jake minch Talks Heartbreak and T-Shirts in “strip mall” 

Singer-songwriter jake minch, 20, said he has never loved anyone as much as the guy he loved at 17. His sincere new single, “strip mall,” will make your heart ache as jake minch yearns for what he once had. The track was released August 25 via 2for2 projects/Mercury Records/Republic Records alongside an official lyric video with Vevo. 

I wrote “strip mall” in my dorm in February. If I’m honest I don’t remember writing it. When I got to college I was working on this mini-novel/really-long-journal thing about the person I loved during high school; just as a keepsake to have when I’m older— and also as a goodbye to them I think. For the sake of convenience I’m gonna call it a book. I would log a couple hours worth of writing per day into that book.

~ jake minch

Continuing opening up about the meaning behind “strip mall,” jake minch said while he misses his ex, he also just misses being 17 — the lockdown, late-night FaceTime calls, the time and energy of teenagedom. 

i miss the summer
hate that i’m old in a dorm now
i hate that i hate what you do
i loved being younger with you

~ “strip mall”

With soft vocals and gentle, strumming acoustic guitar accompaniment, jake minch’s music feels almost confessional, like conversing with a friend. He’s a skilled storyteller, centering a t-shirt that he left with his ex. Soon, he spotted his ex wearing it at a local strip mall, rousing regrets about the ended relationship. His heartbreak is constant for this lost love: “over and over and over, i think that the worlds gonna end,” jake minch writes. Listeners can sit with him in that sorrow. 

I write at low points, and recently (unless it has spilled out of me), I’ve accumulated hours of voice memos of me mumbling with pretty guitar in the background. I like to make gentle music in contrast to my surroundings. I can tell when a song is gonna happen when I feel my heartbeat slow and I can focus; on a normal day my mind goes really fast and I am infamous among my family for losing my train of thought mid-sentence. 

~ jake minch

jake minch said more music is on the way. Be one of the first to find out by connecting with the artist on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok, and bask in the beauty of his vocals live on tour through late September with Ella Grace and Alix Page.