Nicole Young sat down on Zoom for an exclusive interview with Nashville recording artists Jake and Mikayla. This duo would be accompanying American Idol star Alex Miller at the Ernie Eveland Gym Located in Paris, Illinois on March 16, 2024 to provide live music to Paris locals, and their fans.
Jake: "Hello, How are you"?
Nicole: "I am well, thank you for meeting with me. I really appreciate this, and your time. So I want to get started, can you tell us a fun fact about yourselves"?
Jake: "A fun fact about ourselves? Mikayla goes first"!
Mikayla: "I have so many plants it is not even funny! Oh, actually I have a fifteen foot cactus right over here"
Nicole: "Oh my goodness"!
Mikayla: "Yeah, I have a problem! But yeah, lots of plants that is kind of my other hobby I guess".
Nicole: "What one would you say is your favorite plant"?
Mikayla: "it has gotta be the... who has a fifteen foot cactus"?!
Nicole: "Yes, very true"!
Mikayla: "It is thirty years old, so yeah it is older than me"!
Nicole: "Did you inherit the cactus, or how did you end up with it"?
Mikayla: "I found it on Facebook market place! This lady said that she is moving to a house that didn't have high ceilings anymore, and that she was going to have to give it up It was from like a really special friend of hers. I was like uh! I can't just let her just let it die! So, I bought it, yeah".
Nicole: "Wow, I love that! So how about you Jake"?
Jake: "Okay, well I am a little bit of a nerd, so after a stressful day I like to build legos".
Nicole: "Awe, so do you buy Lego sets, or what do you?
Jake: "Yeah, it is usually the sets. Star Wars is kind of my thing.
Nicole: Awesome, okay so you guys have a show coming up tomorrow here in Paris, Illinois my home town. I am excited I can not wait to watch you guys perform! But how are you guys feeling about that performance? What are you expecting?
Jake: "Yeah, uhm I know that we have a lot of fans coming so we are super excited to share some new music uhm with the folks who haven't heard some of these new songs yet. We love Paris, we love going over there and uh it is usually always a good crowd, and I think it is going to be awesome!"
Mikayla: "Yeah".
Nicole: "Absolutely! Okay uhm, do you guys have anything new coming up, have you been working on anything new"?
Jake: "Yeah, so uhh we just came back from Nashville. We recorded a new song called Drive Me Wild, we are gonna kind of day view it tomorrow night. Uhm so we will be releasing that uhm sometime probably in April, or May I think as a single. We have a lot of shows coming up as well. We are going to Gatlinburg playing Ole Red in April. We got a show in Golf Shores Alabama later this summer. We are going up to Michigan, Colorado, so we have a lot of shows that we are doing all over the place, and we are actually working on a new record as well so just a lot of things in the works!"
Nicole: "That is amazing to hear! I am excited for you guys and about following your music journey, I can not wait to see what you have to offer to us fans, and you know all the things! So Do you guys have plans to do any collaborations on your new album, or anything like that"?
Jake: "Uhm, yeah we have talked about it. No plans as of right now, but that is definitely something we would like to do".
Nicole: "Who is your ideal person to collaborate with"?
Jake: "Uhm I don't know, we have so many friends that are in and around the music business in Nashville and stuff. Just so many fantastic musicians and singers and stuff. We love bringing in our friends and people that we know that are talented. So it would probably be somebody hat we know, that is not necessarily somebody that a lot of people know. That is kind of what we like to do."
Nicole: "So you like to open up the door of opportunity for others"?
Jake: "Oh yeah"!
Nicole: "I love that! So I have a couple of fan questions for you guys".
Jake: "Sure".
Nicole: "Okay, can you tell us what is your favorite song to perform when you sing Karaoke"?
Jake: "oo Karaoke"!
Mikayla: "I have been, okay I have been singing heart of glass by Miley Cyrus. Haha I like that rocky kind of edgyier stuff but".
Jake: "Yeah we do hit up the Karaoke sometimes. We got a great friend that does Karaoke over in Charleston, but he makes me do a Brad Paisley song every time. He says you sound like Brad Paisley, you have to do a Brad Paisley" So every time that I sing Karaoke over there I tell him just pick one, and I usually do what he picks".
Nicole: "I love Brad Paisley, I am a huge fan" Okay, so what is the funniest fan sign that you have seen a fan hold up in a crowd. If you can not think of the funniest, is there one that has been your favorite, or maybe one that has stood out to you".
Mikayla : " I can say just like the amount of times that people have misspelled my name is obsured, or like one time we went, and the whole advertising was Jack and Mikayla".
Jake: "Yeah, I think people get our names wrong all of the time. It is so funny, like I guess we see that a lot. We have had some fan signs and stuff but nothing that stands out".
Nicole: "So how did you handle the whole like, you name was spelled as "Jack"?
Jake: "I don't know, like even before we had our duo someone, somebody had wrote my name as "Jason Holt" It was like, how do you even get "Jason" out of "Jake"? A lot of people, and I don't even know how they find, but they have to dig for old photos, so for advertising I swear people will find the worst photos of us from a long time ago, and use it".
Mikayla: "And we literally in the email send them photos, and how to spell our name"
Nicole: "Well not only am I interviewing you guys tonight, but I will be photographing you tomorrow! I promise to make sure you guys look good in the photos"!
Jake: Make us look good! Alright!"
Nicole: Uhm well, this is really all I have for you question wise. Is their anything you guys would like your fans to know or anything you else you'd like to share?
Jake: "Yeah, uhm definitely follow us on all of our social medias, find out where we are going to be next.Uhm listen to our music uhm be watching out for our new songs coming out".
Mikayla: "The best way to support us if you can't come to shows and you have all of the merchandise that we offer so far. The best thing to do is just stream our music, and share our music with others."
Jake: "And if you like what you hear tell people about us".
Mikayla: "invite your friends".
Jake: "That is what we want so"!
Nicole: "Amazing so uhm will your merchandise be offered tomorrow night?"
Jake: "Yes It will, we got some new t-shirts and stuff and of course our new album roots that we released last year. We got physical copies. People don't buy CDs as much anymore so we have flash drives made of all of our music that we have ever recorded so uh, and that includes our new single that we released last year Blood Sweat and Heartbeat".
Mikayla: "and all of our Christmas stuff too".
Jake: "Our Christmas Stuff!"
Nicole: Yes, that Christmas stuff, I am familiar with that! Okay well again I appreciate your time and I can't wait to see you guys perform tomorrow night!
Jake: "looking forward to seeing you! Thank you so much!"
Nicole: "Thank You, have a good night"!
This concludes the interview portion With Jake and Mikayla. Their socials include, but are not limited too:
Official Website: https://jakehoult.com/home
Show Schedule: https://jakeandmikayla.com/shows
Commentaires