ISINA Winner Interview: Jacob William
Jacob William is a singer/songwriter from Vancouver, British Columbia. He was in the group of musicians that partook in the first iteration of ISINA and we were happy to bring him back and fulfill our promise to work on a song with him. We spoke with him right after he was named a September 2021 ISINA Winner about his previous ISINA experience, his family, what the last year and a half has been like for him, and his adorable dog.
We like to ask this of every Winner, but especially for artists from ISINA’s previous iteration: did you ever expect to get another call from us saying we’d like to work with you again?
I try not to have any expectations about anything. I was always hoping that the work that I did with Walter [Afanasieff] and ISINA would lead somewhere and that something actually would, you know, take off. But yeah, other than that, no real expectations as to anything really. I think in life you kind of work hard and see what happens. Totally surprised [though]. I actually just did it as a joke. My dad was keeping tabs on everything that ISINA [had] going on and said, “Hey, why don't you just send them like a song you've done recently.” And I'd recently written a song called “An Ordinary Man,” and recorded the video on the top of a mountain here in Vancouver. And he said, “Why don’t you just send it?” He even offered to pay the [submission fee]. And I said, “Okay, I'll do it. Let’s just see what happens.” And then you guys gave me a call yesterday, I was like, what?! So I texted my dad this morning, saying “You know, this is all your fault.” [laughs]
It's great how your dad is so supportive. Has your family always been encouraging as far as your artistic pursuits?
Yeah, I've been very, very lucky. My parents are just… my parents are insane. They're like two opposite ends of a pendulum. My mom is kind of more on the negative side, my dad's more on the positive side, but they kind of balance each other out. And I am kind of able to find the good balanced view quite often. But they are, at the heart of it, really, really encouraging and supportive in all my crazy endeavors.
You mentioned Walter before. Is there a specific mentor or advisor from ISINA that you’re looking forward to working with again?
I would love to work with Walter again. I think there's a sensibility that we have in common with regard to the kind of music we like and the kind of music that we both kind of gravitate towards. I think I've been an admirer of Walter since I was a very young kid. And I think with everybody, every musician you work with, the music kind of chooses you. You can't really control how you play a piano, because you don't really have enough time to think about it, for example. Or the kind of songs that you sing or the way that you sing. A lot of it is down to kind of what's in your DNA and what's in your soul. And I always felt a bit of a connection with Walter on that level of, you know, we have similar tastes. But I don't know how he feels. [laughs]
What was your ISINA experience like?
The ISINA experience was really, really intense and interesting. It was six weeks in LA. Every day you were doing something different, every day you were doing something towards something that had always felt to me like a lifelong goal -- other than the working out and the dance routines, which is just really not my thing, and I’m also terrible at it. But I’m always going to be grateful to ISINA because they gave me a single moment that I’ll always have. Everything had led to that final night, that final performance. I mean, it wasn't just the six weeks before, it was like almost my whole life up until that point. But I remember being crazy nervous. And I remember as soon as I sat at the piano -- it was just me and the piano, just singing and playing -- I remember sitting, and I just thought, I've got this. It was really strange. There's some kind of universal help. I felt really plugged in. And there was an incredible audience. It was like 1500 people in the Belasco Theatre in LA. And I just thought, this is a gift. I get to sing to these people for, you know, four minutes, and I'm gonna relish every moment. And for that, I'm very, very grateful to ISINA.
Do you feel ISINA helped you gain confidence in your artistry?
Yeah, I think up until working with ISINA, I had done lots and lots of gigs in the UK, done a couple tours, I'd done lots of performing from my very first job working on cruise ships, or like singing at weddings, I mean, I've done lots of performing, but there was something different with working with ISINA. Working in LA, working with lots of really quite high profile people. All of them really. And just seeing how they put together a show. I mean, the Belasco Theatre show was huge. And you know, the lighting and the way it was filmed. I'd not experienced anything like that before. And half of me was afraid that I wasn't good enough or afraid that I didn't really deserve to be in that moment, or didn't deserve to have a career in that kind of avenue. But, you know, I got to do it. And it was really quite special. But the flip side of that is you do it once, and it's like, I have to find a way to do this again.
And here you are again!
Yeah, here I am again!
It sounds like an experience that really helped learn something about yourself.
And I think, like life in general, it teaches you random lessons all the time. I mean, when I was a kid, I was born half deaf, so I couldn't really speak that well until I was about five or six. So the idea of being a singer was just the furthest thing from the truth. And then, going through school I wasn't a very good singer at school, and so all the kids used to say, “Are you sure singing is a really good idea for you, Jake? Maybe just stick with the piano.” And I was like, I just have felt it deep in my bones. I wanted to be a singer and a songwriter, and I want to be a performer. And it was kind of blind faith and also, you know, faith of my parents and my grandparents that I thought actually, I can do this. But it wasn't until I was on that stage with ISINA that I thought, Actually, I might be able to do something here.
Being born deaf in your right ear, it must have been a learning curve for you.
Honestly, I don't know what it's like to have two ears, so it's not really something that I've ever felt like without. But I do think when I was growing up and observing other people learn how to sing, there were things that I didn't quite get the hang of that other people did quickly, like tuning things or being able to plug into harmonies and stuff. That was something that I had to learn a lot more as I got older and realized why it was that I was struggling with it.
You spoke about that cool moment you had at the Belasco earlier. Was that your most memorable moment from the first ISINA Program?
Yeah, you know, I would like to say it was all the people and how we all fell in love with each other and it was all great, which is true. We all had a great time. But I mean, to be honest, I've had quite a few similar experiences. Whenever you do anything, it's kind of like that, isn't it? When you start a new job or like any of the backpacking adventures I've been on, it’s always you become a family. So that was great. And that gave a really great kind of foundation of support. But sitting at that piano at the Belasco Theatre and singing for four minutes, and singing a song that I'd written, and in LA, it was just... it was an insane moment and I won't forget it.
Absolutely. And all those big names in the audience.
I mean, Randy Jackson just saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, Jacob William!” I was like, ladies and gentlemen, Randy Jackson. I'm like, Jesus this is crazy. And actually, I also remember, after I performed, at the end, when we all had to kind of go back up on stage, Kenny G was right behind me... Kenny G was right behind me! Like, obviously, I saw the hair and I thought, okay, that's Kenny G. [laughs] And he just kind of whispered to me, he said “That was a very professional performance, the way you took hold of the audience, and had them in the palm of your hand.” And I was like, Jesus, I didn't know what to say. I probably just went like bluh-yup [laughs]. It was a night full of so many ridiculous moments that I just don't think I can forget that.
Let’s jump back to the present. What has the last year and a half been like for you as an artist?
Honestly, I have actually found it a really creative time, in the fact that I'm a pretty shy guy anyway. I mean, like, I really do like the whole process of inventing a song and writing a song and recording a song and getting into the nitty gritty of how to build it in a studio. And you can do all that stuff at home. You don't need to go out. Not being able to perform has been frustrating, but the flip side is everything that's going on in the world. It's a really small price to pay. There have been bigger things to worry about rather than not being able to perform. At the same time, I have found, with COVID, it forces you to look at your life as: what exactly do you want out of it? And [it makes you] be really honest about what you've got right now and where you want to go. So for example, the beginning of this year, I was in London, looking out my window. I did have a couple cool interviews with a couple of record companies. Yet I thought, I don't want to be in London, I want to be in Vancouver. I want to be able to continue writing and have a career in music. Long story short, COVID forced me to work towards goals in an honest and urgent. I think life sometimes allows you just to continue doing the same thing over and over again, and suddenly five years have gone and you wonder where’d they go? COVID kind of did the opposite, I find.
Sounds like you’ve stayed driven.
Yeah. I mean, when COVID happened like March 2020, I was living in a one bedroom apartment in London with my dog. And I had two really important meetings set up with Decca Records and Atlantic Records, and they both got canceled because of COVID. So I cried for about a month. And then I thought, right, who knows how long this is gonna go on for. I've got to find a way to be productive, to actually make use of this time. And it's just me, the dog is not going to do much. [laughs] He's a very cute thing, but yeah. So I wrote, like, 12 songs. I tried to finish my album as much as I could using Logic. I learned as much as I could about recording. I also wrote a book. And so every day I tried to do something productive and constructive. That would be something that I'd be thankful for in the future.
You wrote a book?
Yeah. So I adopted my dog in Vancouver when I was here in 2019. And we’ve just been on so many ridiculous adventures, like flying him from Vancouver back to London. Or he's been in a couple accidents. He got caught in an electric fence in London once, and it was me and my sister, we found him and we thought how the hell are we going to get him out? And so my sister called some emergency department, and they gave us a couple tips, but I had to get in and kind of untangle him out of this electric netting, as I was being electrocuted, too! And so, fortunately, he survived that. He seems to have like five lives. And so I wrote this book, basically, from his perspective. And each chapter was like a different kind of vignette of his life so far. Like, he's been on all my dates, terrible dates, but he was there.
You’ve got a constant wingman with you.
Yeah, I get into trouble because quite often people just go on a date with me just because of the dog. So I'm like, I really don’t even need to be here right now. [laughs]
ISINA Team
