The Jakes, which signed to Roadrunner Records/Warner Music Group in August, are experiencing growing pains. After a brief scuffle with a former band member, the Newport Beach-by-way-of-Irvine rockers are now Young the Giant.
“We knew we could do this even if we didn't have the name,” says frontman Sameer Gadhia (pictured). “It would have been more pain and paperwork to try and keep it.”
So what the hell is a Young the Giant? Since the band already had a following and an established sound, they were given the tough task creating a name that met fan's expectations.
Racking their brains for what namesake could sum up who the Jakes had grown into, Young the Giant just sorta popped out of Gadhia's kisser.
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“I was thinking about what we want to portray,” he says. “We are still youthful, but when we aren't we still want to have that exuberance in our music.”
After six months of deliberation and lawyer babble (respectfully, Reid, Mike and David) we have finally signed a record deal with Roadrunner Records, a branch of the Warner tree. To those of you acquainted with Roadrunner's illustrious past, our signing might come as a bit of a surprise. After decades of multi-platinum success with Music's rough heavy metal greats such as Megadeth, Dream Theatre, and most recently, Slipknot, Killswitch Engage, and radio titan Nickelback, one may beg the question; why The Jakes? What do we have that likens us to such metal-mongers? The answer is–nothing! A new approach from within Roadrunner A&R department has quelled the steep desire to tread a new musical path in the road of modern “indie” rock, and although such a classification is always ambiguous, it is clear that Roadrunner has no intentions of likening us to their heavy-metal, or contemporary greats. On the contrary, Roadrunner will provide us with a unique blend of artistic license and indie label coziness with Major-label professionalism and distribution, and is unafraid to take the path of innovation. Most importantly, Roadrunner is very passionate about us, and has accepted us into their tight knit family. We are excited to see the products of our pairing, and are looking forward to see our relationship grow.
On a damper note, it is with great sadness that I must relay Ehson Hashemian's departure from the band. At this time, Ehson's interests differed from the path in which The Jakes were taking, and after much thought, he decided to respectfully leave the band before signing in order to pursue other desires. We are all still very close with Ehson, and although we are greatly saddened by his departure, we respect his decision, as we all understand the risks and sacrifices that must personally be made in order to make a band work. Currently, Ehson is finishing up his solo-debut album, and we are all very keen on its release.
