Music Q&A with Ace of Hearts
Photo courtesy of Ace of Hearts
Chemistry major-turned-viral sensation-turned-youtuber-turned-musician, Jacob Rabon IV (otherwise known by his alias Alpharad), released Frozen In Time late last year through his musical project, Ace of Hearts! In this Q&A, Jacob talked about the album, his favorite movie soundtrack, the best advice he’s been given by a musician, and more! Frozen In Time is out now!
Congratulations on the release of Frozen in Time! What does the album mean to you?
The album is about heartbreak. But what I don't think a lot of people are realizing is that it's a story. It's an act of resolution. The last song ends on the 4, making it pretty open ended. It feels unresolved. It was about you making it out on the other side of it. Things might not be great yet, but you can at least tell that they're getting better. And I think that's kind of the message I tried to send with the album.
What is your favorite song from Frozen in Time?
“A Life Frozen In Time” is my favorite one. It’s a very large song, so big that it felt daunting when I first tried to put it all together. And it's seven and a half minutes long, but it was shocking because it came together in a single night. It had very few structural revisions. Every now and then you get those songs that feel like you didn't even write it. It just suddenly existed. I had some help on some of the other songs, but “A Life Frozen In Time” is one of the few that was entirely me. And I'm really happy with how it turned out.
How did the pandemic affect the making and creative process of the album?
Ace of Hearts was very much affected by the pandemic. The first two EPs were supposed to be one album, but with everything going on in the world I wanted to split the album and stretch it out. And we recorded everything in February 2020, which is really funny in retrospect. The plan was to release a single in March, but that plan quickly changed. We ended up releasing our song “Fool For You” on April Fool’s Day, and that was the first single from Ace of Hearts. Ace of Hearts’ entire existence has been within the pandemic. I don't really know anything else at this point.
The hardest part of everything was how out of order we recorded and released the music. Our first EP included the first half of our material that was ever recorded. And then on the next EP, two of those three songs were recorded at the same time as the first EP. So then by the time we recorded that third song, we already noticed how different the songs sounded, and saw the jump we made between them.
We ended up putting one of those songs from February 2020 on the recent album. Most of the other songs were recorded in July 2021, but we snuck in a song that was recorded over a year before. It’s not obvious, the song was remixed and remastered to blend in. But it’s weird to think about how all over the place these songs are. We released the first single for the album before we did the last EP, it’s all over the place.
I think on this album we have one or two songs that just hit the cutting room floor naturally. Those first two EPs had seven songs, and I think about three to five of those were on the cutting room floor, and that all of them could be tweaked. We're already working on the second album, and we're referencing a lot of those older songs now and thinking “how can we shape this up?” The style for album two is already feeling much more concentrated. I feel like I'm finding a style I want to do. And it’s just interesting to take these old songs that I worked on years ago and mold them into something new.
The pandemic has made me witness the Dunning-Kruger effect. It has made me aware of how little I know. It's so easy to feel confident going into a project. And then when push comes to shove, you quickly see the ways you can improve. And then you take a step back and realize, “oh, I actually know nothing.”
When did you decide you wanted to create music?
My early life was very dictated by music, as I started piano when I was in kindergarten. I eventually started to pick up guitar, drums, bass and everything else along the way. I was like in bands in high school, I always really had a love for music. It just kind of got sidetracked when my whole YouTube career with Alpharad started taking off, and when you're your own boss, it’s easy to overwork yourself.
And that’s what I did. I eventually reached a point where I realized I needed to do something for me that was fun. So that's when I started working with music again, and that reignited my passion.
What is your favorite TV/movie soundtrack?
My favorite movie has always been La La Land. I have such a love for that movie. It's just not a happy ending, but it's still a happy story somehow. Both characters end up happy, but it's just not the ending the viewer wants and I think about that frequently. Playing with audiences expectations.
I think a good TV or movie soundtrack is something that includes elements that you wouldn’t expect structurally. When listening to music as a musician, it can be easy to understand the direction of a song, and have a feeling as to where it’s going. In soundtracks and scores, a strange chord being thrown into the mix can make you really wonder where they are taking a scene. It’s like putting rails on a bowling lane. And for me, I’m most interested when sounds take me by surprise.
What's the best piece of advice another musician ever gave you?
There’s a piece of advice that has helped with my songwriting whenever I feel stumped. I was once told to find what inspired the song you’re working on, that could be an artist or a whole genre. But whenever you feel stumped on lyrics, just take the lyrics from another song and put them on your song. You’ll quickly start to naturally deviate melodically, because this other song is probably in a different key and a different tempo. And as soon as that happens, you now have a unique melody. And as a result, you have an easy melody to place your lyrics onto. That structure can be helpful.
We all have our days where it may not be going as well as we’d like. People deal with their worst days in different ways. What helps you get through the bad days? How do you stay positive?
I just shower. I don't know why the shower is such a safe space for me. But on my darkest days, I will take multiple showers if that's what it takes. It's such a peaceful environment to really just let time fly by. It’s a moment I can let my mind wander. Plus, my shower is unreasonably large. So I just kind of lay on the floor and let the water hit my back and it's very nice.
Thank you for taking the time for this Q&A. Any last words or final message for the readers?
I’ve noticed that it can be harder to write songs when you’re happy. Writing has always been so therapeutic to me. Writing Frozen in Time was about letting emotions flood onto the paper. Right now I'm realizing that I feel really good about writing melodies right now. I catch myself humming a lot. And I make sure to write that down as the melodies come to me. I’m doing pretty well right now, all things considered, and as a result I’m realizing a greater need to set aside time to focus on writing. I have to redefine my writing process now, which is a good problem to have.