In Conversation with Jake Aldridge

I’ve always been ambitious and I’m not one to do anything by halves. When I was a young kid, I loved football and wanted to be a professional goalkeeper! My next phase was golf and I even studied it as a subject at college. Whilst at college, I began to write songs. I knew it was probably time to leave when I was writing rhymes in the ‘notes’ section of my phone in between shots during golf tournaments.

After hearing the country band Florida Georgia Line collaborate with Nelly, I became intrigued by country music and fell in love with the instrumentation. I slowly began to incorporate elements of country music into my hip-hop tracks.

‘Partners in Crime’ is my first ever country-pop song and only my second single as a singer and not a rapper. The song was produced by a guy called Matt Knight, someone I’d crossed paths with previously, but lost touch with for many years. I spent days trying to track him down online. I knew he was the guy who could capture the sound I wanted. It was painful – he had no Twitter, no Instagram, no Facebook page. I eventually came across a mobile number for him and gave him a call! I even had to send a picture of the two of us to reassure him that I wasn’t a stranger.

 

The music video was filmed at Cecilia’s, which is a bar/nightclub in the centre of Norwich. It was filmed by The Camera Guys and featured Danielle Beales, a young model from Norwich. We had a lot of fun making the video. I’ve never done so many shots of water whilst betting someone else’s car keys on a poker game before! We were helped out enormously by friends, Grant, April, Barry and Bert, so a huge thanks to those guys too!

I always think a video is a great way to tell the story of the song and to capture people’s attention. It seems to engage people more so than when they’re just listening to the audio.

 

It’s crucial. It’s basically the only way we can promote ourselves online. People want content from the comfort of their homes these days and we need to give it to them. Even worldwide touring artists are relying on social media right now, with the Coronavirus bringing a halt to all concert performances.

 

Who inspires your music? 

Well, I’ve always been heavily inspired by Tupac Shaukur. Like me, he was very much a lyricist and talked about real-life topics. I admired his work ethic too. He released SO much content in the little time that he was alive. In terms of country-pop inspirations, I’m a huge fan of Kane Brown and Dan+Shay. I love how ‘pop’ influences their country sound so heavily. Same with Florida Georgia Line.

I do! It’s really hard to express my gratitude via social media. The support shown to me, both with the new song and with my transition from rap music, has just been unbelievable! I’m just so grateful to have people getting behind me and supporting me in doing what I love. Some of these people have supported me since the days of Myspace, which is pretty cool. Especially when I consider how bad my music was back then. Honesty, I can’t thank everyone enough. It means everything to me and I’m doing all I can to personally keep in tough with my fanbase.