The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: John Huxley of Jakethehawk

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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

I suppose I’d describe myself as a songwriter first and foremost. When I was in high school, I think I just wanted to be in a band and be a guitarist and all that, but for one reason or another, I didn’t have many people lining up to play with… so out of necessity I guess I started writing my own stuff, started arranging my own stuff, writing my own lyrics and trying to sing, started making my own demos… cause even if I had to do it on my own, I was still going to do it… I still HAD to. I found that doing that, being kind of a big picture creator, was more fulfilling than just being a “guitar dude”. I was bad in those days but I never had a choice… It was always fulfilling though… I don’t think many things in life have brought me the kind of fulfillment I found in composition.

Describe your first musical memory.

My dad used to play guitar to my brother and I when we were in the crib. I think I spent the first 15 years of my life thinking that he’d written “Crow” and “As the Raven Flies” by Dan Fogelberg. I still love those songs and jam them. Also he used to sing a song called “All Through the Night” which is apparently a Welsh funeral Hymn. It is a beautiful song and it is shocking to think how much the chord changes and melodic structure of it have colored how I perceive music as an adult. I hadn’t thought about that song in years. Thanks for asking this question. “Stewball” by Peter, Paul & Mary as well.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Some great shows here and there but I’d say the first time I got comfortable with a DAW and put together some songs… the feeling of not being limited by anything other than my own creativity. I think that first EP I “released” (read: posted on Bandcamp) had 5 songs, one of witch was 12 or 13 minutes long and had five movements. All kind of instrumentation and stuff that at that point I didn’t think I could ever do with a band… that feeling of freedom and possibility was as good as or better than any live show. I still feel that way when it is time to write an album.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

I guess just growing up, various experiences with jobs and life in general really challenged my ideas about what life is about, what it is supposed to be like and what it means. I guess you could say my ‘beliefs’ about those kinds of things have been tested many times and I’d say my original perception has been cast aside for the most part. A major theme on the new Jakethehawk album ‘Hinterlands’ is the idea of growth, moving on, change, and reflection… I think a big part of that is looking at things in your life that aren’t how you thought they were, or people that influenced you that aren’t really how they seemed at the time. I’m not necessarily saying it was all bullshit… but man, I wish I had another chance to talk to some “role models” I had, now that I have the benefit of a little bit of age and perspective.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

It leads wherever it leads to. Not to be circular and Taoist with that but… art is what it is to the artist. I think making art, to truly do it, is a balance of craftsmanship on one hand… skill at working in one’s chosen medium, and honesty and introspection. Artistic progression should ideally lead to a refinement of the skill and refinement of being true to ones own heart.

I suppose it is the balance between craftsmanship on one hand and honesty on the other.

How do you define success?

To continue to improve, to continue to hone my craft so that the art I produce is a more perfect representation of what is in my heart.

Also, I’d like my music to mean as much to someone as it does to me. Or to mean anything to anyone. Something like that.

Also, I want to play Psycho Vegas one day… hahah

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

Not too many things. There is a lot of awful shit out there and not much of it surprises me anymore.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I always wanted to do a concept album about ‘The Martian Chronicles’ by Ray Bradbury. Also have been meaning to make some Jakethehawk Kim Chi… but that will have to wait till there are shows again.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

To affect people in some way.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

At the time of writing this, I’m looking at a career change, so I’m excited about that. But otherwise… nothing is non-musical in my life.

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Jakethehawk, Hinterlands (2021)

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based heavy rockers Jakethehawk will release their third album, Hinterlands, on Feb. 19 as their first offering through Ripple Music. It is the follow-up to 2018’s To Build a Fire (discussed here) and pushes outward into new ranges of progressive melody driven both by airy guitar effects for a post-rock vibe and the vocals of guitarist/keyboardist John Huxley — joined by guitarist Josh Emery and bassist Justin Lober on vocals here and there throughout, while Jordan Lober rounds out the four-piece on drums — across six songs and a dynamic 38 minutes that build on influences from the likes of The Ocean, Opeth and maybe even Between the Buried and Me as much as Elder or any number of their acolyte heavy-made-prog outfits.

Most of all what Jakethehawk do throughout Hinterlands is distinguish themselves. Each track is between five and a half — the shortest is the penultimate “Uncanny Valley” at 5:31 — and about seven minutes long, but how that time is used varies widely and creates an full-album immersion that speaks to the root intent of the band. That is, Hinterlands should be taken as a whole, or at very least as its two three-song halves on an LP. In any case, the overarching flow is established early in “Counting” as the carefully controlled rhythm brings to mind a patience of songwriting that resists the urge to fully break out and run, even at its max-weight apex in the second half.

Instead, it’s the subsequent “Ochre and Umber” that starts off at a sprint, but even that’s momentary, as the band instead turns to a drift and floating progression as setup for the central riff that emerges complemented/contrasted by acoustic strum in the verse. Hooky and revealing of the band’s metalloprog leanings, “Ochre and Umber” is backed by “Interzone Mantra,” which is fuzzed, stretched, intense and patient all at the same time, a consuming highlight for a record that’s already shown marked grace and only continues to do so throughout side B, as “Still Life” (lest we forget Opeth) leans more toward the acoustics in longer subdued stretches before unveiling its full doomly march.

Somewhere between weighted prog and heavy post-rock, Jakethehawk stand out because of their underlying punk influence without being at all punk. As the bass rumbles in “Uncanny Valley” and the guitars once more embrace a wider breadth intertwined with acoustics, the atmosphere is central in a way that most heavy rock doesn’t dare toward, while keeping a sense of not just continuity with the material surrounding, but a point of arrival at the album’s crescendo, which it might be were it not for “June” at the end crashing in with its initial roll, the opening riff familiar but hard to pick out of a half-remembered ether as the band twist it into their own and proceed to summarize the blend of craft and mood they’ve harnessed all along throughout Hinterlands, culminating in a significant round of pummel and shouts before rumbling to the album’s finish.

Jakethehawk were announced as signing to Ripple last September as part of a cohort that includes Thunder Horse, Starified and Appalooza. As records have started to arrive from this set, they each bring something new to the label’s aesthetic, and Jakethehawk‘s penchant for heavy and progressive melody does likewise. Parts may ring recognizable, but they’re no one here so much as themselves.

“June” is premiering below, followed by the album preorder link and more info from the PR wire.

Please enjoy:

Album preorder: https://ripplemusic.bigcartel.com/products?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search=jakethehawk

Formed in 2016, Jakethehawk has always sought to synthesize the classic, riff-centric sound of proto-metal’s pioneers with the textures of psychedelic rock and progressive rock. Additionally, heavy influence is drawn from the band’s home turf… both from the the lush, wooded river valley and from the rich tradition of folk music that still blossoms here. Really, it would be disingenuous for a band from this place to call themselves “desert rock”… much as the landscape and the culture shaped the music of the Palm Desert scene in the early 90’s, so too does Jakethehawk embrace the influence from their homeland. The band embrace their self-given, oxymoronic moniker, “Appalachian Desert Rock” because, they feel it sums these things up… but more importantly than that.. they like it.

2020 sees core members Huxley, Lober and Lober adding guitarist and “sometimes vocalist” Josh Emery to the band as a permanent member to expand their sonic palette in both a live and studio setting.

Jakethehawk is:
John Huxley (Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards)
Jordan Lober (Drums)
Justin Lober (Bass, Vocals)
Josh Emery (Guitar, Vocals)

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