Mention the South by South West music festival and images of hipsters with ironic mustaches and tight jeans come to mind.
Drew Jacobs, however, is not that type of person.
In my head, I’m the hipster, he said. `But then when I looked in the mirror I go, ‘Eh, not so much.’`
Jacobs, a Latham resident in his 50’s, is heading to Austin to perform his own original blend of comedic-folk songs as a part of the festival’s U.S.A. Songwriter Contest Songwriter Showcase at a Barnes and Noble near the University of Texas after winning first place in its contest.
Sitting down at a table at a Starbucks located off of Route 7 in Latham, Jacobs is dressed in business attire with a gray trench cost, black suit and a red tie. Mind you, he is on his lunch break from his day job selling billboard advertising for Lamar Advertising Company.
Even though his music might not be in tune with some of the other acts performing at the conference, he said he listens to a lot of the newer stuff because he can hear some of the bands he grew up listening to like Eli the Paperboy Reed.
`Here’s a guy really harvesting the soul sound of the 60’s,` he said. `And it’s great.`
But he’s ready to play to a different crowd, and not just in a regional sense, but more so to people who may not know too many acts that try to infuse humor into their songwriting. It’s also a different type of venue for him. Whereas when he usually plays restaurants and the majority of his audience might be there for something else, at SXSW people are there to hear the music.
His main goal is to gain exposure and to hopefully attract some interest from publishers so he can earn money from publishing rights.
`For me, as much as I enjoy performing, the real goal is more as a writer than a performer,` he said, adding that he get pleasure out of tapping into his own creativity. `I’ve always enjoyed writing, whether it was a professional standpoint in my career in advertising in marketing, to writing music and writing songs. The opportunity to be able to move somebody with something you’ve written, it lasts longer for me.`
Jacobs began playing guitar when he was six years old after receiving a Roy Rogers guitar for Christmas. He started taking lessons at the age of 10, and then by his teens he was in bands covering bands like Johnny Winter, Rolling Stones and Grand Funk Rail Road.
As much as it might be fun to play with a bunch of guys in a band, it becomes more difficult as people become older due to personal lives and new responsibilities. This frustrated Jacobs, so he decided to do things on his own.
Around 15 years ago he began writing and recording his own songs and started making them more humorous.
`That kind of just developed,` he said. `When I decided to put together my first CD, a majority of the songs were humorous and that’s what has really gotten the most notice because I think it’s different from what people would normally hear and what people would normally expect.`
Writing from what he knows, his topics are more targeted towards the Baby Boomer generation covering topics such as how to get along with your wife, being allergic to your job and the always humorous topic of Viagra.
`The things that I’ve written about are, for the most part, my life experiences and other people’s life experiences that I know,` he said.
He’s been studying up, though, on tips of how to enjoy the SXSW festival in hopes of being better prepared when he attends on Friday.
`One of the things in the article is find people who are like yourself,` he said. `Because you’re going to have common interests, going to share ideas and they may know people you want to know and vice versa. And you use it as an introduction into furthering your musical career.`
While Jacobs is set to perform on Friday at the festival, he did an impromptu show for
The Spotlight
outside of the Starbucks on Route 7 in Latham. Check out the video below:
We will be updating this space with information of how the festival went for Jacobs, so check back here on Friday for more.
“
