User:Scrutineer545/sandbox

JAKE STOKES

Jake Stokes (b 1995, Halesworth, Suffolk, England) is a Wellington, New Zealand-based musician/songwriter/producer, hailed as one NZ music magazine reviewer as The Joe Bonamassa of New Zealand (muzic.net.nz). Adopting dual nationality after his family emigrated to NZ in 2000, his prodigious talent on guitar first became obvious when, in his young teens, he began busking in a local shopping mall. “Now, that’s what I call talent” – Uli Jon Roth (Scorpions, Sky Academy). He completed a year of music studies at the University of Auckland before leaving to concentrate full-time on peforming, producing, songwriting and teaching. Since then, he has emerged a one of the leading younger generation of guitarists on the NZ Blues Rock scene. However, his albums to date have also demonstrated versatility with crossover appeal to followers of other genres. The album Midnight (2014), produced with indie producer xxxxxxx, announced Jake's arrival to a wider audience in NZ and received generally positive reviews. The line-up of his band subsequently changed. In 2015, he began performing with his guitar-driven blues-rock 3-piece, Jake Stokes & The Two Smoking Barrels. Featuring xxxx on bass and xxxx on drums, it slimmed down its name to Jake Stokes & The Smoking Barrels. His performing career has gone hand-in-hand with his growing passion for production and recording, which has been influential in him bringing into his music pop inflections and modern techniques not usually associated with blues-rock. Before We’re All Dead — his self-recorded and produced 2016 EP — is an example of this.