When I first pressed play on this release I was pleasantly surprised to hear some very bluesy sounding riffs blasting at me from my speakers. Now I guess I'm a little bias here but I believe the blues and blues influenced genres are underrated, underplayed, and undersold, especially in New Zealand so when I here something like this it always gets me a little excited.
But then something different happened. The song went in a totally different direction. I certainly wasn't expecting that to happen, and now I have to try and explain this.
Imagine, if you will, that Joe Bonamassa was a Kiwi. Imagine him spreading blues, country, rock and pop influences through one album rather tending to lean more towards one or the other throughout his albums. Now to add the final piece of the puzzle, imagine that he had a kiwi indie pop producer. And that is pretty much Jake Stokes album Midnight in a nutshell.
Killer bluesy riffs , shredding solos, and kiwi indie pop vocals.
In a world where we have to deal with so much music that sounds the same as all the others, hearing something that's different to all the others tends to draw me in like a siren call.
This is the kind of album that could potentially draw the attention of people from multiple genres, as usually happens with this kind of crossover, and I'll be watching with interest to see how it evolves and progresses.
British born Kiwi, Jake Stokes is a Wellington-based musician/producer who is currently performing with his guitar-driven blues-rock 3 piece, Jake Stokes & The Smoking Barrels. Having released his debut album Midnight at age 18, Jake went on to discover and grow a passion for music production and recording. As a songwriter, Jake uses his talents as a producer and engineer to bring in pop inflections and modern techniques not usually associated with blues-rock, his latest EP Before We’re All Dead being a great example of this. Self-recorded and produced, the songs from Before We’re All Dead are the main focus of the band’s national tour this September.
Praised as New Zealand’s answer to Joe Bonamassa (muzic.net.nz), Jake is an up and coming force on the New Zealand blues-rock scene. Jake blends old-school music sensibilities, youthful energy, and jaw-dropping chops to deliver a truly unique live experience to his audience.
“Now, that’s what I call talent” – Uli Jon Roth (Scorpions, Sky Academy)