Exclusive Interview: Jake Lancer Opens Up About His New Single “Paris”

Singer-songwriter Jake Lancer is the definition of an artist. He’s combining storytelling with the nostalgia of pop music and creating a signature sound that’s resonating with listeners around the globe. Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Jake about his journey in music, his new single “Paris,” and more!

PC: How did you discover your passion for music?
Jake: From when I was young, I always knew that I was very, very passionate about music and performing. I grew up in a Disney family, so the theatrics were quite high. My mom was a rock and roll fanatic. Everything from Deep Purple to Aerosmith to Roger Waters, you name it. She was obsessed.

When we were younger, she had a sports car. She would pick us up from practice. Me being the little gay boy that I was, I hated sports practice, but I loved it when my mom would pick us up in the middle of December in the sports car. It was crazy. We would get into the car and she would blast the most intense rock and roll. It was beautiful. I knew in those moments that I felt very safe and comfortable. It was something that was unifying for me and my family.

As I got older, I became that kid who was dancing on the table to everything from “Bye Bye Bye” to Britney Spears. I always loved to perform. My parents built me a little stage in the basement. Around first or second grade, my school called my parents and were like, “This kid really has a knack for the arts. He has a beautiful singing voice, and he’s so creative.” My parents had me audition for the Philadelphia Boys Choir, which is a pretty prestigious boys choir, so I could continue to apply my creative talents outside of school.

It was great, but I wanted to experience something more professional, even from a young age. I was a part of the Philadelphia Boys Choir for about a year. I was like, “I don’t like choir. I don’t like how the system works here. I’m going to be like Lady Gaga or Madonna.”

When I reached middle school, I finally started to engage with my creative talents through our school musicals. I remember my first big role at my high school. I went to an all-boys prep school. I was Jafar in Aladdin. I was so mad that I didn’t get Aladdin, but my drama teacher was like, “No, no, no. You’re going to be the best Jafar in the world.”

I actually ended up going to a performing arts camp called the French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts. It was like a Broadway grooming camp, but it was fabulous. It felt like my first professional gig. You put on a full-scale musical in three and a half weeks. Some of my contemporaries in the productions were on-Broadway kids or TV actors. You felt like you were doing the real thing. Going there and getting a lead role in my first summer, I wasn’t loved by the kids. [laughs] But it was such a beautiful experience. I learned so much, and I continued my journey at French Woods and am so grateful that I did. I continued pursuing theater in middle and upper school. That was my outlet in the performative world.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Jake: I was really, really inspired by Lady Gaga. She came onto the scene when I was in seventh grade. I was closeted and went to an all-boys school and dealt with a lot of domestic abuse at home. She was a voice for me. She provided me with so much inspiration. She is so unfiltered. The way she would speak about New York and being a club kid, a musician, and an artist inspired me.

It forced me to step outside of my comfort zone and start learning about all different types of art—fashion, technology, music, fine art—and start listening to music that I had never listened to before. It helped me make sense of my life and the things that I was extremely uncomfortable with. On top of that, going to an all-boys school and being closeted was not easy. But I always found my escape through her or my obsession with Disney or performing pop music. I was always writing, creating, and designing.

It was around the tenth grade that I said to my dad, “I need to be doing this. I need to be creating. I need to be creating beyond the level that I am as an actor and as a musical theater artist.” He was like, “Okay, let’s do it.” I would sit in my room on GarageBand and I would create these tracks. I would go on YouTube and I’d write Lady Gaga-inspired tracks or pop-inspired tracks. I would write these bizarre but beautifully interesting stories on top of them. I would play them for my parents and my friends. They would be like, “There’s something wrong with you. You need to go to therapy.” I was like, “I think so too, but I’m also creating something magical.” They were very impressed by it. I ended up linking up with a studio in Philadelphia, which was the old Sigma Sound studio. That was home to the Jackson 5 and Patti LaBelle. It was a very incredible and euphoric experience for me as a high schooler.

My producer back in the day was a man named Mike Tarsia. He passed, but he was such an inspiration to me. I remember I would come in and I’d be so sad, dealing with my own mental health. I guess that comes with youth and the struggles of being a closeted young boy. He inspired me to create. We would create these pop songs that were out of control. I would share them on social media when Instagram was three filters. I did it for me, and I loved it. That was where I was as a performer.

I remember when I recorded the first track that meant something to me. It was called “Electric Drink.” It’s not out anymore, but it was a song about how Jake as a high school boy would go to New York City to escape. I had my fake ID and was doing the thing. It was about this feeling of youth and vitality and something that I always wanted to experience but couldn’t. The metaphor behind “Electric Drink” was that it was alcohol and a substance and how it made me feel like the night was never going to end. I would wake up the next morning and that fountain of youth would disappear. That was high school-meta me.

I ended up going to BU for Fine Arts. While I was at BU, I knew Boston wasn’t for me. I needed to be in New York. My sophomore summer, I linked up with one of my best friends. She and I went to this program in Los Angeles called VocalizeU. It was one of the most intense things I’ve ever done. I met some of the best singer-songwriters that I’ve ever met in my whole life. I was with some of the industry’s best producers and talent. I remember JoJo came and performed. There were a few other really great performers as well.

I linked up with my vocal mentor, Mindy Pack, there. She’s insane. She’s Lil Nas’ vocal coach. She’s Miley Cyrus’ vocal coach. You name it, she’s worked with them. She’s an icon. When I was in college, I started to come out and feel more comfortable with myself as a human being, as an artist, and as a vocalist. She was like, “Dude, you’ve got a lot of potential. We got something there, but we got to work.” I started working with her vocally while I was in theater school.

Then I started interning at Universal Music Group. I ended up landing a position there running their social media as a college representative. During that time, I stopped recording and writing. I stopped taking voice lessons because I got really scared. I was finally in New York City, fulfilling my dreams and doing everything that I wanted to do. But I was now thrown into a world that was far bigger than me. I was out. I wanted to be that cool kid that I never was in high school. I started clubbing a lot and drinking a lot. I was working with incredible talent at UMG, and I was scared to put myself out there. I was so scared to be authentic. I was scared to live in my truth.

I remember it was the first day I sat down with my therapist. My therapist looked at me—and this will stick with me for the rest of my life. She looked at me and was like, “Jake who?” The reason she was saying that was because she was like, “You’re not living authentically. You’re living a life that is not healthy, not sustainable.” But a lot of people who have been through a lot of trauma push the limits. It was because I wanted to be that person that I never got to be. What was interesting about that was that it was so great until it wasn’t. My health failed me. I got systemically ill. I was ill for two years. During that time, I developed a lot of bizarre infections.

It was because my body had failed on me. My liver was like, “We’ve had enough.” My gut was like, “We’ve had enough. No more antibiotics. Nothing.” It was scary. I had to heal myself. I worked functionally. But during that time of healing myself, I started really investing in something that was so important to me and so integral to my life. I truly couldn’t live without the arts—performing, singing, and writing. During that time, I was forced to slow down. I realized that I was helping myself. There’s no greater job in this world than helping others heal.

PC: You’ve got a new single out now. Tell us about “Paris” and the inspiration behind the song.
Jake: It’s a love story. It’s hard for me to listen to this one because I wrote this song while so madly in love. I met a boy. He was the first boy that I’ve ever met that I was like, “Oh my gosh. I’m going to spend the rest of my life with him. I’m going to marry him.” It was a quick love. We met and we were together for maybe four and a half months. I’m getting emotional talking about it. But about three months in, he let me know he was studying abroad in Paris. The song is my monologue. It’s everything that I wish I could have said to him that I didn’t because I didn’t want to be selfish. I didn’t want my ego getting in the way. I knew that his growth was more important than my longing for him to stay. That’s where the song came from.

It’s funny. There’s a lyric in the song that says, “We were young. Too soon to call it love. A Hamptons dream come true.” We met in the Hamptons. I remember us looking at each other, and I remember he thought I was maybe a jerk or too cool for school. I thought he was too cool for school, but I thought he was attractive. I so desperately wanted to talk to him, but I didn’t know how to. Then it jumps to this line, “The Soho sun shined in your eye, unsure what it could have been.” That was what happened the morning after he told me that he was going. He and I were sitting on the couch in his living room in Soho. The sun was shining in. We were just lying next to each other and staring into each other for maybe an hour and holding each other. We’d cry and then not cry.

To this day, it’s the purest, most insane intimacy that I’ve ever felt in my life. It was so magical and incredible. That’s what the song is about. I think everyone has a Paris. A lot of people have to say goodbye. Everything happens for a reason, but I didn’t want to say goodbye. The interesting thing about the song as well is when we say goodbye, we don’t know when we’re going to get to see that person again. Or we don’t have definitive answers. We left each other without definitive answers. With that being said, it’s been very challenging to live in the gray and not know. Are we going to get back together? Are we not going to get back together?

The last line in the song is “Have fun in Paris.” I sing it a capella. Then I say, “Don’t go to Paris,” which is also a capella. It’s so real and so true. It’s funny because there’s a voice note in there. He used to call me “Jakey.” I actually dropped his voice right in the track while we were recording it. We recorded in December, right around when he was leaving. I was feeling so sad. I remember I got into the booth. I FaceTimed him because I wanted to feel more sad while singing it. I wanted to be in my feels. We got it. That’s what “Paris” is about. I hope that everyone listening to it can feel love, happiness, and hopefulness that they’ll find love and know if they’ve lost their lover to Paris or somewhere glamorous, it’s normal.

To keep up with Jake, follow him on Instagram, Spotify, and Apple Music. Pick up or listen to “Paris” today.