LEEDS singer-songwriter Jake Whiskin, a man of considerable and empathetic talent, knows not only the horrible cold of a dank mid-December morning, but the terrible soul-deep chill of awaking into loss from that respite, sleep; count one, two, three and plunge from your dreamworld into a waking, aching nightmare.
Out today, is the tender, sparse and devastating piano ballad “Cold Morning”, exploring loss, hope and the passage of time, which hopefully heals.
After a period spent honing his chops in various garage bands, Jake left music behind for years after a massive personal loss; but the muse returned and he began to articulate a series of songs about that dark time, of which “Cold Morning” is just one. “Cold morning / You know I’ve gotta work so hard / You know I’ve got a funny feeling / ‘Bout where you are,” he confesses, bares, the piano just picking out the barest melody behind his delicate, morning-croaky voice. It’s certainly a track to protect against the bad times; he’s an artist to certainly investigate fully if you’re a lover of Ray LaMontagne.
Jake says: “’Cold Morning’ is a song about loss and how time moves on for everyone else but you just feel stuck in that mourning for years.
“It was a very bleak time for me after I lost my Dad; I was working super early mornings at Starbucks in the middle of Leeds and this probably manifested itself on an early morning winter walk to my shift.
“This was the first song I wrote years after he passed, my confidence was pretty knocked, so I kept it close to my chest for a while.
“Later I visited a friend in Brooklyn and after a few beers one night on his rooftop I finally played it out loud – he was really encouraging so I figured it couldn’t have been too bad and started to write some more.”
Expect more, much more from Jake throughout 2022.
Jake Whiskin’s “Cold Morning” is out now across digital streaming platforms on Dance To The Radio Records.
Connect with Jake elsewhere online at his official website, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
