After following his passions and secretly moving to NYC, Jake Lancer finally got to be the “gay club kid” he had always dreamed of. Fearlessly, he has put every lesson, feeling, and emotion into his music – giving us his debut EP TAKE OFF!
BTS: What was the inspiration behind your EP?
Lancer: I’m a gay man living in the city, working as a mental health professional, while also being a creative. I feel like I never give myself the credit for how far I’ve come on my journey. This EP tells the chronological story of looking for love, finding love, saying bye to love, and loving yourself. It’s a love story from start to finish – writing it was a little scary, but liberating.
BTS: What do you hope listeners take away from it?
Lancer: The biggest thing is that life is a journey and healing isn’t linear. We feel pain and we feel joy. When we surrender to the emotions, we feel life’s greatest bliss and euphoria. This EP was a journal entry for me… we must strive to live in our greatest truths.
BTS: Tell us a bit about the opening track “Feel Your Love”.
Lancer: It’s the story before Tomorrowland, before embracing my love and pain. It’s me, as a gay man, exploring my cravings for sex and desire. I often tried to seek validation from the dating apps – I would fantasize about them. This song describes that dopamine rush.
BTS: What about your second track “Paris”?
Lancer: This song is a dialogue with myself. I fell so deeply in love with a boy… he and I curated a beautiful and emotional and healthy relationship. Around October, he was moving to Paris to study abroad – I didn’t want to hold him back from growing and having that experience. This song is everything I wish I could have said to him; it’s a love letter.
BTS: Let’s talk about the title track “TAKE OFF!”.
Lancer: These lyrics tell the story precisely – they may be corny, but they are exactly what really happened. I was supposed to fly into Newark from Miami, but my flight got delayed. He was on a flight that ended up rerouting to Newark and afterwards, got cancelled. It was a moment of fate – he came home with me from the airport. I told him not to wake me in the morning so I wouldn’t have to say goodbye all over again. I woke up, and he was gone – that’s where I got my bridge from. He still makes my heart take off; obviously, the song is a play on airplane terminology.
BTS: What was the process like for your final track “Tomorrowland”?
Lancer: We recorded this one in a day – it’s about the simple moments. Happiness may be temporal; it’ll go away but come back if we allow it to. This song is a celebration of all the joy I’ve curated with myself and my friends, just walking down the streets of NYC and laughing and being silly. We’re entitled to have moments of happiness and should savor them. I wrote this song in the security of being alone – it’s about embracing self-love to the fullest.
BTS: How has your childhood/ personal life influenced your music?
Lancer: I grew up going to an all-boys prep school in Philly. I felt challenged because I was closeted and fell in love with creating. I wanted to engage in worlds of fantasy – I was drawn to the theater and brands like Disney. I was very into music growing up… My mom was a rock ‘n’ roll aficionado. I really loved 70’s and 80’s music – there was something very theatrical about it. I wanted to incorporate that same fearless aspect into my own music. I would sit on garage band for hours, curating synth tracks and recording dark and ambiguous music. My grandfather told me I had something special here – I’d sing pop with vibrato drawn from my classical training. I ended up moving to New York without telling anyone and started to write and record a lot.
BTS: How would you describe your sound, overall?
Lancer: Truthful, synthy, poppy. I like to think my music is a literal translation of my love for 70’s and 80’s pop and rock music. From ABBA to Amy Stewart to Lady Gaga to Years & Years to Troye Sivan. It’s very theatrical.
BTS: What can we expect from Jake Lancer next?
Lancer: I’ve been in the studio for the last month, working on a series of singles for pride month. The direction is similar, but more hyper pop. It’s dirty, liberating, and fun – there’s some cathartic moments. “Supernova” is that moment we explode into authenticity and “Baby is the Moment” is about allowing someone who hurt us to have their own moment. That one’s an explosive, trippy, pop-punk song!
BTS: What are you most excited for in the future?
Lancer: Performing. This whole process is a journey, so I want to do one thing at a time so that Jake Lancer can get on stage.
BTS: What final message do you want to send to fans and listeners?
Lancer: Living our truth is one of the scariest and most demanding qualities we can obtain, but when we get to a place where it’s not an option, where it’s essential to our being, that’s when we get to flourish in the most self-love and kindness. I truly believe the core of everything I do is a manifestation of me seeking my truth, in hopes others will do the same. It’s truly okay to just be you. And I’m very grateful for all of you; it means the world. Every listen, every dm. I’m just filled with gratitude!
We can’t wait to continue watching Jake Lancer be fearless in both life and music!
Stream TAKE OFF! now!
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