Jake & Shelby are feeling the love. The duo, which is comprised of Jake Lawson and Shelby Hiam, is out with their new single, “Shut Up and Kiss Me,” the certified “fun song” on their forthcoming record, Learning to Love.
Videos by American Songwriter
As the pair began to plot what their record would feel like, they listened to Role Model’s latest album, which left them determined to embrace joy and excitement in their own work. With that in mind, a guitar riff was came first, and a concept soon followed.
“We had the idea of when you to that point of wanting someone to just shut up and kiss you in a relationship and you’re ready for it to move forward from just the stage of being friends,” Lawson told American Songwriter.
The idea was a personal one to the duo, who met at a Hendersonville, Tennessee, music school as teens. While appreciation for musicians including Lizzy McAlpine, Lennon Stella, and John Mayer bonded the pair, mutual shyness initially kept them apart.
That all changed when Lawson’s dad, a teacher at the school, suggested his son team up with Hiam to write songs. The pair proceeded to do just that every week for a year, before launching their duo, Jake & Shelby, in 2022.
Jake & Shelby Discuss “Shut Up & Kiss Me”
All of that, Lawson and Hiam said, was playing on repeat in their minds as they penned “Shut Up and Kiss Me,” which is out now.
“At first, we just didn’t talk to each other, and then we became friends, and then we were talking to each other a lot. [We were] kind of moving through that phase,” Lawson said. “We just wrote about that and our experience going through that.”
Both sonically and lyrically, “Shut Up and Kiss Me” embodies that unmistakable mix of giddy emotions.
The track’s music video equally embraces all those feelings of young love, showing Lawson and Hiam flirting as they roam around the carnival at Santa Monica Pier.
“That video was really fun, because it was just so lighthearted and just sweet,” Hiam said. “It didn’t feel like we were really acting. We were just, like, hanging out, going on a rides.”
Jake & Shelby Talk ‘Learning to Love’
As a whole, Learning to Love, which is due out Oct. 10, is about both romantic and self-love.
“A lot of it is about learning to love someone else, the fun that comes with that and then also some of the doubts and nerves that come with letting yourself truly love someone and letting someone else love you,” Hiam said. “… The other side of the album is about learning to love yourself and learning to leave situations that aren’t good for you, learning to love yourself enough to work through some of your trauma, and learning to choose someone who will really treat you well.”
The duo hopes that, when their fans listen to the LP, it will “meet people wherever they are, whether they’re falling in love with someone or falling out of love with someone or somewhere in between.”
“Our main purpose for writing music is… helping people feel their emotions and know that they’ not alone in those things, because it’s really easy sometimes to feel alone in the emotions,” Lawson said. “We just hope our music can connect with people.”
Hiam agreed, adding, “A big part of this album is healing, so I hope that if anyone needs healing, that this album can help lead them to that too.”
Photo by Emmy Meleika
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