A Year in Music – 2024 – Jacob Ware (Rapt)
by Killian Laher
How are you, what sort of year have you had?
Few twists and turns but life has been kind to me lately and is always beautiful in it’s f***ed up way.
In 2024 I’ve mostly been buried away finishing up ‘Until The Light Takes Us’, making wine, growing tobacco and doing DIY (sloppy painting, ripping up lino + dangerously uncoordinated drilling).
Everytime I get the seed of a new record to germinate I delude myself into thinking I can turn it around quickly. In reality, an album always takes about a year more than I predict!
What are the albums you enjoyed most this year?
I can’t not be nepotistic here – some of my most beloved musical friends put out sublime records this year. Luke De-Sciscio put out ‘Theo’, a stunning musical document that captures the birth of his first daughter, a stunning document of one of life’s formative chapters.
Raoul Vignal, my mustachioed french kindred spirit put out ‘Shadow Bands’ displaying a further development of his sound and confidence. I tried to steal his fingerpicking patterns last year but he took his secrets back to France with him. The church/old-school/western bell on ‘Pathways’ is one of the coolest things I’ve heard in months and ‘Shipwrecks and Artifacts’ is utterly beautiful.
Is there any artist or album that defined the year for you?
I’m ashamed to say I’ve been pretty locked away with my own music, I also work in music so my ears are pretty burnt out on a regular basis. I recently discovered Amyl and the Sniffers and love their new record ‘Cartoon Darkness’ – has been a bit of an anthem for me lately and it contains possibly my favourite verse of 2024.
‘I was in LA, shaking my shit
While you were down in Melbourne saying, “Fuck that bitch”
You were in New York, getting shit on
And they were down in Melbourne saying, “You should not be doing that”’
I was introduced to CMAT lately, probably super late to the party as always. ‘Aw Shoot’ absolutley fucked me up the first time I heard it. There are three types of music for me, music I love, music I’m not into and music that MAKES me want to MAKE music. I’d probably retire if I wrote the chorus to ‘Aw, Shoot’.
Did you get to many gigs this year?
Not as many as I’d have liked – 4 come to mind as highlights though.
Highlight for me was seeing my colleague (and piano player on Until The Light Takes Us) Sona Koloyan perform her EP Speaking Stones – Her music is crushingly beautiful and the incorporation of Armenian folk music into her set could bring a tear to the driest of eyes.
Seeing Route 500 as a full band at a packed out venue was badass having shared the bill with them performing as a solo – seeing the music fully fleshed out was stunning and inspired me to pull my finger out and actually play on stage with people again.
I saw the Irish folk legend Paul Brady in the beautiful Ulster Hall in Belfast although he didn’t play Arthur Mcbride which I haven’t totally forgiven him for yet. He did play The Lakes of Pontchartrain though.
I saw (what remains of) the Cuban masterforce that is/was the Buena Vista Social Club. Sadly it was at an oddly curated day festival with about 2000 more people than I’d have liked – I had planned to smoke a Romeo y Julieta no.2 in a chilled out field but ended up drinking gag-inducing lager from a plastic cup at £11 a pint.
Do you think it will get to the stage where the ‘big concert’ is unaffordable for most of us?
Sadly yes – I am already kinda in this boat. As much as I live and breathe music I have to be obsessed with an Artist/Band to drop more than…. £70 on a concert.
What’s your reaction if Stairway To Heaven comes on the radio?
‘Ah shit, why am I listening to the radio and, wow, I’ve not heard this in years’.
Anything interesting in the works yourself for 2025?
Until The Light Takes Us is out 21/02/25, I usually feel doubtful/conflicted/nervous/shy about releasing music but I’m very proud of this record, it puts many ghosts I have carried in my life to bed and murders a few black dogs that have kept biting at my heels – releasing it will be therapeutic.
The album launch show is 27/02/25 in London. For the first time since 2019 I’ll have others on stage with me – having to play in time with other humans is going to be a trip.
No More Workhorse 