A Chat with Always In Danger (21.04.23)
The brainchild of singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jake Ingram, Always In Danger blends elements of hard rock, alternative rock, indie-rock, post-punk and shoegaze in his melodies. We speak with Always In Danger about his self-titled album, being a solo artist, and future plans.
OSR: What does music mean to you?
Always In Danger: To me, music is primarily a tool of expression. Every artist has something they want to express, whether it’s a showcasing of talent or a political message or just raw emotion. In my case, it’s largely about expressing my own fears and struggles – it’s therapeutic for me. As a person living with OCD, I confront a lot of anxiety and frustration in my day-to-day, and putting that into the music is really cathartic.
OSR: What inspires you to make music?
Always In Danger: Mostly, it’s hearing sounds like I’ve never heard before. One of my favorite bands in the world is HEALTH, and the main thing that drew me to them early on was the experience of hearing a full melody and being totally unable to tell the guitar, synth, and bass tones apart without it all sounding like utter chaos. I also love the band Loathe and was captivated immediately hearing their guitar tones, which don’t sound quite like anyone else, certainly not in the heavy music world. Stuff like that gets me really excited to see what kinds of sounds I can make as well.
Lyrically speaking, I tend to write constantly, and I’ve been doing that pretty much since college. It’s kinda how I confront my own feelings and dig into them whenever I’m going through any kind of intense emotion. Combine a notes app full of lyrics with the desire to chase cool sounds and tones, and suddenly crafting songs becomes a big priority.
OSR: What can you tell us about your new album Always In Danger?
Always In Danger: I’m really proud of it. It’s a sprawling, dark, unpredictable collection of songs that blend my favorite elements of a lot of different genres. You’ll hear things like big industrial-style drums, filter-heavy guitars, shoegazey vocals and gritty synths, as well as a few ambient tracks full of subtle, experimental layers, many of which come from an ambient noise box that I built myself.
The styles and influences are widespread across the album – there’s a metal-inspired song, a noise-pop song, a shoegaze song, and plenty more – and yet I really feel like it stays pretty consistent and cohesive as a single piece.
If you’re a fan of artists like Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Beck, Muse, or Queens of the Stone Age, I’m pretty confident you’ll find something of mine that you like.
OSR: Do you believe your album Always In Danger is a true representation of your music?
Always In Danger: It’s my first full-length album, and it definitely feels like the most complete encapsulation of my own sound so far. I do everything myself – the writing, recording, mixing, even visual design – and still, I’m constantly learning. My sound has definitely morphed and evolved the more I’ve learned, and the album definitely felt like a complete picture of what I was going for. Lyrically, the songs are mostly very personal and definitely feel like a representation of who I am.
OSR: Do you have a specific creative process and what was the recording of Always In Danger like?
Always In Danger: Musically speaking, coming up with new stuff is a lot of trial and error for me. I throw a lot of stuff at the wall, and as soon as I find something I like, maybe a fun bass riff or a cool synth melody, I build off of it and try to let it take shape organically. If it ends up having room for lyrics, I’ll usually sort through stuff I’ve written previously to see what might fit, both in meter and tone. From there, any musical layers that get added or adjusted are also driven by the messaging of the song; a good example of this is the song ‘Tonight We Freeze’. The ending bridge part of that song came about after the lyrics and vocals were added, and since the subject matter deals with the fear of losing a loved one, I wanted the instrumentation in the end to feel sort of desperate and panicky.
In terms of crafting the album as a whole, I thought a lot about the pacing and rhythm of how everything was arranged. Listening to it, you may notice a sort of cinematic-style “act” structure, where the bigger, flashier parts of the album are informally grouped into three “acts” separated by the calmer, more ambient segments, which can sort of act as palette cleansers. While the album is not a concept album, I did take a lot of inspiration from albums that are similarly cohesively structured, albums like Loathe’s I Let It In and It Took Everything and Deafheaven’s Sunbather.
OSR: Is this album significant to you and how or why?
Always In Danger: It definitely is. This is my first full-length album, and it feels like a big milestone has been passed. I put a lot of pressure on myself in making it, really just because I obsessed so much over the idea of making “a really good first album.” Now that it’s out and continues to be something I’m proud of, I feel like I can keep moving forward with a clean slate, so to speak.
OSR: What do you hope people take from the album?
Always In Danger: I’m very hopeful that it finds an audience that it really resonates with. I deal with a lot of fear and frustration on this album, and mental health is a major recurring theme as well. I hope that people who live with similar challenges and have similar views of the world will find a sort of kinship in it. A lot of my favorite albums resonate with me in that kind of way, and if even just a few people form a connection like that with my work, I’d consider that a huge success.
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OSR: What do you feel are the benefits and drawbacks of being a solo artist nowadays?
Always In Danger: The big benefit is total creative freedom – there’s no one else trying to get their own ideas in the mix, no one to disagree or create friction with.
The big drawback is that there’s no instant feedback system. No one else is in the studio with me to provide new perspectives. If I want to get opinions on an unfinished song, I’ve gotta throw the demo up on SoundCloud and send the link around to my musician friends.
The other big element – which can be a benefit or a drawback – is that, since I do everything myself, all feedback is pointed squarely at me. If something comes out less than stellar, there’s no one else to shoulder the blame.
OSR: If this were your last day on Earth, what would you do?
Always In Danger: I guess it depends on which planet I’m leaving for. It’s really gonna affect what I’d need to pack. Either way, I’d probably try to end the day rounding up my buds and playing a big Always in Danger show, that way everyone there could say they were at the last one on Earth.
OSR: Do you have any future plans as a musician?
Always In Danger: Now that this first album is out, I’m just gonna keep making new stuff with the pressure off. I’m also working on getting together a sort of “touring” band so I can hopefully play some live shows soon.
Many thanks to Always In Danger for speaking with us. For more from Always In Danger, check out his official website, Facebook, Instagram and Spotify.
This artist was discovered via Musosoup #sustainablecurator
