Chemistry major-turned-viral sensation-turned-youtuber-turned-musician Jacob Rabon IV, known to his YouTube empire as Alpharad (which has accumulated over 1 Billion views) now reveals his musical side: Ace Of Hearts.
The Los Angeles based artist amassed millions of streams on his first two EP’s released in 2020 and will be releasing a full-length album, Frozen in Time, a project is everything that has mattered to Jacob in the past year, as he declares.
Every song essentially dates back to a journal entry. The vulnerability of sharing his inner most thoughts was both exhilarating and terrifying. This album was inspired by all the things he felt were holding him back, he essentially took a headwind and turned it into a tailwind. He is hoping that with this level of honesty on the album, he will be able to able to help someone, even just one person, feel a little bit less alone.
Born in Oklahoma City, OK Rabon has had a lifelong passion for video and cinematography. He created his main YouTube channel in 2014 and Since its creation, he has made various gaming videos on his channel. Rabon attended the University of Oklahoma while making YouTube videos as a full-time job.His original goal was to be a writer, director, or editor of some kind, but soon learned that in being someone else’s editor he couldn’t have as much creative freedom as he could making his own content
What’s your story as an artist?
I started music as a kid. I was passionate about it all through high school. And in early college, YouTube took off. I could still play music in the back, I would still have my guitar and piano. Eventually, I got to this point where, I think when you’re making content for multiple, multiple years under an alias, it becomes formulaic after some point. When you’re in that repetition, you need something new. So that’s when I started turning, leaning back on music, and starting to make something in Ace of Hearts. Trying to juggle those is pretty much a full time and then some job, while also starting to write music in the background and play with Ace of Hearts. I think that was the real story of it, and eventually, we started releasing music.
What inspired this album?
This album is really about a relationship that didn’t quite work out. I wrote a lot of the songs during the relationship. It wasn’t until recently when I went back lyrically and was like, “damn, I was sad.” I think it’s so easy to write stuff when you’re in such a sad state and be like, “Oh, it’s hyperbolic. This doesn’t matter. I’m exaggerating how I feel. I don’t feel these things now.” I think it’s about not even the act of heartbreak, but just processing it, because I think that’s the hardest part.
Do you get inspired by other art forms?
Oh, yes, easily. I can get inspired by anything. I just like artin any form or medium. Every time I see anything, I’m always trying to think about how someone can make something like this. Regardless of if it’s music, if it’s a movie, or if it’s the architecture at Disneyland, I just see stuff like that. Someone had to make that. How does that happen? Even if it doesn’t inspire an action for me, it just inspires thought. I feel like I’m always trying to process and figure out how art was made.
Any funny anecdotes from the time you were recording or writing this?
This isn’t really a funny anecdote, but I still think it’s a very nice story. Um, so the producer of the album is Johnny Manchild, he and I have been best friends since we were 16. I have a friend named Deanna Galland, who was going to fly down and do the backing vocals for the album. This girl can sing- this girl can belt, and when she left the mix room to go into the recording room at the studio for the first time, she started singing. She just let it out. She was insane. Johnnie immediately muted the track and turns to me and asks if she’s single. And they have been happily dating for like a year now.
What’s your favorite place or environment to write?
I feel like I’m not one of those artsy people. I’ve kind of just written in my room. So I guess by default, I really like writing in my room.
What’s a record that shaped your creativity?
I think “Is this It” by The Strokes, that album is on fire. Any Strokes album, incredible. One of my favorite albums of all time is “Black Parade” by My Chemical Romance. It’s another album that has a story from the start to the end, and it’s just a beautiful narrative. Not about heartbreak, but about handling and processing death. I think that’s really cool. The sounds are just so good. It’s one of those few albums with no skips. I think those are hard to come across. A good vibes album for me is “Timely” by Anri which inspired finding your dreams and everything like that. I don’t know what she’s singing about, but she sure is. It’s just a beautiful sound, and I think music is powerful. It can be in a different language and it can still resonate with you- the attitude, the atmosphere, the tone of it. If I had to throw one more album on there, probably Mika’s “The Origin of Love”. I think that is the album that I’ve held with me for the sands of time- as soon as it came out. I was like, this is incredible. Every song on there by Mika has inspired me in one way or another, maybe not to make the same kind of music, but to hit the same emotional chord that he can. I think I’ve always been inspired to be more like him, lyrically. To make an album as cohesive and strong as “The Origin of Love” has always been my goal.
Who is an artist or band you look up to today?
As an individual artist, I really have to go back to Mika. I think he has been my favorite artist since the dawn of high school when his first album came out, and I listened to him. This is pop, it’s so fun, his voice is so smooth. The lyrics are so smart and well developed. It’s chiseled lyricism. And the melodies are catchy. They’re obsessive. I want to learn how to make something like that.
What excites you the most about what you do ?
What excites me the most about what I do, is that I don’t do one thing. I like hopping around, I like being multi talented. I like exploring as many things as I possibly can, and I like being able to try it out for a month, see what happens. I really like exploring the ins and outs of all these other avenues and from the world from YouTube, and music is drastic. I mean, I come from a photography background, and I want to learn as much as I can within my little time here. I really want to dedicate all that to art. I don’t really know what I’m going to do next, but I think my favorite thing is that I don’t have to do one thing.
What is your view on genres and music styles since you mix a lot of them in your music?
What are my thoughts on genres? I like them.
What does music and art mean to you?
Oh, my God. That is a question, isn’t it? Yeah. I think art in general is a beautiful thing. I just want to make as much of it, and create as much as I possibly can – every medium I can possibly explore just because I’m so fascinated, and I just want to learn. I want to know how people do this and do that. One time, I had someone close to me ask me “how do you have so much art in you?”, and that was something that I’m gonna hold on to for the rest of my life, it was just the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard. That encapsulates everything I want to be, and it’s recognized by this person. I want to be an artist in the purest form of the word, I don’t want to stop with music, I want to keep making something bigger, I want to find how else I can explore this avenue. I just want to explore, I think, the beautiful art, the beautiful thing about art, and how lucky you are to get to share it. It can be as personal or impersonal as you want, and that’s irrelevant to how people feel about it. I can give a very static piece of art and people can interpret incredibly personal details for my life or their life out of it. No two art pieces are the same, but no two interpretations of art are the same either. I think that’s cool. I guess what art is to me, is the interpretation of it. Because that’s what matters.
How would you describe your act in one word?
Hungry.
