JAKE & SHELBY – AN ARTIST SPOTLIGHT AND IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW

Learning to Love Album Cover_ Photo Credit Nolan Knight 1 - AMP

2025-10-16

JAKE & SHELBY – AN ARTIST SPOTLIGHT AND IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW

Photo Credit Nolan Knight

By Ralph Beauchamp

Jake & Shelby are an indie pop duo based out of Nashville who have just released their debut album entitled Learning To Love. The twosome met at school while studying music and quickly realized that they shared a passion for songwriting and performing. Their music blends organic instrumentation with emotive hook-driven pop elements. In turn, this mixture creates spectacular colors of sonic beauty. Also, Jake & Shelby use their intertwined harmonies to deliver flourishes of aural ecstasy. Lyrically, their songs tend to explore love in all its phases: attraction, vulnerability, heartbreak and self reflection.

Jake & Shelby‘s new full length Learning To Love, pushes them towards a slightly expansive production style utilizing dreamy synths and atmospheric textures. A prime example is opening track, “Loophole”. The song is airy and full of cinematic inflections even though the subject matter concerns overcoming hesitation to open again to love. That’s Jake & Shelby‘s approach to songwriting. They take the sting out of delicate situations with delightful orchestrations and effervescent vocals. Another tune is the moving “Falling Out Of Love”. The ballad is full of heartbreak and pain yet Shelby‘s vocals soar to the heavens. Indeed, Learning To Love is a wonderful piece of art.

Jake & Shelby were kind enough to sit with AMP for this in-depth interview.

AMP: Lets knock out the most obvious question first. How did you meet?

J&S: We met at a private music school called Cedarstone School of Music. It’s a place where you take weekly lessons! We were first introduced to each other when we ended up in the schools covers bands together. At the time we were in middle school and high school and we were both naturally really shy. So, we honestly didn’t even talk to each other in the band that much haha! But we both really enjoyed each other’s musicality.

We played a cover of a Madison Cunningham tune called “Pin It Down” which has a guitar and vocal only intro. So, we played that part, just the two of us, and it was always our favorite. We just never told each other haha… so we got to know each other musically through the cover bands we were in but not really personally.

But I (Jake) really wanted to get into songwriting and my dad (who was one of Shelby’s teachers) suggested that we write together! Eventually, we did just that! And long story short, we really enjoyed it and continued to do that for about a year. We officially started the duo in march of 2022!

AMP: How do you balance your individual creative ideas with the needs of the duo?

J&S: Truly we both want to respect each other’s musical inputs as much as possible. I think we both love what the other has to bring to the table and thrive off of the collaboration between us. We have a natural chemistry that is very strong between the two of us and we always try to nurture that as much as possible when it comes to our ideas. We always try to allow the music we are creating to come naturally and authentically!

AMP: Working in the same vein, what does your collaborative songwriting look like?

J&S: It changes from time to time. But majority of our writing starts with a musical idea. I (Jake) record tons of different guitar ideas that I put into voice memos. So, when we go to write a lot of times we will go through those and find something that feels inspiring that day! Once we have the main musical vibe we go into melody and lyrics. Those happen at the same time typically. Usually Shelby just starts singing a bunch of awesome stuff and then we have to try to catch the best parts and put them into the song!

It’s really fun writing together. We have different influences and backgrounds in music, but our taste in music is very similar and we both love our old influences! I think that’s part of our chemistry. We both just have the same sounds in our head when we are imagining what we want to create! Shelby is an amazing writer as well as really leading the lyrics! On this record she even has a song she wrote completely by herself! She will bring songs like that in sometimes and they are always SO good!!

AMP: Your new album, Learning To Love, just dropped. Can you give us a little insight into the release?

J&S: This is an album we’ve been working towards putting out for a long time. It’s actually our debut album. With us originally starting with just the two of us singing and an acoustic guitar, we spent a lot of time trying to find a sound that feels authentic to us when it came to full production. I think we found a mixture of everything we love making this album.

We titled this album Learning to Love specifically from the last track. There’s a lyric that says “I just wanna run away to a place where everybody’s gone. Maybe then, I could learn how to love,” A lot of these songs are about loving someone else and all of the feelings that come with it, but it’s also about learning to love yourself too. I think Shelby wrote that song, and others, from that place without even realizing it.

AMP: What do you hope your fans take away from your music?

J&S: This whole album is about love and the ups and downs it brings. The relational parts of it as well as the internal personal feelings and needs that come from loving someone else. We hope that this album can help people feel seen and not alone wherever they are in the journey of love. This whole album is personal to us. We try to be as authentic and honest as possible in our songwriting. We know that by being genuine, we will be able to connect with more people.

AMP: Which artists have had the biggest impact on your musical identities?

J&S: it’s different for both of us. But they all fit together really well! I started with guitar. So, I love John Mayer, Madison Cunningham, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Allman Brothers. Also, Role Models’ new record was really inspiring for Shelby and I.

I (Shelby) didn’t grow up listening to many legacy artists. My inspirations are more contemporary. I really love Lizzy McAlpine, Lennon Stella, Clairo and Phoebe Bridgers.

AMP: For any act, dynamics is an important key to success. What do you feel is the main ingredient in the Jake & Shelby dynamic?

J&S: Definitely our chemistry and our songwriting. I’m saying this based off what people tell us! I also think we’re not afraid to explore our musical palate when we write. I think we just want to honor each song and not ever constrain it to what is “accepted/expected”. So, I feel that leads to us having good variety in our songs!

AMP: How do you see social media impacting your careers?

J&S: It has already impacted our careers significantly at this point! It’s where we started out and where we were discovered. We hope Learning to Love will help us reach people outside of our social following as well as everyone in our following. But it is really exciting to have the record out now. It feels like it’s a new platform to hopefully reach people through. We are very active on socials for sure though and LOVE our community!! We’re so thankful for all the love we are shown in that world!

AMP: What is a dream venue or festival to play at and what is your favorite song to perform live?

J&S: Growing up in Nashville, a top pick for us is the Ryman for sure! We’ve seen so many of our favorite artists play there. So, to stand on that stage one day would be a dream. We also love the outdoors so the idea of playing any festival sounds so fun to us. Bonnaroo is one close by us. That would be sick! Obviously the big festivals like Coachella or Glastonbury would be insane! Also “Sweet” is one of our favorite songs to perform live because it’s the first song we ever wrote together.

AMP: What does the Jake & Shelby future look like?

J&S: We don’t know! But we are in for the ride! Our goal is to continue making music and hopefully be able to play shows all over the world and get to meet all of our fans! We love you guys so much and want to connect with you! We hope our music is a stepping stone for us to connect with you all.. I hope it brings us closer and possibly becomes a way for us to get to meet you one day, possibly at a show anywhere in the world.! You make everything so worth it.