WATCH: Off The Record - Seeing 'eye to eye' with Babybleach

WHEN he was six years old, Jake Hackett went to a 50 Cent concert with his parents. “A big moment” that helped him realise music was what he wanted to do. Under his moniker, Babybleach, the Raheen native now mixes rap and hip-hop.
 

“Some kids are obsessed with trucks and then they become truck drivers, that’s their thing. I feel like we do kind of gravitate towards things really early in life that, whether we pursue them or not, we still cherish them,” says Jake.

For him, music was always it. After playing in rock bands for a couple of years, Jake decided to try something new.

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“It took a while for me to realise that I could do the type of music that I want to do. There's kind of clichés, you don't want to be like an Irish rapper, people don't really take it seriously.  It took a while to be able to develop my sound and do the kind of music that I truly wanted to make.”

After describing his music as contemporary and alternative hip-hop, he notes: “I have so many different inspirations musically and I've played so many different styles that I just try to like put them all into the one part. I have influences of rock music and blues and all that as well.”

As he pours himself another cup of tea, he speaks of his new single, Eye to Eye - one he is about to release.

“It’s more of a romantic song, a bit more R&B. It’s about love and heartbreak, something everyone can relate to some degree.”

Speaking of the track, Jake says: “It’s about two people that are misunderstanding each other, basically because they're not physically there in person. There might be a bit of distance between them and things can get really mixed up due to texting. It's so if you were sitting in front of me, there would be no problem. I think it's my best song to be honest. And it's definitely going in a slightly different direction, there’s no real rapping.”

How does he deal with heartbreak?

“By writing songs,” he smiles. “Honestly, I think it’s cathartic. It’s a good way of getting it out there. Otherwise I feel like there's very limited ways of dealing with it. You can kind of be stoic and do this whole self-care thing, you can go out and end up pissed drunk, or write a song.”

Before becoming Babybleach, Jake went through a difficult breakup. “That’s when I first started doing a lot of solo music. I think writing really gets your head straight and helps you  figure out where you're at, you learn a lot. I think if you can capture it all in something that you're writing, then you're just like, ‘okay, there it is’. You can always go back to it and you know where you were,” he reflects.

The 25 year-old believes it's best to write about what you know.

“As long as I feel something towards a topic, I'll write about it. But I'm not gonna write a politically driven song about something I don't know about, people can sense that straight away,” he says.

Even though his moniker is Babybleach, Jake now has brown hair! “I used to have bleached blonde hair up until two months ago.   I'm a barber as well, so I  kind of went with the whole hair thing,” he says.

As a barber, he often engages in colourful  conversations.

 “It could be your first time cutting someone's hair and they're just like sitting down for their half an hour therapy session.”
Jake, who has been told “some wild things,” believes it might be easier for men to open up to a stranger.

 “I have a good close group of friends, really good guys, and we can chat. But I guess a lot of guys don't have that, you know? And they probably feel less vulnerable just telling a random dude, because it seems a bit more informal than opening up to a friend.”

 Jake's grandfather was a big influence in his life - and he is also his biggest fan.

“My grandad got me into the whole music thing from the start.” He started teaching me guitar.   Anything that wasn't rap music, he basically got me into it,” he recalls.

In November, Jake will see 50 Cent perform live in Dublin - 20 years after his first gig.

“I actually found the tickets from the first one the other day. So I might try and bring it to him somehow with a mix tape.”