itting the road with a band like BOBAFLEX is a big deal in the active rock world. In fact it's one hell of a glory gig, especially for a lean mean 19 year old kid who knows a thing or two about looking good wielding an ax and playing the shit out of it. Young men getting swept up in the rock n roll lifestyle has historically made for some exciting , salacious adventures filled with women, adulation and drugs. Somewhere in that mess is rock n roll. The temptations are many in that lifestyle but we've got every confidence that JACOB CADE can resist the excesses and temptations and maintain the upward trajectory that he is on. At 19, CADE is already an artist with past. He has two albums behind him and is now on the verge of releasing his latest EP HUNGER in the coming year. This forthcoming release marks a shift in creative approach as CADE gets a little help in the songwriting department from the likes of RACHEL BOLAN of SKID ROW and LZZY HALE of HALESTORM along with producer MICHAEL WAGENER behind the recording console. Preceding the release of the EP is the punchy first single WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM?

ROCKWIRED had a chance to speak with JACOB CADE two weeks before he would hit the road with BOBAFLEX. Here is how the interview went? 

You're going to be hitting the road with BOBAFLEX very soon in support of your forthcoming EP HUNGER. What's all going through your head about that?
I'm excited. I don't know how I'm sitting still right now. We're prepared to bring an awesome show. It'll be more or less an introduction for me and the band. I'm really excited to be getting out there and play for a crowd of people every night. I'm eager to join that world and I'm grateful that BOBAFLEX was grateful enough  to bring us along for this tour.



How did you end up having the opportunity to tour alongside BOBAFLEX?
Interesting enough, we started working with BARRY LYON. He's an amazing guy who works super hard.  He's based out of Los Angeles. He was the one who connected us with BOBAFLEX  and got us on the tour with them. He told them "This guy is ready to rock n roll!" I hear the guys from BOBAFLEX are super cool and I can't wait to meet them. It's just been a snowball effect and everything will be kicking off in a couple of weeks.

And when will the EP HUNGER be rolled out?
The EP will be out in January or February of 2018. As of now, you can go on YOUTUBE and check out our lyric video for the first single WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM? That was the song that I worked on with RACHEL BOLAN (SKID ROW). It's relatively new.

What is it about WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM that made you think that  this was going ot be the single?
Because it has a lot of attitude. All of the tracks on the EP have that. That was how I wanted the album and so did my producer MICHAEL WAGENER. We both wanted the music to have in-your-face, rock n roll attitude. The chorus to WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM really gets stuck in your head and the guitar riff is fun to play. The song is just full of energy and it's been getting some great feedback. People are really loving the song and I'm extremely thankful. It's all thanks to the guys who worked onthe record with me. The recording had that super organic, old school feel.

You've worked with some heavy hitters from MICHAEL WAGENER to LZZY HALE of HALESTORM on this EP. Describe what it was like working with them.
It was surreal working with RACHEL. The vibe was really calm and laid back. I had to go to Nashville to record witht hese guys. I was the only one involved in the process who wasn't from Nashville. Everyone involved had studios in their homes so it was a low pressure situation. I would take out my guitar and jam on a riff. Then we would all get to talking and somehow a song would come out of it. This was a very cool first expereince for me. I've never written with anyone else before. For years it was just me writing my own songs. It was great experiencing that kind of creative collaboration. RACHEL and I came out with a punk sounding song  because it mirrored how we were feeling that day. The whole process was based on feel.



How did a young guy like you get inspired to pick up a guitar and do rock n roll?
The seed was planted pretty early. When I was very little I was watching MICHAEL JACKSON perform BILLIE JEAN for the MOTOWN 25 Special where he did the first moonwalk ever. I saw it on an old VHS tape. Seeing that happen made me want to be an entertainer. I didn't know if I wanted to be a singer  but I knew I wanted to be an entertainer of some kind. When I was eight years old I went to a friends house to play GUITAR HERO and the more I played, the more I became fascinated with the songs being played and the graphics. I started to make the connection that my dad liked that kind of music and he had guitars all around the house. When I came home I gabbed the first thing that had a guitar on it and it was the concert film THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME  by LED ZEPPELIN. When I saw JIMMY PAGE play guitar in real life instad of on a  video game I realized that that was what I wanted to do. That was it for me. It began an obsession with the six-string  and from ages eight to twelve,  I put in about ten thousand hours of learning to play guitar and getting through a song without any help. When I was twelve years old I did my first live show ina bar and that was it. From there it was worlk work work. Thank God for the support I've had around me. It's all worked out.

CHECK OUT THE LYRiC ViDEO FOR WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM?


And at what point did the songwriting begin? Later?
Earlier than twelve actually. I had realized that my favorite artists wrote their own music and I figured if I'm going to be anywhere close to them, then I was going to have to write my own stuff as well. I started to let my mind try to figure it out. In the beginning, my songwriting wasn't anything special. It was really mediocore but the more I started grinding stuff out, I fell into this groove of learning more about music and how songs are written  and how they are structured. I connected with someone who had a recording studio in their basement . That guy plays drums with me now . He had this tiny studio which was one room and a closet. I had a bunch of songs I wrote  and I recorded them in that studio when I was twelve years old. That was my first album. When I was fifteeen, I recorded my second album at THE SPOT STUDIOS with these guys GLEN and RICH. Working with them was awesome. They had all of this belief in me and they broke me out of my shell and it got me to see that music making is a team effort. It launched me into an other level of understanding in my music career. Last year, I recorded this forthcmoing EP with MICHAEL WAGENER and that whole experience was like a dream come true. A lot of dreams came true recoridng this EP and they are still coming true with this tour that's about to happen. I can't explain how surreal it is.

What inspired the songs on this EP?
There are songs on there that I wrote myself  and those songs come from my life. There are certain experiences that I've gone through that inform my songwriting. I take whatever experience good or bad, pick up whatever instrument I have within reach and I start writing a song. Once I had the song molded, I spend any where from two hours to five hours working on a song. The process is very personal to me. With songs I co-write on, it's a little different. Other people's feelings and emotions come into it and that is what I learned in putting some of the songs on this EP together with people like RACHEL and LZZY HALE. I'm not going to question any input form some as amazing as LZZY.

And what is your hope with the EP? What would you like for people to come away with after they hear it?
With each song, I hope they find something they can attach to and that something in the songs speak to them. That's why I make music - to share with the world. I hope they will listenand I hope that the music will help them out and make them feel like the song is for them. I hope they find a connection. When all of that is said and done, I hope they are super-energized by it . This EP is a very high energy collection of songs and I've been told that it's something you can work out to or something you can get pumped up to do something crazy. I hope people find the music useful.