Preview: Track-by-Track with Jake Minch, The Making of his Debut Album, George

Film photos from Jake’s More George on Tour.

For the cover of Volume 6 of Off the Record, Jake Minch sat down with Off The Record to discuss the making of his debut album, George. See a preview of the interview below, as well as exclusive behind-the-scenes photos from his 2025 U.S tour.

PREVIEW: Singer-songwriter Jake Minch puts a level of care and thought into every single word that he not only writes, but also speaks. Jake is a Connecticut native who recently made the transition to living in New York City as his career began taking off. We met up with Jake at Dimension 70, a premier recording studio in the city, to speak about the inspiration behind his latest album.

Following the release of his breakout single in 2023, Jake’s debut album, George, encapsulates the gritty feeling of growing up and shedding naivety through lyrically raw songs. His lyrics are, in some ways, riddled with elusivity. The through-line story is up for the listener to peel apart and interpret, but the real meaning and influence behind the songs stay with Jake himself. His musical messages speak even stronger through the moments of silence and unanswered questions.

George was produced by music industry veteran Tony Berg, and Jake speaks highly of their time working together, often commenting on Tony's honesty and workshop process that helped shape the album, like a guiding mentor.

The opening track on the album is “Nostalgia Act.” In some fashion, this track begins where that last era of Jake’s life ended.

Jake chose “Nostalgia Act” to open the album because he thought it was fun. The opening builds a sonic dissonance that pulls at the ears and piques the interest of the listener, almost like the feeling of nostalgia is looming overhead.

He explains that, “For me, working with Tony was super unfamiliar and involved a lot of a tug-of-war in terms of identity. The first couple songs we started, our engineer would lay down these drone samples that I hated every single time. I was like ‘get that out of the fucking song.’ And so to start with something so unfamiliar was kind of cool as well.”

Read the full interview by Emma Hug Rosenstein and photos by Tori McGraw in Volume 6 of Off The Record here, available for purchase now.