JAKE GERMAIN

ON THE SUGAR RUSH OF HIS NEW SONG “CAVITY”

Jake Germain clearly loves pop music - when he talks about the music he loves or the music he’s making, he’s beaming from ear to ear. Based in the suburbs of Chicago, he’s been crafting hazy post-millennial pop out of his bedroom for years. With his new single “Cavity”, he’s ready to step into the limelight and explore new sounds and aesthetics.

Where did the idea to name a song Cavity come from?

I was up at three in the morning, lying in bed with a melody in my head. It sounds a little ice cream truck-y, it’s kinda simple. I had it in my head for an hour going back and forth with ideas, kind of thinking of Charli XCX’s “Lipgloss” and then, you know…”Boy you know I’m sugar sweet, blow your mind and rot your teeth”, and I thought I could write a song like that, with a cavity metaphor.

So I got up, still the middle of the night, and I didn’t want to go to the basement and get my keyboard out and wake everyone up. I put in my headphones, opened the keyboard app I have on my iPad and I hammered out the chords - literally like a three-chord thing. I was humming the melody I had and the chorus wrote itself in five minutes…I did that in my Voice Notes. Then the next morning right when I woke up I got out my recording equipment and GarageBand and laid the chords down, super messy super sloppy and I recorded my vocals for it. I was like, this could be something if I do something with it.

The sound is more bombastic and industrial than your previous stuff. Were you consciously looking to do something different?

I’d been familiar with (producer) Crapface, listening to their remixes and stuff, so I sent it over and said “Maybe you can do something with this that’s not traditional or what people might expect me to do.” When I first made it I knew it sounded exactly like something I’d already put out so I was like, someone else needs to produce this. Cause it’s gonna get tired, you know? I can’t keep doing what I’m doing. So that’s what drove me to get into the whole circle of talking with That Kid, talking with Boy Sim, talking to Crapface, all of them. And That Kid and Crapface are both amazing and were great to work with, I love them.

Boy Sim’s song “Peach Emoji” was your first collaboration, right?

Boy Sim had posted a clip, like a five second clip on Twitter, and I told him “Please send this to me, I need to hear.” Not even thinking I would be on it or anything, just to like, bop to it. He told me it wasn’t finished yet but he sent it over - there was no bridge or final chorus. I didn’t even tell him but I took the intro and looped it and made a cute little instrumental. I wrote and recorded a bridge and sent it back like “Hey, I don’t know if you want to use what I wrote but you can if you want…” He replied right away and told me I could have the bridge. Then he came back and said the bridge was great but my feature was so short, and so he offered me the second verse.

I changed some of his lyrics. The first half of the second verse is what he originally wrote and the second half is what I wrote - so it was a really collaborative thing. I got to sing what he wanted and what I wanted.

Who would be your dream collab? Someone who doesn’t even seem possible right now - who would that be?

This is gonna be a little different because I feel like you’re looking for a performer…but more on a writer level - I’m a writer, I write all my own music, come up with the melodies, all that - I would love to work with Bonnie McKee. She’s a dream collab. I’ve been following her since “American Girl”. Such an injustice that that never went anywhere - when it came out I thought it was gonna be huge.

But I’ll give you a real answer. In terms of featuring on or having her feature on my song…honestly, Kim Petras. Or Katie Got Bandz.

Can you give us any hints about what you have planned next or for the rest of 2019?

All I can say is expect a ton of singles from me and a lot of collaborations. I’m working with a lot of really cool artists and a lot of really cool producers right now and I have so much stuff planned for 2019 and I’m so excited for all of it to come out. It’s definitely coming very soon so definitely stay tuned for that. I can’t wait for you to hear it.

by Stevie Logan
Photos by Shea Petersen for Bops & Flops