the latest edition of the
Jakes Take with Jacob Ali Shar podcast. I'm your host,
Jacob Ali, the chief content producer and a writer at
jakes Take dot com, a pop cult entertainment news website. Now,
if you're watching us on YouTube, please give us a
thumbs up. Now, if you're listening to on audio, please
give us a five star rating. Please consider downloading this
(00:52):
episode along with other episodes, and please subscribe.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
I'm thrilled to welcome.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
To our latest guest. He is a singer songwriter whose
music has been placed and played on MTV's iconic reality
TV shows such as The Dearly Departed and muchly missed
Real World and Teen Mom. He's also the author of
the critically claimed Please help Me. I've been delayed, Please
help Me. Welcome Jeff my goals to the podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
All right, thanks for having me. Appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
You're so welcome. You're so welcome, Jeff. Thank you so
much taking time in your schedule talking to me today.
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Of course, iconic is really the word those are Those
are a couple of older, older shows, for sure.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Absolutely, absolutely, Actually, I've actually had a real a couple
of Real Worlds on my podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Oh wow, okay, awesome. I love that show. I used
to love it absolutely.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah, all right, so let me just tell you the names.
John Brennan and Beth.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Stilark Okay wow.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
And then Davis Mallory was also on my podcast. So
and then the one and only Cyrus and Pat Holmes.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
These were I mean, this was before I'm trying to
think they were such household names at the time, right.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Yeah, these are before Survivor and everything. Yeah, they paved
the way for everybody. Would love to have Jutt on
it because Jet is one of my favor one of
my favorite writers. So hopefully if Judd Nick is watching this, I.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Would love to have you on awesome.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
All right, Then we're not here to talk about all
these real worlders were heroes. Talk about you, So, Jen,
when did you get interested in performing and how did
that passion involve into desire for your career in the
entertainment industry.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Yeah, I think it was just always in me. I
mean I started out when I was two. My parents
have some video of me conducting with this plastic straw
my crib, and to their credit, they never pushed me
into lessons or anything they always offered, but I ended
up just teaching myself piano, guitar, and drums by listening
(02:58):
to old Beatles tapes, and I have had a affinity
for playing. I only took a very few professional lessons
some New Orleans style funk piano in college, but everything
else was kind of self taught, So I don't know,
it was just in me. And then I really got
into it post college, into my own band and a
(03:21):
couple of bands I was playing and before that.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
So it was kind of a slow process.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
I didn't really have a moment where you know, we're
starting this and we're beginning it. It was just kind
of everything I kind of did on the side, and
then it just started to make sense.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
I'm like, oh, this actually might be a career, you
know for what.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
I'll put career in quotes because I've done a lot
of other stuff to keep the music part of my
life afloat, but I can definitely call it a career
money aside.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
So yeah, absolutely absolutely. It reminds me so much of
like hearing Felf taught with because my brother Aaron is
shot out Aaron he is, he's younger than me.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
However, he's been able to play the trumb are the piano.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
So I'm like random, got power to it, power to
a But however, for me, I can just do. The
best I can do is five years require from fifth
grade to twelfth grade and karaoke.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
Well, I think I probably just saved my parents a
ton of money on lessons. So my son now is
starting violin lessons and you know, I'm watching him every
week and progress. So yeah, I don't know, it just
kind of came through me, and I'm very fortunate.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely. So who were some of the musicians
that inspider sound. I know you spoke about the Beatles.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Yeah, Beatles were a huge one obviously, you know, don't
want to date myself too much here, but I'm a
huge Springsteen fan. And being a piano player is really
Elton John and Billy Joel, which I just dove into,
and then later on pretty much any piano player that
was doing anything. Bruce Hornsby, uh, doctor John, It's in
(04:54):
New Orleans style, professor long hair, all that sort of intricate,
really fast piano work. Jerry Lee Lewis great Balls of Fire,
you know that kind of stuff. I love that and
I thought that was really going to be my sound
for so long, and I really really spent endless hours
transcribing solos and you know, the intricate fingerwork, which I
(05:15):
can still do a fraction of. But then oddly enough,
the influences started to change and I got more into
like the folk music of like Bob Dylan, you know,
Paul Simon, writers like that, And I kind of transformed
a little more throughout my albums as they progressed into
more like an Americana almost sound, which I'm still dialing in,
(05:36):
believe or it just takes a long time to figure
out that perfect sound for you. But I met my
songwriting partner, Scott Barkin, who produced my newest record that's
coming out now, and he's a phenomenal guitar play and
we just kind of had an affinity for that sort
of traditional writing country music, and we embarked a little
bit on the Americana path while still keeping some of
(05:59):
that piano sensibility I had before. And it's it's turned
into something I wasn't predicting earlier. But I really like
the sound we've got going right now. So yeah, influences
continue to change. I'm also a huge We'll say, like
Frank Turner fan right now, a little bit of the
punk rock energy and some of the tracks and pretty
much anything that's good rock and roll music. The Stones
(06:22):
I've always been a huge fan of and those type
of things. I try to weave it in a little
bit here and there to what I write and record.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I gotta say, you're speaking my language. I love a
spring I saw Bruce Springs, seen Flies, I've seen Elton once.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I've seen the digital ones, and they're both. They're definitely my.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Top, my panthe on my top music and so absolutely
with their sound and everything.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
And also one of the things that I remember from
Doctor John is when Glenn Close played Cuel the Bill
nineteen ninety six Live Action, one hundred and nine, one
hundred and one Damations. I remember Doctor John so version
so amazingly that song, and like, you cannot touch that
song after Doctor John did.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
It, can't touch anything you did. After I was fortunate
enough to see him in Oakland play. I was probably
twenty feet away and I'm just like jaw drop, you know.
I was just in New Orleans recently and I'm just
like it just he just took all that energy of
that city and just put it in his music. I'm like,
that's just you know, I don't know if I'll have
another one of him again. Well, Harry Chronic Junior to
you know, all those guys, it's just like I adore,
(07:27):
adore that type of musicianship.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Absolutely, And we cannot forget the jazz preservation of the
preservation of jazz band as well, and the Martials family,
we cannot forget them.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Well, I confess I was one of my first bands.
I actually joined the jazz band in college and I
quickly learned I can fake it, I don know out
of those chops, So I stuck with the piano rock.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
And roll chops for sure.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Yeah, I was the loneous monk and the like we
were trying to do it, and I'm like, I'm just
gonna step aside from that, but I appreciate it. I
just listened to them all the time and I'm just
still in awe.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
You know, just legends.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Yeah, absolutely, so speaking the legends, we talked about that.
We brought it up earlier in legendary MTV shit reality
series The Real World and Team Mom Could You and
several of those others.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
New songs made it onto those shows.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
So can you describe to my audience how you found
out what what when you found out your music made
onto this show, and what was your first reaction when
you heard your song or interpreted at ins that show.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
I again, those are you know, a little bit older.
I've had some other things since, which are you know,
smaller placements in Europe and stuff like that, But those
were like kind of big ones in the US at
the time. They were major shows that everyone dare I say,
still tuned in each week to watch, versus just binging
a whole season. So the one in particular, and I
highlight those because those are my first placement. I just
(08:55):
you know, it was amazing. We had worked with a
licensing company and I had been sending out tracks for
years and you know, sometimes you get a bite, sometimes
you don't. And this one, I think they licensed the
full album we had done under my with my band,
and we knew when it was gonna air, so I
was actually at home got to watch and listen, and
(09:15):
then I distinctly remember setting my watch to see like
how long the track would play, and they played in
the background for a bit and then it was real
world Brooklyn, and it played a lot longer than I thought.
I thought maybe twenty seconds. I think it played for
like a minute and fifteen or something like that. And
I'm like, okay, all right, and I'm like, sure enough,
the longer place, it's slightly more money you get. So
(09:35):
I did end up getting a royalty check, you know,
nine or twelve months later from ASCAP for that one,
and that was our first one that we actually like,
oh we actually made some money here. This was great,
like it actually works. The system works. They're few and
far between, of course, you know, most of the time
you get little tiny royalty checks.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
That's and it's totally fine. But it was fun. It
was a good experience.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
Yeah, after pitching for so long, it was just nice
to have a couple hits and then a few more
after that. So I'm continuing to do that always, just
seeing like, oh, you know, the industry has changed so
much because there's so much music out there right now.
It's actually changed, you know, even in the past five years,
if you will. So the music placement business, I mean
(10:19):
it's I think the music supervisors who work on shows,
I don't envy their job at all, because they're not
just sifting through, you know, a dozen bands that they're
trying to place.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
It's now like.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Hundreds and thousands of tracks being released each week, so
they can, you know, spend hours and hours and hours
trying to find that perfect song. So at the time,
we were lucky because we were one of a few
bands being pitched and it hit well and we got
a few placements out of it.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
So yeah, it was it was great.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
And that must be amazing to because the thing is,
it could be it's one thing to be placed, have
your music place on a show like, for example, like
The Real World and basically and also.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
The Challenge and also maybe General Hospital.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
But however, you also have other shows that are competing
against each other like Survivor Big Brother and all. Not
to mention America, and like America's got talent, I want't
because the thing is, like they wanted to do their
own music, while on the other hand, like America's got talent,
the idle, the voices, it's very hard to get those.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Songs through exactly.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
Yeah, we this was sort of a time period again
when they were kind of trying to work with independent bands,
not major label artists, which I'm an independent band always
have been since we started, and so we were benefited
from that because they actually wanted to license from indies,
which was great. Obviously the majors cost a ton of
money and some of these have you know, you'd be
(11:43):
surprised how small their production you know, budgets are even MTV.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
So it worked out really.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
Well for us, you know, compared to like The Gray's
Anatomy or something where they used to instantly break artists
because it was just you know, so much might have
been pumped onto the networks, toelevision show. So yeah, we
found a little niche and it worked out really well.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Awesome, awesome.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
So, speaking on music, your song Boston Strong played a
massive role in uplifting the Boston community after the tragic
April twenty thirteen.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Oh my god, it's been twelve years. I know, I'm
Boston bombing.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
So first of all, when did you get the conception
of that song, because it must have taken a while
to get to get the thoughts out of it, because
you can I couldnot imagine being thinking about that all
the time.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
So yeah, I can't believe it's been twelve years either.
It's crazy that was born and raised in Boston. I
did live in San Francisco, where I started my band,
but I had moved back here at the time, and
everybody in Boston just remembers that moment. It's the most
perfect thing that ever really happened in the city since
Revolutionary War times. Obviously, you know, and I had no
(12:59):
intention of really doing anything other than you know, supporting
we all we can't, we all just you know, we're
kind of sheltering in place while they were searching for
the butt. It was. It was a very surreal situation.
And it was actually only two days later after I think,
you know, found him and you know, subsided and then
they started really focus on the victims. And a friend
(13:20):
of mine was like, you got to write a song
about this, and I'm like, what, Like it wasn't even
in my head, but I was like, oh okay, and
then literally that afternoon it just came out. I wrote
it in about three minutes start to finish. It was
one of those in my songwriting I tend to either
have songs that come.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Out right from the start.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
I was sit down with a guitar or piano and
I re hit record and they're done, which your gifts
from the ethereal world of the songwriter gouze or ones
that I take months and months and months to refinal
single lyric when and you know that's my process is
nothing in the middle. This one was a gift, and
I just the Boston Strong theme was you know, running so.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Big, and it was fine.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
I think about this the other day because there's been
so many cities who have had so many tragic events.
There was Vegas, there's New Orleans and lay with the fires,
and everyone's you know now using you know, strong as
a thing. But this was one of the if not
the first, and everyone really rallied behind it with the
blue and yellow and you know, people went down to
the finish line and you know when you walked across
(14:22):
the marathonline, you know, even a couple months later, you
could just feel the deadly silence there and it was
just such an emotional thing to just like, I mean, runners,
it's just like people who are just you know, celebrating
life as athletes and now this tragic thing occurs. So
I tried to capture that in the song, and then
I ended up filming a video. I've done a lot
of my own videos where I just kind of go
(14:44):
around my camera and see what I can get. And
it was like, I think it was five in the morning,
and for whatever reason that day, there was not.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
A soul on the streets. So I was just like.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Filming around Boston and I made a video about it.
And it looked very surreal, like the city had stopped
all almost looked like it did in the pandemic. And
this was years before the pandemic, but there wasn't anyone
out there. And I thought the video was pretty you know,
powerful too. So yeah, that that came out very very quickly,
and I would not have done it had people said, no,
you know, we need this. And it kind of started
(15:15):
this little thing in me about music as a healing entity,
if you will. And it wasn't something I'd really done
in my music before. But then people started to be like, oh,
you know, thank you for doing this. And then you know,
I had sent it into the city. Actually I'm like, hey,
you know, here's the lyrics and stuff. And I got
a you know, a letter back from Governor Dubal Patrick
at the time, thanking me, and I'm like that was
(15:36):
really powerful. I'm like, this is great. So I'm like
it sort of did inspire something to me and be like,
you know what, maybe this is more just you know,
promoting a band and playing bars and having a lot
of fun and entertaining people. And I started down a
new path of like, Okay, there's some there's some healing
qualities to what I can write, and I'm trying to
like work on that a lot more now in some
of the later stuff i'm doing too. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yeah, here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
When the song makes an impact and when you get
a letter from the governor of how that song has
impacted that's your home state, that must.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Be a powerful feeling.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Yeah, I mean, it's very surprised.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
The package came in the mail and I wasn't, you know,
expecting anything, and I was like, the only thing that
comes from the government is I RS bills or something.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
So yeah, it was.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
It was a really nice you know, and I don't
it's weird because I don't always know what became of
these things I had sent, like the lyrics and I
think a frame to them and I said, hey, you know,
maybe this will help somewhere. And I don't know, it
could be on a display case in the state house
or something somewhere, or you know, maybe someone took it home.
I don't know, but maybe if it helped one person
(16:39):
or someone who knew something someone in the tragedy, Like
that's great.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
You know, I'm glad I could.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Do something, absolutely, absolutely, but let's make it. Let's I'm
glad you were going to leave our historic moment. Yeah,
on top of the president because as of this recording.
Congratulations you dropped through a new single, lost in a Night.
I really like it. Can you describe the story behind
the song?
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Yeah, well, most of it.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
This was another one of those maybe three minute, pretty
fast songs that came out. This is the first single
we have. The full album's coming out this year. It's
called Luckiest by Far, and the single is called Lost
in the Night. And really, I think I did spend
the last four years post pandemic slightly lost in the night. Really,
I had stopped playing music. The I had a residency
(17:30):
for five years in Boston as performing monthly. That shut down. Obviously,
all the venues shut down. They didn't reopen at least
not for several years. And I stopped playing live, which
I think definitely had an effect on me as a musician.
You know, all this these thoughts are in your head,
and we were briefly talking about insomnia earlier, and when
(17:52):
you're an artist and you get stuff on your head,
it keeps you up every night. So this one was
literally waking up three in the morning with bizarre little
image and being lost, and then I just started writing,
and I'm like, oh, I think I got some more here.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
And then I.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Started writing, and then sure enough, with the prodding of
my songwriting partner and producer Scott, He's like, you got
a whole album, let's do it. So started writing again,
and this single just kind of I knew the shape
I wanted it to take, and I wanted that hard
rock song. But then I keep listening back to the lyrics,
(18:28):
I'm like, no, it's actually a little deeper than I thought.
So it is about finding a girl in the cathartic moment,
but it's also I've had a little bit of feedback,
like people who you know definitely have that lost feeling
since maybe since the pandemic or whatever. And we're working
on a video for this too. It's sort of like
trying to capture that, like racing through the city, just
you know, people trying to find something.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
It doesn't have to be love.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
Or a girl whatever, But that's sort of the basis
of it, and I love the way it came out.
It's a rocker and I was very fortunate to get
to travel back to San Francisco and record with my
old bandmates on this and my original drummer Ryan and
some friends I haven't played with in ten years. So
I think that energy was really in there right start
to finish. And it's as a single, it's probably like
(19:15):
my favorite single we've had ever.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
So I'm pretty stoked about that.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
And that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
That's awesome to have, and I'm very excited listening to
hear your new music in June, and it must be
a good feeling to get back into that after that pause.
But like, have you thought about like saying I want
to go back to live, I want to find a
rest and see again, I want to do.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
Yeah, I have a very I have a very interesting
thought process with that because I miss it so much.
But at the same time, I have a lot going
on right now in my life. We have a six
year old son, and you know, the idea of touring
(19:57):
right now is not really possible, and of like, I
know the minute I go back and if I spend
the time forming, reforming a band and playing with some
friends again, I'm not going to want to stop. So
I've actually purposely kind of kept my live equipment tucked
in storage focused on the writing for that very reason,
because I think at this point I'm also working on
(20:18):
a couple of the writing projects. I've dipped my toes
into writing a musical and some things that I go
back to that earlier talk about, you know, healing qualities
of music. I have a lot of stuff coming out
that I think is in that genre. And I know
if I started playing live and the bars, I'm like,
I'm just gonna want to do that, which is great.
I think I will at some point, but I want
(20:40):
to have like a little you know, either it's a
short tour, we book, or something that has a start
and an end, because I leave it open ended, I'm
just going to spend all my time in that again,
which is I loved it so much. But I do
think I've got some bigger projects calling to me right
now that I want to make sure I have that
bandwidth to pursue. So yeah, but a few dates to
be nice.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Absolutely absolutely, I totally understanding about that, and who knows,
maybe there's also a thing called zoom and live stream
that could actually help.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
You as well.
Speaker 4 (21:10):
Yeah, you know, that's funny because I thought about that,
and I did one very minor thing in the pandemic
and it didn't And I actually watched a lot of artists.
We actually spent the pandemic. You know, everyone had their
own story.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
We were down.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
We were in a stay with my wife's family, and
we every Saturday tuned into like local artists and we
were donating money and just that was our Saturday, you know,
drinking some beers in isolation and watching our friends perform.
I have another friend from San Francisco, Joel Streeter. He
did a set with his you know, some Beatles covers
and stuff with it.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
It was really fun.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
You know, it wasn't the greatest time, we'll just say,
in history, but the fact that we were just hanging
out in our family on the Saturday afternoon where we
other otherwise would have been everywhere, like there was something
about it that brought us together. We were very fortunate,
you know. We no one you know got sick until
way later, so we weren't getting you know, the original
COVID we're getting it now it's probably just as bad,
(22:06):
but you know, so that those times are like kind
of special. And like I did think about doing a
streaming thing. I did one little small one, but then
I for me, the connection on a live show and
a live stage, it's just it's so much different than
just recording and performing. So I was like, I'm just
gonna hold off on that one.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
So I think that's a good I think that's a
good idea. So before we wrapping up our interview, we
got to talk about because besides music, a condition to
other projects that you are going on is you're also
an author of the comedic series Please hug Me.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Now that series has been recognized by the.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Chicago Tribune, MSNBC and VR Weekendition and you Orlandos and
you Learner Centinels. So how do you get the idea
please hug me? And I have a feeling with this
climate were in. I really think there should be more
books on a way.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
I'm glad you said that because I've been reviewing some
of the projects I love off the past few years.
As with music, to be honest, you know, having a
new child that just we devoted our lives to him
for the rightfully so. And it's really hard to take
time out to write and do these projects.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
I take a.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
Substantial amount of your time to do so I've been
considering now I'm like, hey, you're a little older, I
can actually get back to writing some of these again.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
But that book, yeah, I got really lucky. It was
my debut title.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
I've been writing for quite some time, along with music, blogging,
you know, things like that, and I this is my.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
First actually book that I pitched.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
It was just kind of born out of frustration of
flying at the time, which honestly has gotten no better
in the ten years since it's it's come out. The airlines,
you know, love them or hate them whatever, they don't
always put the customer first. And this book was sort
of a way to entertain folks. There's you know, games
and quizzes and little fun facts and I actually I
(23:57):
found that most of the people who enjoyed the book
were kind of taking the parts about like hearing your
fear of flying and like what does that bumped and
sound actually mean? And I actually got a lot of
feedback like this was actually helping people. Again, I'm like,
I just made it as a sort of a comedic,
you know, games to keep yourself entertained. But there was
actually a lot of content that was pretty valuable. So
(24:18):
I got really lucky the publisher at the time. We
put it out and they secured a featured placement at
Hudson News and Pacific Gateway retailers, which I was told
was unheard of for a first time author.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
And then I really understood.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
Yeah, it's mostly books by Oprah, you know, Tony Robb
or James Patterson or.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
They on the shelves.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
Yeah, so I felt like, Okay, I probably didn't belong there,
and I probably didn't, but the book was targeted for
air travelers, so it did well in those markets.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Didn't you know.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
I did not continue on with that avenue. I've been
travel blogging for years and I'm like, that's probably not
my number one passion, but at the time, like it
was fun. So yeah, I think I might consider some
other titles in the series.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
I think you should.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
I think you should because we all need a good
read and a good.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
Laugh, good good, All right, Well I'm inspired.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Alright, So we got to start win out a color finish. So, Jeff,
where can my audience find your music?
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Where?
Speaker 1 (25:23):
And where can I find your book? And also, more importantly,
if you're on social media, where can I find you?
Speaker 4 (25:30):
Absolutely so Spotify seems to be the biggest one for
everyone right now. So Jeff Michael's band on Spotify. The
single is Lost in the Night. It should pop right up.
My website is jeffmichaelsband dot com.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
And then for those on social media.
Speaker 4 (25:47):
I pretty much tag on Instagram and Twitter is at
Jmichael's Rocks, so be sure to hit me up and
I pretty much respond to everything when I can. Sometimes
it takes a little while, but yeah, feel love to
hear comments and everything. So that's where you can find me.
And also, if you happen to be in the UK,
(26:08):
apparently you can also hear our songs in supermarket streaming.
I've yet to travel there at the same time we're playing,
so if anybody ever hears it, please record it and
send me a video because I would love to hear it.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
You've heard it here, folks, So guys, if give us
an episode of the Jakes Take with Jacob lur podcast,
visit our channels on Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Spotify,
and Spreaker.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Jake's Take with jacob El ah j A c O
b e o y A c h A R. Now
are you on social media? I'm on social media.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Too, Blue Sky, Facebook, Instagram, threads, and Twitter and of
course YouTube. Jacob El sr j A c O b
e o y A c h A R. Now want
to find out more of my take on music, what's
going on? What happened last year on America'scott Talent? Head
over to Jake's sass shape dot com. Let's get Jake's
Shaped dot com.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Jack is a privilege to have you. Thank you so
much for stopping by.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Oh, thank you so much. I love it. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
You're so welcome.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Guys, thank you so much for watching. Thank you so
much for listening. Until next time, I have a great one.
Everybody go bye.
Hello, everyone, Welcome back to the latest edition of the
Jakes Take with Jacob Ali Shar podcast. I'm your host,
Jacob Ali, the chief content producer and a writer at
jakes Take dot com, a pop cult entertainment news website. Now,
if you're watching us on YouTube, please give us a
thumbs up. Now, if you're listening to on audio, please
give us a five star rating. Please consider downloading this
(00:52):
episode along with other episodes, and please subscribe.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
I'm thrilled to welcome.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
To our latest guest. He is a singer songwriter whose
music has been placed and played on MTV's iconic reality
TV shows such as The Dearly Departed and muchly missed
Real World and Teen Mom. He's also the author of
the critically claimed Please help Me. I've been delayed, Please
help Me. Welcome Jeff my goals to the podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
All right, thanks for having me. Appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
You're so welcome. You're so welcome, Jeff. Thank you so
much taking time in your schedule talking to me today.
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Of course, iconic is really the word those are Those
are a couple of older, older shows, for sure.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Absolutely, absolutely, Actually, I've actually had a real a couple
of Real Worlds on my podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Oh wow, okay, awesome. I love that show. I used
to love it absolutely.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah, all right, so let me just tell you the names.
John Brennan and Beth.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Stilark Okay wow.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
And then Davis Mallory was also on my podcast. So
and then the one and only Cyrus and Pat Holmes.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
These were I mean, this was before I'm trying to
think they were such household names at the time, right.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Yeah, these are before Survivor and everything. Yeah, they paved
the way for everybody. Would love to have Jutt on
it because Jet is one of my favor one of
my favorite writers. So hopefully if Judd Nick is watching this, I.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Would love to have you on awesome.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
All right, Then we're not here to talk about all
these real worlders were heroes. Talk about you, So, Jen,
when did you get interested in performing and how did
that passion involve into desire for your career in the
entertainment industry.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Yeah, I think it was just always in me. I
mean I started out when I was two. My parents
have some video of me conducting with this plastic straw
my crib, and to their credit, they never pushed me
into lessons or anything they always offered, but I ended
up just teaching myself piano, guitar, and drums by listening
(02:58):
to old Beatles tapes, and I have had a affinity
for playing. I only took a very few professional lessons
some New Orleans style funk piano in college, but everything
else was kind of self taught, So I don't know,
it was just in me. And then I really got
into it post college, into my own band and a
(03:21):
couple of bands I was playing and before that.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
So it was kind of a slow process.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
I didn't really have a moment where you know, we're
starting this and we're beginning it. It was just kind
of everything I kind of did on the side, and
then it just started to make sense.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
I'm like, oh, this actually might be a career, you
know for what.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
I'll put career in quotes because I've done a lot
of other stuff to keep the music part of my
life afloat, but I can definitely call it a career
money aside.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
So yeah, absolutely absolutely. It reminds me so much of
like hearing Felf taught with because my brother Aaron is
shot out Aaron he is, he's younger than me.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
However, he's been able to play the trumb are the piano.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
So I'm like random, got power to it, power to
a But however, for me, I can just do. The
best I can do is five years require from fifth
grade to twelfth grade and karaoke.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
Well, I think I probably just saved my parents a
ton of money on lessons. So my son now is
starting violin lessons and you know, I'm watching him every
week and progress. So yeah, I don't know, it just
kind of came through me, and I'm very fortunate.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely. So who were some of the musicians
that inspider sound. I know you spoke about the Beatles.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Yeah, Beatles were a huge one obviously, you know, don't
want to date myself too much here, but I'm a
huge Springsteen fan. And being a piano player is really
Elton John and Billy Joel, which I just dove into,
and then later on pretty much any piano player that
was doing anything. Bruce Hornsby, uh, doctor John, It's in
(04:54):
New Orleans style, professor long hair, all that sort of intricate,
really fast piano work. Jerry Lee Lewis great Balls of Fire,
you know that kind of stuff. I love that and
I thought that was really going to be my sound
for so long, and I really really spent endless hours
transcribing solos and you know, the intricate fingerwork, which I
(05:15):
can still do a fraction of. But then oddly enough,
the influences started to change and I got more into
like the folk music of like Bob Dylan, you know,
Paul Simon, writers like that, And I kind of transformed
a little more throughout my albums as they progressed into
more like an Americana almost sound, which I'm still dialing in,
(05:36):
believe or it just takes a long time to figure
out that perfect sound for you. But I met my
songwriting partner, Scott Barkin, who produced my newest record that's
coming out now, and he's a phenomenal guitar play and
we just kind of had an affinity for that sort
of traditional writing country music, and we embarked a little
bit on the Americana path while still keeping some of
(05:59):
that piano sensibility I had before. And it's it's turned
into something I wasn't predicting earlier. But I really like
the sound we've got going right now. So yeah, influences
continue to change. I'm also a huge We'll say, like
Frank Turner fan right now, a little bit of the
punk rock energy and some of the tracks and pretty
much anything that's good rock and roll music. The Stones
(06:22):
I've always been a huge fan of and those type
of things. I try to weave it in a little
bit here and there to what I write and record.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I gotta say, you're speaking my language. I love a
spring I saw Bruce Springs, seen Flies, I've seen Elton once.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I've seen the digital ones, and they're both. They're definitely my.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Top, my panthe on my top music and so absolutely
with their sound and everything.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
And also one of the things that I remember from
Doctor John is when Glenn Close played Cuel the Bill
nineteen ninety six Live Action, one hundred and nine, one
hundred and one Damations. I remember Doctor John so version
so amazingly that song, and like, you cannot touch that
song after Doctor John did.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
It, can't touch anything you did. After I was fortunate
enough to see him in Oakland play. I was probably
twenty feet away and I'm just like jaw drop, you know.
I was just in New Orleans recently and I'm just
like it just he just took all that energy of
that city and just put it in his music. I'm like,
that's just you know, I don't know if I'll have
another one of him again. Well, Harry Chronic Junior to
you know, all those guys, it's just like I adore,
(07:27):
adore that type of musicianship.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Absolutely, And we cannot forget the jazz preservation of the
preservation of jazz band as well, and the Martials family,
we cannot forget them.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Well, I confess I was one of my first bands.
I actually joined the jazz band in college and I
quickly learned I can fake it, I don know out
of those chops, So I stuck with the piano rock.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
And roll chops for sure.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Yeah, I was the loneous monk and the like we
were trying to do it, and I'm like, I'm just
gonna step aside from that, but I appreciate it. I
just listened to them all the time and I'm just
still in awe.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
You know, just legends.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Yeah, absolutely, so speaking the legends, we talked about that.
We brought it up earlier in legendary MTV shit reality
series The Real World and Team Mom Could You and
several of those others.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
New songs made it onto those shows.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
So can you describe to my audience how you found
out what what when you found out your music made
onto this show, and what was your first reaction when
you heard your song or interpreted at ins that show.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
I again, those are you know, a little bit older.
I've had some other things since, which are you know,
smaller placements in Europe and stuff like that, But those
were like kind of big ones in the US at
the time. They were major shows that everyone dare I say,
still tuned in each week to watch, versus just binging
a whole season. So the one in particular, and I
highlight those because those are my first placement. I just
(08:55):
you know, it was amazing. We had worked with a
licensing company and I had been sending out tracks for
years and you know, sometimes you get a bite, sometimes
you don't. And this one, I think they licensed the
full album we had done under my with my band,
and we knew when it was gonna air, so I
was actually at home got to watch and listen, and
(09:15):
then I distinctly remember setting my watch to see like
how long the track would play, and they played in
the background for a bit and then it was real
world Brooklyn, and it played a lot longer than I thought.
I thought maybe twenty seconds. I think it played for
like a minute and fifteen or something like that. And
I'm like, okay, all right, and I'm like, sure enough,
the longer place, it's slightly more money you get. So
(09:35):
I did end up getting a royalty check, you know,
nine or twelve months later from ASCAP for that one,
and that was our first one that we actually like,
oh we actually made some money here. This was great,
like it actually works. The system works. They're few and
far between, of course, you know, most of the time
you get little tiny royalty checks.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
That's and it's totally fine. But it was fun. It
was a good experience.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
Yeah, after pitching for so long, it was just nice
to have a couple hits and then a few more
after that. So I'm continuing to do that always, just
seeing like, oh, you know, the industry has changed so
much because there's so much music out there right now.
It's actually changed, you know, even in the past five years,
if you will. So the music placement business, I mean
(10:19):
it's I think the music supervisors who work on shows,
I don't envy their job at all, because they're not
just sifting through, you know, a dozen bands that they're
trying to place.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
It's now like.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Hundreds and thousands of tracks being released each week, so
they can, you know, spend hours and hours and hours
trying to find that perfect song. So at the time,
we were lucky because we were one of a few
bands being pitched and it hit well and we got
a few placements out of it.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
So yeah, it was it was great.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
And that must be amazing to because the thing is,
it could be it's one thing to be placed, have
your music place on a show like, for example, like
The Real World and basically and also.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
The Challenge and also maybe General Hospital.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
But however, you also have other shows that are competing
against each other like Survivor Big Brother and all. Not
to mention America, and like America's got talent, I want't
because the thing is, like they wanted to do their
own music, while on the other hand, like America's got talent,
the idle, the voices, it's very hard to get those.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Songs through exactly.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
Yeah, we this was sort of a time period again
when they were kind of trying to work with independent bands,
not major label artists, which I'm an independent band always
have been since we started, and so we were benefited
from that because they actually wanted to license from indies,
which was great. Obviously the majors cost a ton of
money and some of these have you know, you'd be
(11:43):
surprised how small their production you know, budgets are even MTV.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
So it worked out really.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
Well for us, you know, compared to like The Gray's
Anatomy or something where they used to instantly break artists
because it was just you know, so much might have
been pumped onto the networks, toelevision show. So yeah, we
found a little niche and it worked out really well.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Awesome, awesome.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
So, speaking on music, your song Boston Strong played a
massive role in uplifting the Boston community after the tragic
April twenty thirteen.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Oh my god, it's been twelve years. I know, I'm
Boston bombing.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
So first of all, when did you get the conception
of that song, because it must have taken a while
to get to get the thoughts out of it, because
you can I couldnot imagine being thinking about that all
the time.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
So yeah, I can't believe it's been twelve years either.
It's crazy that was born and raised in Boston. I
did live in San Francisco, where I started my band,
but I had moved back here at the time, and
everybody in Boston just remembers that moment. It's the most
perfect thing that ever really happened in the city since
Revolutionary War times. Obviously, you know, and I had no
(12:59):
intention of really doing anything other than you know, supporting
we all we can't, we all just you know, we're
kind of sheltering in place while they were searching for
the butt. It was. It was a very surreal situation.
And it was actually only two days later after I think,
you know, found him and you know, subsided and then
they started really focus on the victims. And a friend
(13:20):
of mine was like, you got to write a song
about this, and I'm like, what, Like it wasn't even
in my head, but I was like, oh okay, and
then literally that afternoon it just came out. I wrote
it in about three minutes start to finish. It was
one of those in my songwriting I tend to either
have songs that come.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Out right from the start.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
I was sit down with a guitar or piano and
I re hit record and they're done, which your gifts
from the ethereal world of the songwriter gouze or ones
that I take months and months and months to refinal
single lyric when and you know that's my process is
nothing in the middle. This one was a gift, and
I just the Boston Strong theme was you know, running so.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Big, and it was fine.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
I think about this the other day because there's been
so many cities who have had so many tragic events.
There was Vegas, there's New Orleans and lay with the fires,
and everyone's you know now using you know, strong as
a thing. But this was one of the if not
the first, and everyone really rallied behind it with the
blue and yellow and you know, people went down to
the finish line and you know when you walked across
(14:22):
the marathonline, you know, even a couple months later, you
could just feel the deadly silence there and it was
just such an emotional thing to just like, I mean, runners,
it's just like people who are just you know, celebrating
life as athletes and now this tragic thing occurs. So
I tried to capture that in the song, and then
I ended up filming a video. I've done a lot
of my own videos where I just kind of go
(14:44):
around my camera and see what I can get. And
it was like, I think it was five in the morning,
and for whatever reason that day, there was not.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
A soul on the streets. So I was just like.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Filming around Boston and I made a video about it.
And it looked very surreal, like the city had stopped
all almost looked like it did in the pandemic. And
this was years before the pandemic, but there wasn't anyone
out there. And I thought the video was pretty you know,
powerful too. So yeah, that that came out very very quickly,
and I would not have done it had people said, no,
you know, we need this. And it kind of started
(15:15):
this little thing in me about music as a healing entity,
if you will. And it wasn't something I'd really done
in my music before. But then people started to be like, oh,
you know, thank you for doing this. And then you know,
I had sent it into the city. Actually I'm like, hey,
you know, here's the lyrics and stuff. And I got
a you know, a letter back from Governor Dubal Patrick
at the time, thanking me, and I'm like that was
(15:36):
really powerful. I'm like, this is great. So I'm like
it sort of did inspire something to me and be like,
you know what, maybe this is more just you know,
promoting a band and playing bars and having a lot
of fun and entertaining people. And I started down a
new path of like, Okay, there's some there's some healing
qualities to what I can write, and I'm trying to
like work on that a lot more now in some
of the later stuff i'm doing too. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yeah, here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
When the song makes an impact and when you get
a letter from the governor of how that song has
impacted that's your home state, that must.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Be a powerful feeling.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Yeah, I mean, it's very surprised.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
The package came in the mail and I wasn't, you know,
expecting anything, and I was like, the only thing that
comes from the government is I RS bills or something.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
So yeah, it was.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
It was a really nice you know, and I don't
it's weird because I don't always know what became of
these things I had sent, like the lyrics and I
think a frame to them and I said, hey, you know,
maybe this will help somewhere. And I don't know, it
could be on a display case in the state house
or something somewhere, or you know, maybe someone took it home.
I don't know, but maybe if it helped one person
(16:39):
or someone who knew something someone in the tragedy, Like
that's great.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
You know, I'm glad I could.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Do something, absolutely, absolutely, but let's make it. Let's I'm
glad you were going to leave our historic moment. Yeah,
on top of the president because as of this recording.
Congratulations you dropped through a new single, lost in a Night.
I really like it. Can you describe the story behind
the song?
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Yeah, well, most of it.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
This was another one of those maybe three minute, pretty
fast songs that came out. This is the first single
we have. The full album's coming out this year. It's
called Luckiest by Far, and the single is called Lost
in the Night. And really, I think I did spend
the last four years post pandemic slightly lost in the night. Really,
I had stopped playing music. The I had a residency
(17:30):
for five years in Boston as performing monthly. That shut down. Obviously,
all the venues shut down. They didn't reopen at least
not for several years. And I stopped playing live, which
I think definitely had an effect on me as a musician.
You know, all this these thoughts are in your head,
and we were briefly talking about insomnia earlier, and when
(17:52):
you're an artist and you get stuff on your head,
it keeps you up every night. So this one was
literally waking up three in the morning with bizarre little
image and being lost, and then I just started writing,
and I'm like, oh, I think I got some more here.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
And then I.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Started writing, and then sure enough, with the prodding of
my songwriting partner and producer Scott, He's like, you got
a whole album, let's do it. So started writing again,
and this single just kind of I knew the shape
I wanted it to take, and I wanted that hard
rock song. But then I keep listening back to the lyrics,
(18:28):
I'm like, no, it's actually a little deeper than I thought.
So it is about finding a girl in the cathartic moment,
but it's also I've had a little bit of feedback,
like people who you know definitely have that lost feeling
since maybe since the pandemic or whatever. And we're working
on a video for this too. It's sort of like
trying to capture that, like racing through the city, just
you know, people trying to find something.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
It doesn't have to be love.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
Or a girl whatever, But that's sort of the basis
of it, and I love the way it came out.
It's a rocker and I was very fortunate to get
to travel back to San Francisco and record with my
old bandmates on this and my original drummer Ryan and
some friends I haven't played with in ten years. So
I think that energy was really in there right start
to finish. And it's as a single, it's probably like
(19:15):
my favorite single we've had ever.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
So I'm pretty stoked about that.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
And that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
That's awesome to have, and I'm very excited listening to
hear your new music in June, and it must be
a good feeling to get back into that after that pause.
But like, have you thought about like saying I want
to go back to live, I want to find a
rest and see again, I want to do.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
Yeah, I have a very I have a very interesting
thought process with that because I miss it so much.
But at the same time, I have a lot going
on right now in my life. We have a six
year old son, and you know, the idea of touring
(19:57):
right now is not really possible, and of like, I
know the minute I go back and if I spend
the time forming, reforming a band and playing with some
friends again, I'm not going to want to stop. So
I've actually purposely kind of kept my live equipment tucked
in storage focused on the writing for that very reason,
because I think at this point I'm also working on
(20:18):
a couple of the writing projects. I've dipped my toes
into writing a musical and some things that I go
back to that earlier talk about, you know, healing qualities
of music. I have a lot of stuff coming out
that I think is in that genre. And I know
if I started playing live and the bars, I'm like,
I'm just gonna want to do that, which is great.
I think I will at some point, but I want
(20:40):
to have like a little you know, either it's a
short tour, we book, or something that has a start
and an end, because I leave it open ended, I'm
just going to spend all my time in that again,
which is I loved it so much. But I do
think I've got some bigger projects calling to me right
now that I want to make sure I have that
bandwidth to pursue. So yeah, but a few dates to
be nice.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Absolutely absolutely, I totally understanding about that, and who knows,
maybe there's also a thing called zoom and live stream
that could actually help.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
You as well.
Speaker 4 (21:10):
Yeah, you know, that's funny because I thought about that,
and I did one very minor thing in the pandemic
and it didn't And I actually watched a lot of artists.
We actually spent the pandemic. You know, everyone had their
own story.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
We were down.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
We were in a stay with my wife's family, and
we every Saturday tuned into like local artists and we
were donating money and just that was our Saturday, you know,
drinking some beers in isolation and watching our friends perform.
I have another friend from San Francisco, Joel Streeter. He
did a set with his you know, some Beatles covers
and stuff with it.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
It was really fun.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
You know, it wasn't the greatest time, we'll just say,
in history, but the fact that we were just hanging
out in our family on the Saturday afternoon where we
other otherwise would have been everywhere, like there was something
about it that brought us together. We were very fortunate,
you know. We no one you know got sick until
way later, so we weren't getting you know, the original
COVID we're getting it now it's probably just as bad,
(22:06):
but you know, so that those times are like kind
of special. And like I did think about doing a
streaming thing. I did one little small one, but then
I for me, the connection on a live show and
a live stage, it's just it's so much different than
just recording and performing. So I was like, I'm just
gonna hold off on that one.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
So I think that's a good I think that's a
good idea. So before we wrapping up our interview, we
got to talk about because besides music, a condition to
other projects that you are going on is you're also
an author of the comedic series Please hug Me.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Now that series has been recognized by the.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Chicago Tribune, MSNBC and VR Weekendition and you Orlandos and
you Learner Centinels. So how do you get the idea
please hug me? And I have a feeling with this
climate were in. I really think there should be more
books on a way.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
I'm glad you said that because I've been reviewing some
of the projects I love off the past few years.
As with music, to be honest, you know, having a
new child that just we devoted our lives to him
for the rightfully so. And it's really hard to take
time out to write and do these projects.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
I take a.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
Substantial amount of your time to do so I've been
considering now I'm like, hey, you're a little older, I
can actually get back to writing some of these again.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
But that book, yeah, I got really lucky. It was
my debut title.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
I've been writing for quite some time, along with music, blogging,
you know, things like that, and I this is my.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
First actually book that I pitched.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
It was just kind of born out of frustration of
flying at the time, which honestly has gotten no better
in the ten years since it's it's come out. The airlines,
you know, love them or hate them whatever, they don't
always put the customer first. And this book was sort
of a way to entertain folks. There's you know, games
and quizzes and little fun facts and I actually I
(23:57):
found that most of the people who enjoyed the book
were kind of taking the parts about like hearing your
fear of flying and like what does that bumped and
sound actually mean? And I actually got a lot of
feedback like this was actually helping people. Again, I'm like,
I just made it as a sort of a comedic,
you know, games to keep yourself entertained. But there was
actually a lot of content that was pretty valuable. So
(24:18):
I got really lucky the publisher at the time. We
put it out and they secured a featured placement at
Hudson News and Pacific Gateway retailers, which I was told
was unheard of for a first time author.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
And then I really understood.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
Yeah, it's mostly books by Oprah, you know, Tony Robb
or James Patterson or.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
They on the shelves.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
Yeah, so I felt like, Okay, I probably didn't belong there,
and I probably didn't, but the book was targeted for
air travelers, so it did well in those markets.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Didn't you know.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
I did not continue on with that avenue. I've been
travel blogging for years and I'm like, that's probably not
my number one passion, but at the time, like it
was fun. So yeah, I think I might consider some
other titles in the series.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
I think you should.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
I think you should because we all need a good
read and a good.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
Laugh, good good, All right, Well I'm inspired.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Alright, So we got to start win out a color finish. So, Jeff,
where can my audience find your music?
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Where?
Speaker 1 (25:23):
And where can I find your book? And also, more importantly,
if you're on social media, where can I find you?
Speaker 4 (25:30):
Absolutely so Spotify seems to be the biggest one for
everyone right now. So Jeff Michael's band on Spotify. The
single is Lost in the Night. It should pop right up.
My website is jeffmichaelsband dot com.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
And then for those on social media.
Speaker 4 (25:47):
I pretty much tag on Instagram and Twitter is at
Jmichael's Rocks, so be sure to hit me up and
I pretty much respond to everything when I can. Sometimes
it takes a little while, but yeah, feel love to
hear comments and everything. So that's where you can find me.
And also, if you happen to be in the UK,
(26:08):
apparently you can also hear our songs in supermarket streaming.
I've yet to travel there at the same time we're playing,
so if anybody ever hears it, please record it and
send me a video because I would love to hear it.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
You've heard it here, folks, So guys, if give us
an episode of the Jakes Take with Jacob lur podcast,
visit our channels on Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Spotify,
and Spreaker.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Jake's Take with jacob El ah j A c O
b e o y A c h A R. Now
are you on social media? I'm on social media.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Too, Blue Sky, Facebook, Instagram, threads, and Twitter and of
course YouTube. Jacob El sr j A c O b
e o y A c h A R. Now want
to find out more of my take on music, what's
going on? What happened last year on America'scott Talent? Head
over to Jake's sass shape dot com. Let's get Jake's
Shaped dot com.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Jack is a privilege to have you. Thank you so
much for stopping by.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Oh, thank you so much. I love it. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
You're so welcome.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Guys, thank you so much for watching. Thank you so
much for listening. Until next time, I have a great one.
Everybody go bye.
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