Jacob and the House of Fire

A couple years ago I met Jacob at a party. It took me a while, but I finally realized I had just recently listened to his album “Harmonia” through one of my friends. I probably spent another couple of minutes trying to figure out how his singing voice matches a man of his stature, but all first impressions aside, Jacob and I seemed to be completely on the same page. He was talking about his new band he was forming in Portland, I was telling him about my ambitions to be a filmmaker again.

What seemed like a one time meeting quickly budded into a friendship (it helps that we both loved beer, and ended up at the same parties time and time again.) Cut to now, and it’s almost unbelievable how each of us has grown.

Jacob’s band (with all new line-up, now known as Jacob and The House of Fire) has just produced what I can easily call one of the best albums Portland will ever hear. “Frontier” not only contains masterful songs, but they each build on one another like building blocks until the whole thing comes crashing down in some intense, beautiful fury.

Now I know no one has heard the record yet, I had to beg for it for about 2 months before I could get my grubby paws on it, and I’m one of the extremely lucky ones. But you’ll just have to trust me when I say Coyote is only the very tip of the iceberg. It’s track one on the album, and a very quiet and convenient place to start (or build from).

I was so struck by this album (struck is a poor word.... Maybe blown away, ripped apart, thrown down a flight of stairs, brutally murdered....) that I had to put a project into motion. (now seems the best time to make this announcement, so here goes...) Jacob and the House of Fire and myself are collaborating on a feature film, featuring the music from “Frontier”. It’s called “Naked Knife” about the life and death of one man, the absolute love of his life, and the demons that grow to ungodly proportions over his lifetime. Think of it as all encompassing, every aspect of life and death, and how it affects our everyday lives. It’s about the choices we make, and how they will eventually make or break you. To say the least, the band and I are excited about our future working together.

The day we shot Coyote was one of those 90 degree scorchers, so when we put 12 people in a room together, turned on 8 bright lights, the collective sweat could easily fill a bucket. At the same time, the heat added to what we were trying to achieve. It seemed the more the band perspired, the better their performances became.

This is a band where every member has to wear their heart on their sleeves, and that’s a tall order when you have 10-12 people on stage on any given night. As I scanned over each individual with my camera, I loved seeing how each person feels the music in a different way, something I tried to capture when editing the video.

As I move forward on the feature, and the band works harder and harder to land a much deserved record deal, I can’t help but feel that Jacob and I are at step 2 in our ongoing pursuit. At one point we dreamed of step 1 becoming a reality, and now it’s time to focus even further into the future, push our creative energy, and keep plucking that chicken.

Posted by Nick Poulin