Jack Newsome

Jack Newsome, student at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, wins top honors at the 12th Annual IAMA (International Acoustic Music Awards). Jack is a 19 year old singer-songwriter, dancer, and producer from New Jersey. He won the Overall Grand Prize & First Prize (Best Country) with his acoustic guitar based song “Hooked On Me”. He will be releasing a full length album later this year. When he was 16, he was signed to a boyband project in New York City, called “NY5”. He then began working with an international boyband project based in Berlin, Germany. Jack decided to leave the project after a year and a half, and pursue a solo career. - Music Industry News Network

Jack Newsome stands poised at the precipice of stardom as he just won two awards in an international music competition. The music video for his new song “Medicine” just hit 2,000 views, and he’s set to release his EP “Medicine” by the end of the month.

With all his recent success, it’s hard not to feel some resentment towards Jack… That is, until you actually meet him. Bubbly, personable, a smile that just won’t quit and a laugh that you just can’t help but join in on! Jack Newsome is such a genuinely nice human being, that you can’t help but be happy for him.

Jack recently won two awards at the 12th annual International Acoustic Music Awards. His song “Hooked On Me”, won him not only first prize for Best Country Song, but won the Overall Grand Prize as well! The song was written with Brian Maher, who cowrote Taylor Swift’s first album, and Pavel Dovgalyuk. It was recorded at Tim McGraw’s studio in Nashville, TN.

“I found out about the contest through reverbnation.com, they posted about submissions and I kind of thought, ‘What the heck?'” Jack laughed. “I had been submitting a lot of my stuff a lot of places, so when they finally got back to me I had actually totally forgotten!”

Jack’s eyes light up when he recalls the moment he found out he had won:

“I was so excited, but I was worried it wasn’t real so I sent it to a bunch of people to verify- my mom, my lawyer, anyone I knew who had been in the industry! Honestly, I didn’t think anything of submitting. It’s throwing stuff against the wall and seeing what sticks- and this did.”

The Grand Prize was $11,000 worth of radio promotion and merchandising, and Jack hopes to get a lot of airplay and exposure from it. There is a touch of irony to the win though – Jack is not a country singer.

“I am honored because I grew up listening to country and I like singing it, but at the same time i don’t think of myself as a country artist,” Jack said. “So that’s where it gets a little touchy. But I’m so honored, I’ll just see where it goes!”

Luckily for his pop side, Jack had another hit of success this past Wednesday, February 17th, when the music video for his song “Medicine” reached 2,000 views on YouTube.

“My favorite [part of the music video], was filming with the straight-jacket,” laughed Jack. “It was so funny because my mom had to strap me into it, and as she was doing it she said, ‘Wow, I’ve always wanted to do this!’

The song is the first single from a 5-song EP, also entitled “Medicine,” which is due to be released this month, and the reactions Jack has been receiving are truly inspiring.

“I walked into the caf the other day and heard 2 separate tables listening to the song,” said Jack. “It was insane. I couldn’t believe it.”

The EP will contain the following tracks: “Like That Again”, the award-winning “Hooked On Me”, “Medicine”, “Last Time”, and “Greatest Goodbye”, and is a lead-up to a full-length album that Jack hopes to release by the end of this year.

“It’s going to be a pop album,” Jack said. “I know it’s a dirty word, but it’s going to be an eclectic top 40-sounding 5-song EP. The album will be a little grittier.”

Jack wrote the EP with Brian Maher and Pavel Dovgalyuk, as well as with his dear friend Ron Haney, who did a lot of work with Alicia Keys and was also a member of the band The Churchills. He is working with Patrick Gdovic on mastering and when the rest of the album arrives, Sean Callahan and Barry Cohen will join the team.

Overall, Jack is optimistic about the near future.

“In a perfect world, all I want to do is be a successful, touring, recording artist,” he said. “I want to make music that relates to people, I want to hear crowds singing along to my songs- the way they were singing along in the caf- and I just want to be secure and happy.”

His last words of advice to me were:

“I don’t want to be cheesy and say ‘never give up,'” Jack smiled. “But that is really important. People hear it all the time, it gets redundant and doesn’t mean anything. But when you’re making music, it’s really important to remember. If the first song doesn’t kick off you shouldn’t get discouraged: that doesn’t mean the second or third song won’t go somewhere. It’s all about the right time, the right place, the right people. You can’t focus on what didn’t work because then you might miss out on something good happening.” - Verge Campus