Anne Tenkhoff

Courtesy of ALTER Music

Before BabyJake — also known as Jake Herring — sat down with Student Life, his band’s soundcheck reverberated throughout the building: loud drums, crunchy guitar riffs, and, of course, his textured vocals.

Herring is a genre-mixing alternative artist who recently performed in Blueberry Hill’s Duck Room — the restaurant’s iconic basement venue. Herring’s tour for his newest album brought him to St. Louis. The album, “Beautiful Blue Collar Boy,” is a raw reflection of who he is as an artist and the life experiences that have shaped him. 

Many might know Herring from his 2019 viral track “Cigarettes on Patios,” which has amassed over 160 million streams on Spotify. This was Herring’s debut major-label single that climbed to No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100. Herring’s discography has grown to an impressive six albums and 24 singles since then.

“When ‘Cigarettes’ went viral, I just had no base, no structure, no foundation … And that’s an important thing: to know who you are, know what you’re pushing, know what your colors look like, know what your branding looks like, know what message you want to get across,” Herring said.

The viral success that Herring experienced with his breakthrough single did not come quickly — he has been writing since his teenage years. After dropping out of college only one semester in, Herring released his first EP, titled “Little Mess,” and earned his first paycheck as an artist.

“I thought I was rich,” Herring said. “I went to PacSun, spent it all on clothes that were ugly anyways, and I bleach-blonded my long hair at the time in one sitting. Horrible idea. Burnt it all off.”

Courtesy of ALTER Music

Herring self-promoted his music before signing to Republic Records, a major label. However, the creative differences that followed his signing would have cemented him as a purely pop artist, instead of as the multi-genre artist he envisioned, prompting Herring to go solo again. He is now signed to ALTER Music, an indie label. At ALTER, he is free to explore his sound and transcend the diverse genres he is interested in, without the influence of major-label executives.

“I loved 70s music, and I love 60s folk music, but I was trying to do things out of revolt, out of, ‘F*ck the label, f*ck the major-label system — f*ck this, I’m gonna do my own thing,’” Herring said. “But I swung so far where I forgot … what I really love, which is just creating music.”

Despite his success as an alternative artist, Herring mentioned that his original plan was to be an English-reggaeton artist.

“I really got put on in Florida to all the Latin roots of the culture … A lot of the guys I was working with were working with Spanish artists,” he said, referring to his early influences. 

Through a twist of fate — a few laptops stolen and his recorded reggaeton music lost — Herring’s original plan to enter the music industry through Universal Music Latin Entertainment fell through, but his excitement at 18 years old was unwavering. And he found his way to a different genre: alternative and the intersection between analog and digital sound. He was drawn by the alternative music bands that were creating their own rules, continuously bending the boundaries of music.

“The coolest people to me in music nowadays are the Gorillaz, Talking Heads, dudes that were breaking the barrier. You listen to Talking Heads, they got a drum machine on one song, live drums on another, and just a snare on another one. You know, it’s amazing to hear that sh*t and be like, okay, these guys had no parameters. They were just having fun. And that’s what matters, at least to me,” he said.

With label conflicts out of the way, the release of “Beautiful Blue Collar Boy” marks Herring’s return to writing music for the joy of it. Now, more than ever before, his relationship with his fans is just as important as the music he makes. His fans love him for his warm, goofy personality and for his varied style of music.

“I think that now I’m in the best position, mentally, that I’ve ever been in, because all I care about is cultivating a real, authentic fanbase … and continuously pushing myself to be better,” Herring said.

Fans can look forward to a deluxe version of “Beautiful Blue Collar Boy” in January and a possible spring show in St. Louis in 2025.

Courtesy of ALTER Music