Jake & Shelby on songwriting, social media and finding success

Jake & Shelby are the internet's favorite duo. The Nashville based, the indie-pop singer/songwriter duo quickly conquered the digital music scene with their charming covers, posting them across the board to their Instagram and Tik Tok with users noting their undoubtedable musical compatibility. Their renditions of songs like Lizzy McApline’s “Ceilings” and The 1975’s “Somebody Else” is what showcase the exact magnitude of their impressive range. After posting their extensive backlog of covers and building quite the following-turned-community, the two put out their own original music, with their first release “Sway,” in 2022.

Now three years in, the dynamic duo released multiple singles, an enchanting deluxe EP equipped with outdoor live versions as well, and are now in preparation for their debut album, “Learning to Love” out October 10 with EMPIRE.

They sat down On The Record to talk about their early days and the making of the album. Read the preview below and see the full interview here.

RTJ: For anyone just discovering Jake and Shelby as a duo, can you introduce yourselves? Who are you? How did this begin? Where did it start? Take me through that story.

Shelby: We're Jake and Shelby, a singer-songwriter duo, and we've been together for three years. We met at a music school in Hendersonville called Cedarstone and joined some groups together. We were in two cover bands and an a cappella group. It was fun, but we didn't talk much at first because of a small age difference and shyness. Jake wanted to start songwriting, and his dad, who was teaching me songwriting, suggested he try writing with me and another friend. We did that for a year before officially becoming a duo.

Jake: And now we've been a duo for three years. Did you already say that?

Shelby: Yeah.

Jake: We started on social media, and that's where we really began. We've done a lot there and are now releasing our debut record.

RTJ: Congrats on that record! I know it's coming out in October, so it's a bit far out, but that's awesome… Tell me about how the social media scene started. Can you take me back to your early covers and what it was like to put yourselves out on the internet?

Jake: At first, we were like, 'Let's do this every day and see how it goes,' and committed to it. We started with songs we enjoyed and played together, beginning with a lot of covers on social media. That's how we got started.

Shelby: It wasn't natural at first, posting out of nowhere, because we didn't post often before starting as a duo. But once we did, we got the hang of it and enjoyed building a community. We were fortunate that people found our music quickly, even before releasing any music, just by watching our videos. It's cool to think about how fast it happened.

Learning to Love is available on streaming platforms on October 10.