David W. Jacobsen
New York City, New York, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2018 | SELF
Music
Press
http://www.nj.com/waterfrontjournal/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1232004337104950.xml&coll=3
GIVING FOLK A FEW LAUGHS
Thursday, January 15, 2009
By JEFF THEODORE
JOURNAL ARTS EDITOR
Come next month, David W. Jacobsen will do something that has become almost as automatic as paying his yearly taxes: release a new album of self produced music.
"I believe my biggest accomplishment is just the sheer volume of work I put out there," says Jacobsen, an independent recording artist who lives in Downtown Jersey City. "I tend to release an album a year."
Jacobsen, 34, dubs his music as acoustic folk with a smattering of sarcasm.
"It models my sarcastic and humorous type of personality," Jacobsen says. "People have compared me to Phil Ochs, who was a contemporary of Bob Dylan's. He didn't become as successful as Dylan, but was a very talented man. Tragically, he wound up committing suicide."
Jacobsen, who attended the Berklee College of Music, says his latest effort, "Walking Away From Wonderland," contains plenty of his trademark humor and addresses how people lose touch with their past as time goes on. Sometimes, Jacobsen says, that's a good thing, such as a bad breakup.
"I tend to romanticize the past," Jacobsen says. "For example, on the album cover it shows a man walking away from a castle holding a guitar. That represents moving away from a certain element of your life and not knowing what's ahead. You know what's behind you and many times that really wasn't wonderland at all."
Some songs on the new album also take on a decidedly political bent.
"Some songs are semi-couched with the 2004 presidential election, comparing it to rearranging deck chairs on the Titantic," Jacobsen says.
With this album, Jacobsen says he made an earnest attempt to be more consistent with style.
"In an album with a lot of different styles, you're going to alienate your audience," Jacobsen said.
And aside from playing guitar, the South Orange native reunited with an instrument he hadn't played in a dozen years: a mandolin.
"I played it in high school so it felt a little awkward to play it again now," he says. "A madolin is essentially like a violin, which you play like a guitar. It's used pretty frequently in bluegrass and Italian folk music. For me, it's giving a slightly more rootsy and folsy element than stuff I've done before."
Jacobsen acquired his love of music from a rock-and-roll loving father and a mother who embraced "show tunes and stuff like that."
He's been self-recording albums since 1995.
"A lot of them, I would make 100 copies and send to friends," he says. "In 2001, I got more professional with it with the release of 'The Chasm."'
When asked what's changed about the folk music industry since he entered it, Jacobsen says he doubted if there's anything.
"Doing solo acoustic music is actually not that popular," he says. "One change perhaps is that John Mayer guy who pops up on the scene, and is younger and better looking than me."
©2009 Jersey Journal - Jersey Journal
Review of Footprints from the Centre Daily Times:
http://davidwj.com/CentreDaily.html
- Centre Daily Times
Review of Footprints from Maywood University's Wood Word:
http://davidwj.com/woodword-Footprints.html - Wood Word
http://davidwj.com/AnchorFootprints.html - College Anchor
http://post.browndailyherald.com/media/paper745/news/2006/03/09/Music/Footprints-1660977.shtml?norewrite&sourcedomain=post.browndailyherald.com - Brown University Post
http://independent.gmnews.com/news/2006/0111/Front_Page/042.html - Aberdeen Independent
More Press At http://davidwj.com/press.shtml - More Press At http://davidwj.com/press.shtml
Discography
* THE CHASM (1999-2001)
* CUBICLE WONDERLAND(1999-2002)
* FOOTPRINTS (2002-2005)
* DUST (outtakes collection) (1998-2005)
* SEPTEMBER'S SHADOW - HOBSON'S JOURNEY (2004-2007)
* WALKING AWAY FROM WONDERLAND (2004 - 2008)
* POSTCARDS (compilation) (2011)
* NOT WHAT I MEANT (2012)
Photos
Bio
Mixing humorous social commentary with melancholy reflection, David W. Jacobsen performs and records catchy, mostly acoustic songs that combine poetry, satire, and narrative storytelling. Entertaining without crossing the line in to novelty, his musings on social and psychological concerns have connected with people all over the world. He performs live accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and amusing his audiences with an enjoyable banter.
His last full album, Begin the Chagrin, presents a range of noble, relatable, pitiable, and revolting characters dealing with disappointment or causing it for someone else. Its frustrated or frustrating protagonists include those failing at art, love, or life in general. Characters yearn to be someone they are not. Starting in the acoustic singer/songwriter genre, its progressions and melodies are
catchy without being predicable. Moods range from satirical to somber, sometimes within the same song.
David W. Jacobsen has been writing and performing music for over fifteen years. He studied at Berklee College of Music and has both an excellent understanding of music theory as well as the good sense not to use it. He has recorded over ten albums on his Zbokth Productions label and is currently recording his next release.
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