Hi Jake, welcome to VENTS! How have you been?

I’m doing really good! Thanks for taking the time to talk. Just really excited for the release of She Goes To Work on Thursday!

Can you talk to us more about your latest single “She Goes To Work”?

I have believed so much in She Goes To Work since the day we wrote it. I had the idea in my head, but was nervous about pitching it. In a cowrite you have to trust your other writers with an idea and hope everyone sees it the same way. I was actually planning to pitch it the next day in a write that ended up canceling, so really just that we ended up writing it the day we did is sort of a crazy story in its own. I wrote it with Sam Johnson, Max King and John Pate and it was just awesome. It could of never been what it is without those guys. We spent a year pitching the song around and thinking we had another artist that was going to cut it, but that all sort of fell through. I added it to my live show as soon as we were back out playing after the shutdowns had begun to lift and just knew it was special. I talked to the guys about cutting it myself last winter, but we wanted to pitch it around a little bit longer and really it was the viral TikTok that made it my song and gave me the chance to put it out as a single.

Did any event in particular inspire you to write this song?

Definitely all that was happening with the corona virus at the time. We wrote SGTW in April of 2020. When a lot was still unknown and just thinking about all those first responders who didn’t get the choice as to whether or not they could stay home and safe. They had to go to the front lines of the world.

Any plans to release any sort of video for the track?

I posted a video to TikTok asking all the first responders who have been loving on this song to send me their videos and pictures and we are going to make something really cool for all of them.

How was the recording and writing process?

The recording process was pretty wild. This song was unreleased and there were no plans for me to release it. I had wanted to, but it didn’t seem like that was going to happen and I was actually looking to put out some summertime stuff. We got some great audio/video from a show in Grand Junction, CO. I made the TikTok it blew up and that started the process of this being my next single. We recorded SGTW the following week in about 30 hours, basically in the middle of the night when we had time. My producer was recovering from covid while this all was happening, so he made the record from inside the studio and all the parts were done remotely. I parked outside in his yard and did vocals from our Jeep.

What role does Indiana play in your music?

I don’t know if It plays a role sonically, but it’s just a huge part of who I am. I’m a very proud Hoosier. I think being from Indiana and the way I grew up you just learn to work for the things you want. We have a good idea of what is real and what is just excess.

With the major reception your music has gotten on platforms like Tik Tok – first of all, how do you feel about it?

It’s really cool, this is the first time in my career we’ve had a reception like this on social media. I’ve been a successful full time independent artist for 8 years, but never had a viral moment or huge streaming numbers to go with our touring. It’s a really neat feeling to have written something so many people feel this close too. That’s honestly the coolest part. I knew the message this song had was really special, but I couldn’t have ever expected this response. I just really hope I’m right messenger for this song that means so much to all our front-line workers. I don’t want to let them down.

Moving on are you taking social networks in consideration when working on new material?

I’ve never really let the social networks choose my music before. I usually kept them pretty secret until their release other than playing them live. I think going forward I’ll definitely start leaking them and getting everyone’s feedback now.

Does the new single mean we can expect a new material – how’s that coming along?

I actually had a different song in the finals stages and was feeling out the waters with it and had a handful of new songs we were working on looking for a summer song. I think we will definitely have a few new songs this year still.

Any tentative release date or title in mind?

She Goes To Work will be out Thursday May 6 and we’ll probably (hopefully) be busy with it for a while. Once it’s out into the world we can start thinking about what’s next!

What else is happening next in Jake Dodds’ world?

Just really excited for this release and getting it out there for everyone who has really clung to it and selfishly what it could mean for our careers as writers and mine as an artist. Excited for the summer and all the shows we have coming up. I’ve been touring basically nonstop since I started and at my level it’s every weekend wherever they’ll have us. So not getting to play last summer was hard and just pumped to be back out there with everyone!

Social Media Pages:

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/JakeDoddsMusic

Twitter – https://twitter.com/JakeDoddsMusic

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/officialjakedodds/

Tik Tok – https://www.tiktok.com/@officialjakedodds?lang=en&is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClJP6x1lice3dwUeDH0w0hw

Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/artist/52YZB2e6Zr1V7Vwr2oEmrN?si=vTpfstnjStCyWwwaIqufjQ

I-Tunes – https://music.apple.com/…/she-goes-to…/1564780386…

Website – www.JakeDodds.com