I recently had the pleasure to talk to Jacob Fannin from youtube sensation Fannin Eleven.
Fannin 11 consists of 11 brothers and sisters. I had to interview him!
I found them through ‘Super Vlogger’ ShayCarl who gave them a shout out on one of his videos.
Jacob also has done some solo music, and has given you guys a free download of his song 919 from his album Upside Down which you can purchase here.
Have a listen to Jacobs track as you read through the article.
So Jake, Tell us about your family, I hear there are a lot of you guys!
There are 11 of us in total: 6 boys and 5 girls. I’m number 4 and have two brothers and sister above me.
I love the mix of siblings. We compliment each other well and get along great.
Do you play solo as well as a group?
I do play solo quite a bit since I love the independent nature of playing solo gigs.
I don’t have a band. Back in college I played with some guys but our drummer quit and then the bassist,
so we couldn’t be consistent. Then I went solo.
Do you write your own songs?
I do. I put together a cd of my own songs, back in August 2007. They’re all solo acoustic tracks.
I’m currently in the studio putting together my first “real” album, which is hopefully finished by mid spring.
Most songs will be acoustic guitar led, but we are adding multiple instruments to these and trying to tell
different stories through the instrumentation as well as the lyrics.
Do you do your promotion yourself?
Yep, I’ve always done everything myself. I’ve toned it down a little because I am in grad school now
so I have to concentrate on that.
How explosive was the power of Shaycarl for you and your family?
It was everything. We had only been posting videos on youtube for about 3 or 4 months.
We just love to sing and its fun for us, so, to be honest, the positive feedback was an added bonus.
When the Shay Carl thing happened and things got crazy. It was really an overnight thing too;
going from about 500 subscribers to about 27,000. We had to sit down and talk about how serious we wanted to be
with all of this. Us older kids have known for a while that music is what we wanted to do, but we didn’t want
to force opinions on the younger kids. We just want them to choose their career path for themselves.
But, they were as excited as we were.
Shay was awesome. In the first place, to get a compliment like that from him was humbling. I really believe he’s
a good person and I respect him. He knows the power he has with YouTube and for him to basically gift us into
a position where we can start to help people, is incredible. We plan on meeting him someday and it is going
to be a good thank you party!
So have you got a CD together with the whole gang?
We haven’t. I do plan on getting everyone into the studio for a song on my cd.
We have for sure been thinking about it though. But, trying to coordinate 11 people with our schedules is near impossible.
9 of us are still in school, all over the state.
Where do you find inspiration for your music?
I’m a people person … I love stories of perseverance and family.
Life is such a cool concept, I just love making my songs from everything I see.
Can you tell me anything about upcoming album?
It is definitely different than the first cd I put out. This one is going to have more bite, meaning:
the songs are a bit more Jason Mraz-esque, where the lyrics carry the rhythm of the song.
Is there a website you visit all the time, that you think the rest of the world is missing out on?
I’m a big fan of the KIVA organization. In short, it’s an organization that allows individuals to donate money
(that gets returned) to parts of the world where bank loans might not be possible.
So, essentially we are the banks for these people and like I said before, I love reading and hearing good
stories about perseverance and lending a hand. Reading success stories on Kiva.org is a weekly thing for me.
What song did you choose to share with us?
It’s a song called “919” off of my first disc. I’m hoping to redo the song for my CD this spring and class it up a little bit.
The version I’m giving you is solo acoustic on a piano and it is real innocent.
Actually, it was the first love song I ever wrote. The concept was simple: as nice as “things” are, there are
probably times when they mask what the meaning of a great relationship is, as I see it.
The real meaning is simply the power behind someone wanting to call you theirs and vice versa.
What’s your favorite icecream flavour?
cookies ‘n cream.
What else would you like to say to my readers?
The one thing I want to say, and this is simply a belief of mine, is that everyone deserves a chance.
People are made up of more good than bad. And sometimes we have to pull it out of ourselves and sometimes
we have to work a little bit to pull it out of everyone else. But it is there and it wants to be there.
If you can believe that, the rest of life becomes simple and really it becomes a kick to live.
Thank you to everyone for your support of myself and my family. Be good!
Check out www.FanninEleven.com and www.youtube.com/fannineleven for some good music and more.
GET YOUR FREE DOWNLOAD OF ‘919’ BY JACOB FANNING HERE
For more Jacob Fannin goodness head on over to his site: http://jacobfannin.com/
