Jake Houlsby is a Newcastle-based singer songwriter who has been playing music for the last 12 years, writing his own material for around seven and creating a sound that he feels best fits into the ‘folk’ category alongside artists such as Nick Drake, José González and Neil Young.’
Having previously released material under the guise of Suntrapp, Jake stepped out of the limelight six months ago to reconsider his artistic direction and decided to release music under his own name describing how, “It came about after a bit of a rough six-month period in my life where I became very dissatisfied with everything around me and the songs I’d been writing. As I eventually started to crawl out of the abyss, I felt the only way I could carry on was to ditch Suntrapp and release some music under my own name. It was my gut instinct to make the change.”
Described by BBC 6 Music’s Lauren Laverne as ‘sublime,’ Jake has steadily been attracting more and more attention since releasing his debut EP, ‘Yannina’ last year with this April seeing the self-release of new single, ‘Carousel.’
What first attracted my attention, however, was the B-side ‘Sabinal,’ a wonderfully crafted, hauntingly melodic track that exposes a darker side of Jake’s writing. Driven only by an intricately picked acoustic guitar melody and the haunted voice of Jake, ‘Sabinal’ is a beautifully delicate fusion of these two elements. Listen above.
Listen and purchase more of Jake’s music here
