Step Through The Door With Jack Carek
Mr. Jack Carek is an independent musician from San Francisco based currently out of Eugene Oregon. Having been involved with music for a number of years, Jack has recently released the ”Through the Door” album with the help of drummer John Brode and guitarist Zack Baum. Dig his debut album while you get to know the man behind the music a bit, courtesy of your pals at Evil Bubble.
EB: So what's your background in life and music?
JC: I’m currently a student at the University of Oregon up in Eugene, moved up from the Bay Area about two years ago. Back home I played with a few bands, mainly a jam style group called Footsteps my friends and I formed. John, the drummer, has played on all of my released music so far. He’s got a great ear and sends me all the stems when I’m recording a new track. At the end of this past May I released my first project ‘Through the Door’ which consists of songs I had written over the last three years. It was recorded at my house in Oregon from March-May. Right around that same time I started playing with a few other musicians in Eugene and we started The Eugene Water and Electric Band. We released our first single “Wasted Days” about two weeks ago and have been playing shows around campus.
EB: That’s great. Are you studying music as a student? Do you think it’s easier to find willing listeners as a college student? Is there any networking advantage there?
JC: I started out at the school as an English major, but this fall I’ll be switching over to studying Popular Music. I think that the school is a great way to find people to send out my music to, and I’m psyched to finally have the chance to be in person in the music department. Luckily a few of my friends work at the campus radio station, and when the album came out I was able to perform an acoustic show and stream the record over FM despite Covid and everything. There’s also been a really great music scene around the school, so word sort of gets around when a new group releases new music or when they’re playing a show.
EB: Do you play a lot of live shows in the area?
JC: We’ve been taking a break these last few weeks, but we’ve got three shows under our belt so far. Two house shows and a bar gig at a place called Max's Tavern. The idea for our first show was that would play through the entire Dark Side of the Moon, and a bunch of our buddies from out of town came up and put on a huge light show for it. We drew about 300 people to that one. The next show had a turn out of about 400, and we played all our originals and a few songs from my record. We’re planning on booking a lot of gigs when school starts up again, and have a few lined up for the next few months so far.
EB: That sounds like a lot of fun. What kind of records have you recorded so far? Do you want to talk about the releases you’ve done?
JC: This latest release was my first official project, but I’ve been putting stuff out on SoundCloud for the past four years or so. I wanted to start with a full album of these songs that I had been meaning to record for a long time before starting on anything new. Today actually I just finished mixing my next release which is just a single. It’s called ‘Rolling Away’ and I’m planning on putting it out in the next few weeks!
EB: That’s great. Any long term goals, or maybe dream gigs in your area that you’d like to shoot for in the near future?
JC: For this year I’m hoping to write some new material so I can record another album to release in the spring of next year. As for gigs with the band we are hoping to play at this venue called the Wow Hall in Eugene. We have a possible date in November but it isn’t a sure thing yet. I think for now our goal is to just record as much as possible and play as many shows as we can.
EB: A great goal to have. Favorite Star Wars film?
JC: I would say empire strikes back is my favorite.
EB: Solid choice. Any final words for your fans and friends?
EC: Not much more to say ! Have a new song coming out in two weeks time so stay tuned for that. Thanks for the interview really appreciate the opportunity.
