PLEASE TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF.
JACOB: Hi, I’m Jacob! I’m the lead singer and rhythm guitar player for One Exit Down. Outside of that I am a wine salesman and video game enthusiast.
KEVIN: I’m Kevin, and I do the meedly meedly guitar parts and whale noises in One Exit Down. Music has been my life since I began playing guitar at 9 years old. Since then, I’ve played in bands all my life. I love getting to make music with Jake and Richie! I do a lot of the recording and mixing for our music, and that’s something that has taught me a lot and makes me even more excited for the new stuff we’re doing this year.
RICH: My name is Rich, I play drums for the band. I joined after seeing the band play a few years back and talking to Jacob after the show! It’s been tons of fun so far and I’m excited about the future of the band!
TELL US ABOUT YOUR LATEST ALBUM OR SINGLE
JACOB: We just released remixes of our track “Drugs” from our debut album “Exit 1: Luna”. We had Kevin make 4 separate remixes to it, which is why it’s called “DRUGS (The Honey Mixes” because Kevin is sweet like honey!
KEVIN: I had a lot of fun making these, it’s really creatively stimulating to reimagine this song as if someone else made it.
RICH: I’m really excited about the music coming out this year. It’s a slight departure from what we have previously released and I’m excited to try some new things. Our latest release is just a fun twist on one of our favorite songs from “Exit One: Luna”.
WHICH SONG WOULD YOU SAY SUMS UP YOUR SOUND THE BEST?
JACOB: I would some up our “Exit 1: Luna” songs by saying they are a blend of indie rock, indie pop, pop punk, early 00s rock, and a touch of 80s flare. But our new music is hitting much harder with a heavier sound. I would describe the songs we’re writing now to be more grunge, shoegaze, garage rock, and sometimes we throw in some funk.
KEVIN: More specifically for me, I’d say “People Pleaser.” It’s something from the debut album that has so many of the elements we’re using while writing the new music that will be out this year. From ska to shoegaze, new wave to noise, it’s all there in some form and kind of ended up as an unintentional inspiration for a lot of the recent writing.
RICH: I would have to agree with Kevin on this one! If you had to pin down the sound of the early days of OED and also some of the newer direction, in my opinion that’s “People Pleaser”!
DESCRIBE YOUR MUSIC IN A FEW WORDS.
JACOB: Loud, energetic, provocative.
KEVIN: Chaos with Intent
RICH: 2000’s alt nostalgia-core
WHO HAVE YOUR BIGGEST INFLUENCES BEEN?
JACOB: For me I would say Green Day, Jimmy Eat World, Arctic Monkeys, and Journey.
KEVIN: Right now, I try to stay away from guitar-based music when working on an OED song. I find that I can be more creative if I’m bringing influences from other genres like hip hop, hyperpop, and synthwave. That being said, I do love guitar music with all my heart, so my top 5 influences right now are: MUNA, Prince, Idles, Madison Cunningham, and Trust Fund Ozu. I’d probably have 5 new ones if you asked me in another month though, I’m always trying to get inspired by something new.
RICH: I was always a fan of heavier music ever since I was younger. I listen to music for the instrumentals first typically and if music has cool drums, I like it. Some bands I’ve been heavily influenced by are GlassJaw, Deftones, Circa Survive, Minus the Bear, and tons of heavier stuff like Every Time I Die, Meshuggah, Periphery, Animals as Leaders, and tons more. I feel like I’m always trying to draw from all of my influences when playing music.
HOW DID YOU GET INTO MUSIC?
JACOB: I started playing flute and piccolo in 5th grade, and later piano my sophomore year of high school. I started writing songs on piano, but really got into it my senior year of high school when my friend Lucas from the band “Propolis” taught himself guitar and started immediately writing songs and playing shows. I felt so inspired I started teaching myself guitar and began gigging as well. Ever since then I’ve only gotten deeper into the rabbit hole of music.
KEVIN: My uncle would always bring his guitar to family parties and neighborhood cookouts growing up. He’s an 80s hair metal guy, so I was exposed to Eddie Van Halen and players like that early on, which definitely inspired my need to play guitar as a kid. By the time I was in middle school, I had gotten into the 90s Seattle bands, garage rock, and some industrial metal. I’ve been learning and growing with music ever since, and I try to incorporate a little bit of everything into what I bring to OED.
RICH: It started back when I was young playing Guitar Hero. I was obsessed to say the least. I was then gifted a guitar for Christmas soon after, and ever since I’ve loved playing all kinds of instruments. Drums were always my true passion, but it was never convenient or cheap to pursue. No I get to play drums with 2 awesome dudes in an awesome band.
WHAT IS THE CREATIVE PROCESS LIKE FOR YOU WHEN MAKING MUSIC?
JACOB: My process is always changing. Right now I’ve been writing most of my tracks in the shower, and then recording voice memos of all the parts I hear until I have time to record a demo. To write lyrics I’ve been making my own words to other people’s songs and then finding which of my instrumentals they fit best too. I’ve spent a lot of time listening to other bands on Spotify to find what songs I wanna be inspired by too. Sometimes I’ll learn someone else’s track to truly dissect it, or I’ll take raw inspiration to my guitar. After all that I make a demo and send it to Richie and Kevin to put those finishing touches that make the song pop.
KEVIN: Once Jacob sends that initial track, Richie and I will give feedback and revisions. Then, Jake will come back with a more solidified draft, which we’ll sit with and make edits consistently leading up to when we all get together to track it.
RICH: So far Jacob has been an absolute powerhouse in terms of fleshing out awesome song ideas and demos. So far me and Kevin have been more tweaking songs and changing parts but soon I think we will be even more collaborative in our song writing efforts!
WHAT DO YOU THINK WOULD BE THE COOLEST COLLABORATION PROJECT BETWEEN YOU AND ANOTHER ARTIST?
JACOB: I would love to collab with Jean Dawson! They just have so many cool ideas floating in their head and I’d love to be a part of the process with them!
KEVIN: I’m super open to collaborations across the board, whether it’s a country artist, hip hop, electronic, whatever. That said, it would be really cool to act as a backing band for a KPOP artist or group. There’s so much innovation happening in that space, and I’d love if there was a way for us to work on something like that.
RICH: This is an insanely hard question! I feel we are all pretty open to exploring some very left field stuff, in terms of genre mixing. I really feel we could do a pretty awesome callab with “The Garden”. It helps Jacob could pass as a cousin of there’s lol.
PLEASE TELL US A RANDOM FACT ABOUT YOURSELF.
JACOB: I can flip my tongue 360 degrees.
KEVIN: It’s very impractical for our music, but I can play the accordion.
RICH: I am also trained in an unlikely instrument… Tuba!
WHAT IS THE BEST ADVICE YOU’VE BEEN GIVEN?
JACOB: Don’t rush your life. I’ve often felt like I’m always racing against the clock to live my life and always being unhappy with where I’m at. But the truth is you have time, and if you take it slow your life will be more enjoyable and more creative.
KEVIN: Never be in a room where you’re the most talented/experienced. Always surround yourself with people who are better than you so that (1) you’ll be elevated by others around you and (2) you can learn a lot from the other people in the room.
RICH: Be patient. Instant gratification can spoil a hardworking mind.
IF YOU COULD CHANGE ANYTHING ABOUT THE INDUSTRY, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
JACOB: I would destroy the internet altogether. I wish we could live how it was in the 80s and just tour tour tour. A time when people consumed full albums instead of clicking a song and moving to the next artist’s song.
KEVIN: I don’t know if I have any specific change, but I’d just like more artists, venues, labels, etc. to take more risks. There’s nothing worse for the state of music than playing it safe.
RICH: I think Radio DJ’s had a lot of power back in the day. At one point it really seemed like a good DJ could sky rocket an artist that sounds good. There’s a reason before the internet, looks weren’t as big of a part of a artists success. It seemed a lot more about the music.
WHAT'S NEXT?
JACOB: We got a single coming out every 6 weeks this year, and are playing a consistent minimum of
2 shows a month around the Great Lakes States region. We’re super stoked to get our new songs out there!
PLEASE ADD ANY SOCIALS SO WE CAN SHARE
Instagram: one_exit_down_band
Twitter: @one_exit_down
Facebook: One Exit Down
Tik Tok: @oneexitdown
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