We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Saint Jacob. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Saint Jacob below.
Saint Jacob, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
I made the move to Tennessee in the autumn of 2020 to study audio engineering and music business at the Dark Horse Institute. Throughout the first year of my education, whether in the famous honky tonk bars on Broadway or at a packed out house party in East Nashville, I continuously had the exact same interaction with nearly everyone I met: they missed hardcore. Everyone I met that made the move to Tennessee just as I did always talked about how they missed the vibrant hardcore punk bands of their hometowns, getting sweaty in the basements of their local house venue. They would always say the same thing: “we had a pretty cool hardcore scene back home, not really much of one here, I miss that shit.” It was a sentiment I agreed with and related to. I was born and raised in South Detroit (yes, like the Journey lyric). Growing up in the Midwest, there was no shortage of amazing rock, metal, and hardcore bands in every town I went. So, after the hundredth time of hearing someone say how much they wished Nashville had a more vibrant, organized hardcore scene, my only response was “why don’t we build one?”
Since then, it has been my goal to do everything I can to build and support a healthy, lively, and dedicated scene for alternative artists of all kinds in Nashville, Tennessee. I have made it my mission to carve out a place for heavy music in this town, and to uphold the culture of hardcore and heavy metal every day of my life.
In the Spring of 2021, I was connected with Nick Tsaousis through our internship with Dark Horse Recording. He told me about how he renovated the basement of his house to be a jam space for his friend’s bands to rehearse and record demos; I felt that we could use the space for more. I floated the idea we buddied up to turn the space into the only DIY basement venue in our side of town. It was Nick’s idea to call it The Halfway, and that just stuck. We spent months getting the equipment in order, adding the right lighting, coming up with a ticketing system, and decorating the place. In July, we hosted our first show for local songwriters and rock bands, and from then on we had at least one show on the books every month until February of 2022. We hosted everything from indie rock to fusion bands, but lo and behold, the shows that were the most packed were the hardcore shows. We created a safe, organized, and dedicated space for people to become exposed to the culture of hardcore, and folks were hooked. That was the beginning.
Later that year, I partnered with a local clothing brand to create, promote, and host a festival to showcase the alternative gems of Nashville’s underground, which I lovingly dubbed “BadFest.” We partnered up to run the festival two more times after 2021, each year trying to top the last in terms of scale and sound. Our 2022 rendition of BadFest was less than 15 tickets away from selling out… regardless of numbers, every year has felt just as electric as the last, and the feeling of watching this town’s appreciation for heavy music grow more and more as the years go on is simply indescribable.
Outside of more organized ventures, I’ve always believed the biggest pillar of any good hardcore scene is community involvement. Via the connections I’ve made through BadFest, I had the perfect opportunity to do so. I have done all that I can to continue to get people in front of these bands, get involved in the scene, and keep the sounds of metal and hardcore growing as much as we can. I’ve been involved in booking and promoting dozens of shows these last few years, and have had the honor of doing so outside of Nashville as well. Giving bands and artists of all levels, local or touring worldwide, equal opportunities to shine has been so important to me for all of my career, and nothing will change that.
Even as that career has shifted away from a continued partnership with many of the colleagues I had through BadFest, I will still do everything I can to uphold this talented, dedicated, and diverse community of artists and bands creating the loudest sounds in Music City– whether through booking shows for them in town, sharing the stage with these talented individuals, or simply buying a ticket to their shows and throwing hands in their mosh pits.
I will not sit here and say that the “Nashville Heavy” scene has thrived because of me alone; this city, these bands, the dedicated audience, they did that all on their own. I feel so lucky to be a part of such an amazing community, especially one this loud.
It has been an honor to work with the dedicated staffs of each and every space in Nashville that has opened its doors to my visions and ideas. The hard work of these spaces– The End, The East Room, DRKMTTR Collective, The Eye, and so on– cannot be understated.
It has been an honor to work with such amazing gems of South East hardcore such as Waxed, Bazookatooth, Circuit Circuit, Vital Part, Wielded Steel, and so many more amazing bands that I believe perfectly represent what artists like this are capable of.
I am so excited to see what the future of Nashville’s loudest and proudest community has in store.
Saint Jacob, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Saint Jacob. I am a songwriter and touring musician in Nashville, TN. I am the vocalist/guitarist of alternative metal band More Weight, and touring guitarist for metalcore artist Reece Young.
When most folks think of a “Nashville musician,” I could not be further from the image they have in their head.
My entire life, I have been obsessed with rock n roll of all varieties. Ever since I was a child, my obsession with getting my grimy little hands on the loudest, heaviest, and strangest records I could find has been the catalyst for creating the music that I have my entire life. Playing loud, fast, and heavy music with my 6 string in hand is what I have dedicated my entire life to, and I cannot consider why I would ever want to stop.
I graduated high school in 2020. After my high school diploma was emailed to be due to Covid restrictions, I almost immediately moved to Tennessee to begin my education in audio engineering and music business. I was 18 years old.
I wasted very little time beginning my career in the music industry, and I have wasted even less since moving to Music City.
I kept my nose on the grindstone, and because of that I have accomplished a lot very early on in my life.
I studied at the Dark Horse Institute, graduated top of my class, and interned at their studio– Dark Horse Recording– in Franklin, TN for almost a year.
I left the internship to go on my first tour ever, playing guitar for Reece Young to support his record “Traumatized For Breakfast.” After that tour, we were booked for Riot Fest in Chicago, IL, with headliners My Chemical Romance, The Misfits, and Nine Inch Nails. I was 20 years old.
Not long after my 21st birthday, we were playing our first sold out headliner in Manhattan, which lead to us opening direct support for Stand Atlantic in Des Moines, which lead to us playing Adjacent Fest in Atlantic City the same day as Blink-182 while we were gearing up for another rollout for the next Reece Young record.
All of this, while pursuing my own creative endeavors.
I’ve been in multiple different bands, shared the stage with some of Nashville’s finest musicians, and have hosted and promoted dozens of shows to help fellow rock and metal artists get up on a stage and show this city what they are made of.
Now, at 22 years old, I am preparing for my band More Weight’s first official single, gearing up for another busy year playing guitar for Reece Young wherever he takes his show on the road, and continuing to carve out a place for heavy music in Nashville, Tennessee.
In this town, it is rare that I am the best musician in any room that I am in.
I am not the best guitarist, I am not the best vocalist, and I am certainly not the best audio engineer.
However, I have ALWAYS committed myself to being the hardest worker and the fastest learner I can be. For that, and that alone, I have a career I am extremely proud of.
I cannot wait to see what other amazing directions life pulls me in, I cannot wait to share more of my experience as it unravels, and I cannot wait to keep grinding my nose on the grindstone to prove myself over, and over, and over again… all in the name of playing heavy music.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
Since moving to Nashville, I have been in seven bands.
Seven.
From the outside looking in, going in and out of seven different projects may seem like a destructive pattern… that cannot be further from the case, now. Throughout my varying experiences of starting a band and watching it fail, it left me heartbroken every time. I felt like I had failed, not the band. I felt like I was not working hard enough, or giving my art enough attention.
Now, after four years of rebuilding myself over and over again as an artist, I know that the experience of watching your own art fail is what makes or breaks an artist; it is one of the most important steps to becoming the artist you want to be. Everything door that closes is another door that opens, or however the saying goes.
My band, More Weight, is finally releasing music this year. Our first single, “Downfall,” will be available on all streaming platforms on March 15th, 2024. We have been working on this record since April of 2023.
We have hit countless roadblocks in our short career as a band. Our drummer suffered a broken wrist after one of our shows that took 3 months to recover. 3 months of no shows, no recording, no songwriting as a band. The record we are gearing up to release is the third. round of sessions of recording these songs. Third. We’ve tried to record this record TWICE before, only to toss the recordings in the trash due to technical issues with the sessions themselves, as well as personal issues all three of us we’re working through at the time.
Throughout the entire process of making this record, from top to bottom, it has felt like the only thing standing in the way of us getting it out was some external universal force bearing down on us. It felt like we weren’t meant to get this record out. Now that it IS finally coming out, I am elated to finally share this music with the world… but I wouldn’t dare to forget everything it took to finally to so.
Of course, hard work and hardship like this only makes it THAT much sweeter when it pays off– that’s not hard to relate to.
What I feel is hard for people to understand, even other creatives, is that there is so much to be said about the hardships themselves. “There is beauty in the bullshit,” as I like to say. To me, there is no other way to learn as an artist.
Failure has done more than just teach me what not to do in artistic spaces. Failure has been the fuel for my art as a whole. Embracing failure is how I have managed to keep going. I recall playing a house show when I was 20 to a very empty space– we thought we could pull a lot of people, and we simply couldn’t. Instead of phoning in a performance to the dozen-or-so people that DID end up showing to see my band play in a dingy basement, I decided to treat them to a proper show. I had stripped down to my underwear, I was hanging from the ceiling, I was pouring shots of Bacardi into people’s mouths mid song… I was an animal. Even though there was hardly anyone there, everyone there walked away with a performance they wouldn’t soon forget. I have strived to push myself that hard every time I dare to pick up my instrument and walk on a stage, no matter what.
The energy I have, night after night, to do what I do– to give these sporadic, energetic, animalistic performances that I love to give so damn much– comes from failure. Failure does more than inspire me to “push myself harder”… some nights, it has felt like I have been fighting for my life up there on that stage. Recalling the pain, the sadness, the emptiness of feeling like “I have failed,” ignites something within me to push myself beyond my absolute limit every single time. Failure pushes me to go from zero to one hundred over and over again. I would rather strip down to my underwear, throw my guitar up into the air, and roll around on a sticky stage floor every night for the rest of my life than to ever feel the lowest points of failure I have felt ever again… and I will continue to do just that until I simply can’t anymore.
It’s gotten me this far, right?
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Be open to the art around you, even if you don’t get it or it scares you; if it scares you, that just means it’s good art.
Don’t just go to concert halls and arenas to see the music you like, take a chance on a local artist and go see some bands play off the beaten path. Go have a few beers at a dive bar, or find street parking and go to a house show. Find a lineup of bands you’ve never even heard of, stop at the ATM for some cash, and drive to the other side of town to a place you’ve never been. Go see some punk bands play in the dingiest basement you’ve ever been in, and let the music just speak for itself. Talk to the people at those shows, listen to their story and they’ll listen to yours. The best experiences I’ve had with live music didn’t cost me more than $10 to see. Go to those spaces, get a beer spilled on your shirt and get a bruise in the mosh pit. I promise, you will be alright.
The next day, go to a record store– not a chain place like FYE or Urban Outfitters, a REAL record store– and pick any record off the shelf. If you don’t know the band, even better. Take it home and listen to the entire thing. Keep it forever in your collection.
Go down the street to the nearest book store and do the exact same thing with whatever book you don’t recognize. Take it home, spend the week reading it, and put it back on your shelf to collect dust once you’re done.
Go across town to a neighborhood you don’t usually spend time in and find a good bar. Sit down at the bar, no matter if it’s completely empty or if there’s only one seat left. Don’t ask the bartender what they would recommend, order whatever stands out to you.
It doesn’t matter if that record you brought home becomes your new favorite, or if it’s the worst noise you’ve ever heard.
It doesn’t matter if that book you read changes your life, or became the dullest piece of literature you own.
It doesn’t matter if the drink you bought was the best drink you’ve ever had in your life, or if you couldn’t even get down the first sip.
What matters is that they were YOURS. You took a chance, you took a shot in the dark, you woke up and said “I am going to try something new today.” THAT is what keeps good art alive. Being open to the art around you is not only good for the artists around you creating it, but it’s just good for your soul. I would not be where I am today if not for the amazing people I’ve come across in my life that DID take that chance; not just on me, but on all of the art around them.
If you look hard enough, good art is everywhere.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @saintjacobprayforus / @moreweightband
Image Credits
Austin Neukirch, Melanie Russell, Oliver Fitzgerald, Ben Beauchene