We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jacob Johnson of Oceanic. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jacob below.

Alright, Jacob thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

That’s the dream, right?

People often ask us as a band “What’s the goal?” I think they often expect us to tell them about how we want to be famous or have our music change the world. While I would love for our music to have the biggest impact on our world as possible, the real dream is just to be able to support my family by making a full-time living creating/playing music with my best friends.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I (the guitarist of Oceanic) met Nathan (the singer), during our first year of college. We pretty early in our friendship decided that we wanted to start a band. Once we started it and got sam (bass player) involved we knew fairly quickly that it is what we wanted to do professionally for the rest of our lives.

So we started writing a bunch of songs and began the journey of creating the best live show we could create with the resources we had, which wasn’t (isn’t) much.

I think our songs are great and our overall sound is unique to us. Nate’s voice is recognizable, sams bass lines are groovy, and together we each bring something to the table that pushes each other and helps the songs become much better than they would be if we were individual solo acts.

However, the thing that I’m most proud of is our live show. We put on a high energy show that includes synced lights, video, audio effects, and over the top stage presence from the 3 core members. We put our heart and souls into each performance and ensure that no detail is left unattended. I can’t wait to see what we do when we actually have money to create a show for people.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

This is an easy one for individuals. Go to local shows!

Local shows are cheap ($7-$25), easy to get to, and great for a night out with friends.

Find the music venues in your city that are under 250 capacity. You would be surprised the talent that is waiting for you there. Plus, it is a great way to meet nice people who just want to share their art with you.

Finding local bands that you like, following them, streaming their music, and telling your friends about them is the best way for you to help a small band to get to that next level.

For the city. Create festivals or concert series’. We’ve been a part of plenty of festivals and events that put on a show with several local acts, food vendors, art installments, etc… this is a great way to boost the arts community in your town.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Before covid, we had just finished recording our debut album. We were stoked on it. We got investors involved in order to use a grammy award winning studio and producer, we spent hours upon hours refining the songs and the track list, hired a phenomenal drummer, and we did it. We made something we were truly proud of and ready to show the world.

The producer wanted to shop the record to a few labels. He did and a few major label reps were very interested. However, this is where it turns.

Covid came and the country shut down. Labels weren’t sure what was going to happen, so they stopped communication with us. We weren’t sure what was going to happen but we new if we released this record we wouldn’t be able to tour on it. So we decided not to release it.

Instead we took some songs from it, wrote a few new ones, and release our Angel EP.

All in all it worked out. At a very uncertain time we made the best decision we could make given the circumstances. Not to mention a couple of great songs came from it that probably never would’ve been written otherwise.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.oceanicofficial.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oceanicofficial?igsh=a2t6czJxMnU4Y2Zi
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oceanicofficialband?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@oceanic6146?si=RDDe-Vm2HMZGswr3

Image Credits
Daniel Carrai Logan Daugherty Paul Rivera Lydia Sprecher Macy Blankenship