We were lucky to catch up with Steve Jacobson recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Steve thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?
Interview
I started playing in bands as an early teen, probably about 14 years old. I mostly had the same couple of guys throughout that time, my drummer and second guitarist (we hen I had one) and then a couple different bass players through and a little while beyond high school. Our project took on different names: Zephyx, Iron Cobra and Silent Rage to name the main ones.
Sadly, I was always pushed in the more traditional direction of college and a stable 9:00 to 5:00 career. I never truly felt supported in the idea of following a music career full time, even though my dad had also been in bands in his teens and early twenties. I pursued music for many years, but during that time I developed an addiction to alcohol and other drugs.
That addiction quickly derailed my life and I gave up all music endeavors for probably around 10 years or more. When I finally straightened my life out, it took a couple years for me to get back into playing as I just had no idea what direction I wanted my life to go. But the music bug never went away and since approximately 1999, I have been involved in music projects and bands all the way up to the present moment.
I feel like the years of addiction derailing my music path really threw me off and I wish I had started earlier or rather, had stuck with it the whole time with the conviction that I was going to make money from it. I have never been able to truly monetize this passion and that’s been one of the hardest pills to seallow.
A lot of times, I feel sorry for myself because I haven’t found that financial success from something I felt ‘called’ to do. I’ve also found myself feeling stupid because I know many other people have been able to monetize their music/bands and I just can’t figure it out. I have experienced so much frustration and even some self-pity around this issue as well.
But it is a passion. I have tried to quit many times out of frustration, boredom, lack of fellow musicians in my area, and other life things getting in the way, but I’m always drawn back sooner rather than later. I will probably continue to push out music in different genres and with different bands or projects until I’m too old to even hold a guitar anymore.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Steve Jacobson, or StevieJ or Requiem Steve depending on who you talk to. I am a veteran of the Northern California and Lake Erie Region metal music scenes. In the 2000s I was primarily in a death metal band in Sacramento called Forsake The Flesh. We were a heavily Opeth inspired band and played all over the greater Sacramento area. Our drummer at the time of my departure had a home studio in which he used Cubase and I eventually modelled my own studio after that.
After moving to Erie in 2007 I started my solo project Requiem For Oblivion, using many songs/riffs/ideas from my FTF days to kick that off. Over the last 15 years I have had a host of well known Erie musicians help me to write, record and perform with RFO and that project is still going today. We have opened for many of my idols over the years including Katatonia and Fleshgod Apocalypse. We currently perform as a 2 piece atmospheric death metal band.
During my years here in Erie I have also been honored to join such bands as Scarwork (Rock Erie Music Award winners), iScream (a shoot off of Scarwork which thrived at the local festivals and also starred fellow Mayhem Music Promotions member Erica), Lordran (a local fan favorite black metal band), and currently, I am involved in Battle Chapel, a popular local symphonic battle metal outfit featuring a male/female attack on vocals. We all dress in medieval garb and have a spirited stage show. I also co-founded The Light In The Dark, a cross between Seether, A Perfect Circle, and (newer) Katatonia and there’s been talk of reviving that project in 2025.
I have played a big part in the promotional aspect of some of these projects and in my bands, I was almost solely responsible for booking and online marketing and PR. In addition, I have been very involved in this Erie music scene for 17 years and through that time I’ve supported, attended and promoted my bands’ shows as well as shows I was not playing but which featured my friends’ bands. So when my good friend Jen approached me about her idea to start Mayhem, I jumped on board right away.
I believe Mayhem has made a big difference in our area, reviving our scene after the closing of numerous venues, the disbanding of many local musical acts, and the crushing social effects of COVID. I like to think I contribute to Mayhem in my small ways like being a sounding board for Jen, attending shows, coming up with ideas for bands and venues, and occasionally digging into my contacts to help make things happen. With the addition of all the other skilled, talented, wonderful human beings in the past 1-2 years, I think Mayhem Music Promotions is destined for big things!
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I remember when I moved away from home the second time, to attend UC Davis out in California. I had only been flirting with my music up to that point and was trying to finish what I already started with going back to college. But mostly I think I was trying to please everyone around me by focusing on school and working that ‘9 to 5′ that never seemed to sit well with me.
One night, in 2002, we were informed that my youngest brother had died in a motorcycle accident. In the days and weeks that followed, through all my grief and confusion, one thing became perfectly clear: that life is short, that I could be wiped off the earth at any moment, and that pursuing my passion and taking it seriously had to be a huge part of my life moving forward.
Since that difficult time following the death of my brother, I have done just that. I have honed my craft and worked on becoming proficient with extended range (7, 8, 9, and 10 string) guitars and learning to use recording equipment and software. I have founded projects and bands, joined other already established bands, gigged frequently, played festivals and opened for a few of my heros. People from all over the globe have listened to many of my bands’ music on Spotify, YouTube and Pandora.
Sometimes, it takes a complete upheaval of our lives to take the steps necessary to achieve more fulfillment. I have found that to be true in my life, on a few occasions.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
I’ve thought about this on a few occasions. It’s sad that the top 90% of all streams (and consequently, the proportionate money earned) in the music business is made by the top 1% of artists. Something just doesn’t seem right about that.
I’ve heard at some point that other countries value their artistic contributors more than the US does. In fact, Sweden has money set aside for musicians through the Swedish Arts Council and the Swedish Arts Grants Committee. These organizations provide financial support to music groups, individual artists, and venues. It would be wonderful if the US would do something along those lines.
The other thing I’ve considered is it doesn’t take that many fans to financially support an artist/band. There should be cost free ways set up to reach more people to find the audience that resonates with your sound and style.
Or maybe set up a music tax or entertainment tax that just takes $5 or $10 per year per income producing American adult that would go into a fund for the lesser earning musicians, artists, entertainers (however it’s set up). In 2022, there were 239 million income earners in America and if everyone contributed even just $2 each, that’s a pot of $478,000,000! That’s the equivalent of a McDonald’s coffee PER YEAR!
So as we can see, with the amount of people in this country, if you just get a miniscule contribution from each person in the money earning category, this would largely solve the ‘starving artist’s syndrome we hear about when discussing the music business.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tiktok.com/@requiemforoblivion?_t=8Vdlo9dLCgd&_r=1
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/requiemforoblivionofficial
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RequiemForOblivion
- Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/requiemoblivion
- Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/requiemforoblivionofficial
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/requiem-oblivion/
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/track/2wCGhnC8kJgGs0PIKRpELm?si=AgTmTZPaRmCcRY-udUd3jQ&utm_source=copy-link
Image Credits
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