Based out of Chicago, Maiden King is the musical moniker of songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Jake Hawrylak. The name is lifted both from his mother’s maiden name King, and also from the title of a book by Robert Bly and Marion Woodman, The Maiden King: The Reunion of Masculine and Feminine, which he was given by his girlfriend. Jake’s day job is music, be it production, live engineering or writing film scores, and Maiden King is in some ways the culmination of all that experience and his own songwriting passion. After sharing Maiden King’s debut single, echo, back in March, today Jake is announcing details of his debut album, Who Else Were We Supposed to Become? As well as sharing the latest taster of it, in the shape of his new single, Young Country.

Explaining the inspiration behind the track, Jake recalls how the track was inspired by, “unlearning so much of what I was taught about America”. This is laid out from the track’s first lyric, “we live in a young country that never earned its wings”, and the track sets about fusing the personal with a more geo-political pain. “We are still so adolescent in the grand scheme of things”, Jake explains, “and like any spoiled child given (and taking) so much so early in life we are prone to deeply destructive tendencies that we don’t seem to have any capacity to see the horror of”. Throughout the song, Jake seems to be seeking a way to be positive about the future of his home country, while not losing sight of the damage blind nationalism can cause, “I want to be optimistic about the potential for good in the US, but when I think about the things in my life that brought me to care about myself and the world in a deeper way it only ever came after feeling and facing the pains of my past. The evidence suggests we do not want to do that”.

The opening track on Who Else Were We Supposed To Become, Young Country is also something of a conscious entrance to the sounds within as Jake explains, “I loved the juxtaposition of having a meditative folksy song that erupts into something else and then fades away into the rest of the album”. The track begins with a distinctly American folk sound, all skittering snare drums, wandering upright bass and acoustic guitars that are simultaneously propulsive and melodic. Just when you think you know where the track is headed though, it suddenly shifts, Jake’s voice drops down to a hushed moment, reminiscent of early Iron & Wine, before a lightly psych-influenced electric guitar starts to blur the edges, and the whole thing suddenly erupts into a Here We Go Magic-like fusion of dreamy and noisy. Almost as quick to leave as it was to arrive, the crescendo gives way to almost nothing, a distance buzz Jake’s only accompaniment as he asks, “if we lived in a brave country, would I want to leave? A growing boy who always heads his heart, becomes the man who is free”.

This might be early days for Maiden King, yet the experience of its creator shines through everything, this is music that is mature and luxurious, a songwriter who has been biding his time and sounds more than ready to make his mark, sometimes a musician was born for the role, and for Jake Hawrylak, Maiden King might just be the perfect part.

Who Else Were We Supposed to Become? is out December 1st. For more information on Maiden King visit https://linktr.ee/maidenking.

Header photo by Cory Dewald