S.Lo on February 26th, 2019

1

We don’t know what Pasadena singer-songwriter Jack Symes majored in, having graduated recently from UC Berkeley, but his current concentration is sharing all his various life experiences during the last six years within an indie-folk framework. During his years up north, he embedded deep in the Bay Area music scene and released his debut EP, “Gargoyles EP,” and toured up and down the coasts of California and Oregon. Shortly after releasing his first single, “Roll Me Away” in March of 2017, and graduating thereafter, Symes made his way back home to Southern California, where he’s hewn down his 50-song collection to 12 songs for his debut album, “Songs for Moms,” released earlier this month.

Made with Joe Costner at Spartan Recording, a 30-by-10-foot Airstream trailer-turned-recording studio in Carpinteria, Symes self-produced and played guitar, bass and drums for all songs (with reinforcements by Gregory Ackerman on bass, Andrew “Jenkins” Jones on drums, Theo Fedronic on trumpet, Mark Fedronic on trombone and Megan Sexton on viola, along with backup vocalists Brittany Hanson, Brooke Hanson and Lily Costner).

Of the title, Symes says, “Starting when I left home for college in 2012, I did (and still do) a terrible job of keeping my family in the know. My mom has always loved asking questions, and I’ve been, to a fault, often impatient with those questions and hence give short-winded answers. This album is my attempt at answering a lot of those questions. Whether they’re questions about love, loss, heartbreak, spiritual views, political views, personal development, these songs are my most conscious attempt at shedding some light on my own life experiences and sharing both what I’ve learned and haven’t learned.” With honest and reflective songwriting spanning emotions ranging from regret to adoration to disaffection with religion and politics, it’s an insightful collection of figuring out what humanity’s all about. Unbox it here.

||| Stream: “Songs for Moms” (full album)