Review Fix Exclusive: Pi Jacobs Talks ‘Two Truths And A Lie’

Review Fix chats with singer/songwriter Pi Jacobs, who discusses her new album, “Two Truths And A Lie.”

About Pi Jacobs:

From electrified rock & roll to rootsy Americana, Pi Jacobs has chased her unique muse over the course of eight albums, gluing her catalog together with bluesy, unforced vocals and sharply-observed songwriting. She’s a traveler — a West Coast native who was born in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district, bounced between hippie communes as a child, signed her first management deal in New York City, recorded 2017’s A Little Blue in the Appalachian Mountains, and continues to split her touring between the US and Europe — and her music reflects that broad perspective. With 2020’s Two Truths and a Lie, she turns her focus both inward and outward, writing about female characters (both fictional and historic) who’ve rallied against violence, injustice, and their own inner demons to improve the world around them.  

Review Fix: How did you get involved in music?

Pi Jacobs: I started singing as early as I started talking. I was in a choir in my preschool and given a solo when I was 3 years old. Apparently it was too much for me, and I got horrible stage fright and clammed up. Thankfully I can’t remember that.  Then I started Playing Guitar at about age 11 – never looked back.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Jacobs: It’s always a little different, sometimes the melody comes first, sometimes its a beat or a lyric. When I’m really in writing mode though, I make myself go sit in my room every day, just like a regular job,  even if nothing comes out. It’s usually horrible for the first 2 weeks, and then it starts to flow like magic. It’s all in the “showing up.”

Review Fix: What inspires you?

Jacobs: Life is so beautiful and tragic and powerful, there is so much to write about. I used to write only about myself, but now I love writing about some of the amazing characters I meet too.

Review Fix: How do Strength, Struggle, Romance, and Resilience play a part in your songwriting?

Jacobs: Well those things everyone grapples with in life, including me.  Since the whole point of songwriting is to connect with people – those topics come up a lot.

Review Fix: How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard you?

Jacobs: Well, my bio says “Americana bluesy rock thing”  which is fairly accurate. I’m a singer-songwriter, but I have a lot of energy, so I like to rock out as well as cry it out.

Review Fix: How are your live shows different from your studio work?

Jacobs: Live is just so much more free. In the studio you’re trying to get it perfect, but still have that “live performance” feel – it can be a juggling act. Live is just pure fun and joy- or should be anyway.

Review Fix: What inspired your latest single?

Jacobs: I was stalked once, it was scary, and I ended up running away to get away from it, which seems really unfair in hindsight.   The more you are open about something like that, you realize that so many people have had that experience- and I don’t just mean women. One of the guys who worked on the record told me that REARVIEW was his story, and that it made him cry. That was very powerful for me to hear that from a man.

Review Fix: What are your goals for 2020?

Jacobs: World domination!  JK…..sort of. I really hope to get to the place where its easier to do this music thing – where there’s more support for the  touring and the musicians and the videos and all of the artistic stuff – because all I really want in life it to create and play music (and my family, course :)

Review Fix: What’s next?

Jacobs: I’m gonna be on the road a TON this year, so come see me :)

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Jacobs: I tried to make every song on this record an homage to some different woman I’ve met or heard about ( a few are about me, but I’m not telling).   It wasn’t meant to be a statement so much, but to tell the stories of these amazing characters that might not othwerwise get written about. To me the songs have become like fictional people that I adore and have a soft spot for.  I hope people will love these songs as much as I do, and find a little spot in their hearts and lives for them.