Five Questions With Jake Donaldson

Photo Credit: Mike Farkas – G3 Designs

We recently chatted with Newcastle, ON-based 16-year-old musician, Jake Donaldson in our newest segment of Five Questions With. He is currently working on releasing his first single from his upcoming EP, which will happen in early 2018. Stay tuned!

Care to introduce yourself to our readers?

Hey there! I’m Jake Donaldson! I’m a 16-year-old musician from Newcastle, Ontario! I play piano, guitar, bass, drums, and ukulele, but my main instrument is my voice. I write my own music as well as perform covers and mashups of popular songs on my YouTube channel!

Tell us a bit about your music and writing style.

My style of music is very pop and EDM influenced, but with a darker twist to it. As for writing, I try and use my lyrics to relate to my audience. The key to writing a good song, in my opinion, is keeping a perfect balance between catchiness, cleverness, and relatability.

Do you have any upcoming shows? For someone who has yet to see you live, how would you explain your live performance?

I don’t have any specific shows announced yet, but I’m in the process of planning a tour, so make sure to keep your eyes open for that! My live performance is more of a show or experience rather than just simply singing. I’ll be playing instruments, looping instruments, dancing, and remixing original songs on the spot to create live versions that are a bit different the original song!

If you were asked to suggest only one of your songs for someone to hear, which would it be?

I’ve got a single dropping in January called “Options”, which is definitely the one song I’d suggest to anyone if they could only listen to one. “Options” really define where I’m wanting to go as an artist. It’s unlike any other song you’ve heard, yet fits in with the kind of pop music that exists today. “Options” is my personal favourite song of mine, so that’s definitely the one song that everyone should listen to of mine.

Canadian Beats is all about Canadian music, so who are your current favourite Canadian bands/artists?

That’s a tough one considering Canada has so many awesome artists. If I had to choose just three, I’d definitely have to go with The Weeknd, Hedley and Virginia To Vegas. The Weekend has that dark vibe that influences my music, but with a hip-hop groove, so I love listening to his music! Hedley is such an awesome band that continues to change their style over and over, and I always love the direction of music that they head in, so Hedley is for sure up there as one of my favourites. As for Virginia to Vegas, his style of music is so distinct that whenever he drops a new single, you know it’s him. His songs just keep getting better and the production is incredible in all his songs!

Connect with Jake Donaldson:
Website
Facebook
Twitter