Jake Kaiser is one of San Francisco’s fastest-rising names in the melodic house and techno scene; or at least he was until he uprooted his life in the Bay and made a new one for himself in Boulder, Colorado. And while moving to a new city is far from unheard of, keeping up the steady release schedule of masterfully-crafted productions that he has over 2022 certainly is.
And after landing massive releases on top labels like Nora En Pure’s Purified and others, Jake now seeks to close out the year with one final vocal track to usher in a new and exciting year for his rising career.
The track is called ‘Sweet Nothing’ and features the vocals of Phoebe Tsen, whom Jake states in the interview as having connected with from his work with Purified. The track’s foundation is built off of the interplay between Phoebe’s enchanting vocals and Jake’s adept use of melodies and textures that tell a story of liberation from heartbreak and a bright tomorrow.
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How did the track “Sweet Nothing” come to be?
Sweet Nothing was written about a year ago and the instrumental version with the main melodic ideas was written as last summer was ending the track was intended to be an homage to summer and all the good times and vibes associated with it.
I loved this track right away with the guitar intro blending into the bell-like arps that became the main hook yet always knew it was the perfect candidate for some vocals to level it up to something even more special. I kept this in mind during the writing process and intentionally left the room in the mix to find the right vocals.
Finding vocalists can be tricky but I linked up with Phoebe after hearing the track “Pulling me Under ” by Heard Right and Phoboe that was released on Nora En Pure’s label Purified.
I have released 2 EPs with Purified and love the music coming from this label so I pay close attention to their releases and really fell in love with Phoebe’s vocals on this one and knew that this track would be a perfect place to collaborate on.
How is your approach to working with a vocalist different than when producing an instrumental?
I briefly touched on this in the above answer but every track is a bit different and for me, it really depends on when the vocalist gets involved in the project. A majority of my vocal tracks are written as instrumentals that I will find a vocalist for once around 70-80% complete.
I write these tracks with space in the mix to include vocals, loosely plan out the verse and chorus structure, yet remain very flexible to change the track as needed to make the vocals work harmoniously with the track. I have found that this thought process of thinking about the vocals going into a project makes a much stronger vocal track than having a full instrumental and trying to force vocals into an already busy sonic landscape.
I used to dabble a good amount with more indie rock and singer-songwriter tunes on the side so have a lot of experience working with vocals and love being able to get some actual good vocals (unlike mine) and bring them into my tracks. 2022 has been the year with by far my most vocal releases and I have really prioritized creating more vocal tracks to stretch my production and songwriting skills and also hopefully expand my audience.
Why do you think the record label Th3rd Brain was the best home for this record to be released?
I connected with Th3rd Brain for this track, and the project that it is a part of which also includes my recent tracks “Promises” and “Granite”, as I knew this project was slightly different than my usual more dancy releases and wanted to bring in a team that had more experience in a slightly more commercial space to help me promote this song and project.
My intention is that working with them would help me engage with a new audience that I can bring with me and introduce to my past and future releases.
What is the most important thing you learned while producing “Sweet Nothing”?
Great question and with all my projects there is such a large gap between production and release I may be a bit hazy on details but the following thoughts come to mind.
First, finding vocalists takes a lot of time and energy.
This is not really Sweet Nothing specific but with prioritizing vocal tracks this year I have learned that the start-to-end process of a vocal track takes much longer than I was used to with my instrumentals and takes a lot of dedicated effort on both finding the right person and creating the trackside.
Secondly, it’s okay to stretch the boundaries of your sound and style.
This track wound up leaning a bit more commercial feeling than I intended going into it but working on this track and sitting with it has made me realize that that is ok and in our streaming paradigm of music stretching your sound outward while keeping the core of what makes it you as an artist is a great way to expand your fan base and help new people discover your music.
Share your favorite memory you have attached to this song.
My favorite memory of this song is probably a show in Audio in SF where I played the instrumental version of this track as an opener and saw so many people grooving to it with big smiles on their faces.
This version had a few other vocal choppy elements to replace what became the final vocals and I knew at that moment that with the right vocals this track could be very special this all came together when I first heard Phoboe’s initial demo made me re- fall in love with this track and take a step back and see how much stronger it was compared that that version I played out.
Will Vance is a professional music producer who has been involved in the industry for the better part of a decade and has been the managing editor at Magnetic Magazine since mid-2022. In that time period, he has published thousands of articles on music production, industry think pieces and educational articles about the music industry. Over the last decade as a professional music producer, Will Vance has also ran multiple successful and highly respected record labels in the industry, including Where The Heart Is Records as well as having launched a new label with a focus on community through Magnetic Magazine. When not running these labels or producing his own music, Vance is likely writing for other top industry sites like Waves or the Hyperbits Masterclass or working on his upcoming book on mindfulness in music production. On the rare chance he's not thinking about music production, he's probably running a game of Dungeons and Dragons with his friends which he has been the dungeon master for for many years.
