It's been rumored around the local music scene for a while, but now it's official: Irvine/Newport Beach band the Jakes have signed a deal with Roadrunner Records. Yes, Roadrunner, the label best known for having acts like Slipknot and Nickelback on their roster. (It's right on their website title thingy: “Official home of Slipknot, Nickelback…)
Given the smooth, melodic, pop-rock of the Jakes, it's clear that the label is diversifying. The seemingly weird fit, and departure of band membery Ehson Hashemian, are two things that Jakes lead singer Sameer Gadhia addressed in a MySpace blog announcing the deal, the text of which follows after the jump.
We've long been admirers of the Jakes–check out this article from April, and Sameer's Heard Mentality blogs during their eVocal residency in of May–so we're definitely stoked for them, though perhaps cautiously optimistic given the undeniably surprising choice of label, and general wariness towards record deals in general, which, as we all know by now, don't always work out the way you'd like them to. But why worry about that now? They've distinguished themselves through their superior live shows (you should see Gadhia work a tambourine) and writing excellent songs like “Cough Syrup” and “Texas Tea”–some of the catchiest tunes in this or any other county. Good work, dudes.
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It is with great joy
and reluctance that we find ourselves sucking up the last dregs of
summer with family at home in Irvine. Recently, the days have seemed to
lazily extend their reach on the lawn, and minutes have become hours.
Despite the summer's languor, many things have come to pass in these
last few months. I write partly to inform all of you of these recent
occurrences, but dually, to remind myself, lest these moments fade into
the back of my mind, never to return. 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. After moving out of the beloved Newport house, all of us
received some much deserved vacation time, and subsequently after our
return, began finalizing our writing for our new full-length album. We
write and record several hours a day five days a week, and have gotten
into a comfortable groove. We are very excited about our new songs, for
we feel that they innovate from Shake My Hand yet still remain close to
our musical roots. We are excited to perform these new songs for you,
and currently, two shows have been arranged in the month of September
to do so. NOTE! These may be the only two shows we play until January
of next year, so if you are in the LA area and want to hear songs
before they hit studio, come on out! September 7th we will be playing
Spaceland in Silverlake, Los Angeles with Saint Motel (21+), and
September 28th at the Viper Room on Sunset (21+). If you aren't from
California, and aren't able to make your way to one of these shows, we
promise we will embark on a very extensive national tour come the New
Year! In the month of October, we will be going into intense studio
recording until December, and by the month of January we will be doing
several preliminary tours, followed by an album release tour sometime
in the spring of 2010. We are excited that we have come this far, and
we hope you will come with us for the ride. Sincerely, Sameer Gadhia
On behalf of The Jakes
