Jacob Elias

In the organizer's words:

Jacob Elias is visibly moved when asked about this assessment of his talent, as David Bronner was one of Austria's most prominent music producers. "It was just beautiful and surreal to hear that," says the 21-year-old singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who took off at the end of last year with his debut track "Situationship" and proved his exceptional talent.

The song, which deals with the indecision of entering into a committed relationship, has already achieved over 1.6 million streams, 650,000 YouTube views, third place in the Ö3 listener charts, first place on Shazam for several weeks and the top 25 in the airplay charts.
"Situationship" also earned Jacob Elias a nomination at the "Amadeus Austrian Music Awards" in the "Ö3 Song of the Year" category. "That was crazy, because I've always dreamed of that," says Jacob. "But I never expected it to happen with my first song."

The term "always" is no exaggeration here. In fact, Jacob, who grew up in Gries im Pinzgau, wanted to play the recorder at home instead of going to kindergarten, even as a small child. When he was five years old, he and his brother were given a drum kit for Christmas. "My siblings - who are much older than me - had a cover band back then with other friends who played songs by the Foo Fighters, Rise Against or Green Day at village festivals or smaller celebrations," he recalls. "My sister was the guitarist, my brother was the drummer and a little role model of mine. I was fascinated by his instrument and I started taking drum lessons quite early on."

Jacob had his first gig at the age of eight - with his siblings' band, of course: "I was already more of a dork. Because I was there at every gig anyway, they always brought me on stage for the song "Welcome To My Life" by Simple Plan. He was still a little shy back then. But: "As a drummer, I sat right at the back. And I was still small, I almost disappeared behind the drums, so that worked."

Jacob Elias took drum lessons until the second year of secondary school, annoying the teachers because he was constantly tapping out rhythms with his hands on the school desk - "the usual drummer's disease". Nevertheless, the drums were not the only instrument he learned for long.
At the age of seven, his parents gave him a guitar for his birthday. He wasn't interested in it at first: "I still had this tunnel vision, I only wanted to be a drummer and I really wasn't enthusiastic. At first, my mother held back when it came to my reaction. Because she plays guitar herself, she later taught me the basics. I liked that straight away and I also had my siblings show me a lot, but I also taught myself things."
The piano was added when Jacob was ten years old. The siblings' band had disbanded in the meantime. He found their old keyboard in the basement, the former rehearsal room, took it into his room and learned to play it with the help of YouTube videos.

"From then on, the drums became less and less important to me. I continued to take lessons, but found guitar and keyboards more exciting. As a drummer, I had the pressure of having to be able to do certain things by the next lesson. With the other instruments, however, I was able to experiment freely and continue learning on my own initiative. That was more fun. A year later, I got my own stage piano. I have since given up playing the drums completely. I would say that the piano has increasingly become my main instrument over time." However, Jacob is convinced that the drums were the perfect training for the piano. The reason: "With the drums - just like with the piano - the right hand has to do something completely different to the left."

Jacob gained his first stage experience as a frontman at the secondary school in Bruck, where he framed the annual theater performances with a few cover songs as a pianist and singer together with a cajon player. For example with "Wie schön du bist" by Sarah Connor.
Jacob's taste in music had already changed by then. Instead of Foo Fighters and Green Day, he now preferred to listen to radio hits, preferably German pop by Mark Forster, Glasperlenspiel and Joris. "Later, when I had Spotify, I got to know and love older German indie acts like Thees Uhlmann and Olli Schulz. And even later Jeremias, Provinz and Bruckner. Their language was much more poetic. That fascinated me. That's why it's so important to me now with my songs that I find words that trigger images in the listener - good metaphors that are new and fresh and have a recognition value because you've never heard them before."

Jacob Elias wrote his first song in English, however. It was about his grandmother's dementia and is still the only one he has written in a foreign language. He was 14 years old at the time and had just transferred to the first senior class at the BORG in Bad Hofgastein - a school with a focus on music and creativity: "It was so cool. You could learn an instrument, dance, sound engineering or multimedia art there. I majored in singing and minored in drums. We also had a small recording studio."

At some point, a teacher installed a music production program on his laptop and the future Amadeus nominee experimented with it at home, taught himself his first production techniques and tinkered with his first own songs. Mostly on his own: "I made a few attempts to form a band, but it was difficult to find people who were as focused as I was, who really wanted to do it. That's difficult at that age.
The first big step towards becoming a professional musician came in 2019. The jury of the "Falco Goes To School" competition came to the Bad Hofgastein BORG and its students welcomed them with a concert. Jacob performed solo with his own song. The competition organizers were so impressed that they invited him to a songwriting camp in Excalibur City in the Czech Republic for the summer.

"We lived in small cabins there. My cabin neighbor was Konstantin Drewes, with whom I got on really well straight away. I lost track of him for two years after that, but in 2021 he wrote to me and asked if I wanted to come to Vienna for a songwriting session." Jacob wanted to - of course, nothing better than that. After finishing school, he started writing and producing with Drewes. At home, he also completed his community service, working with people with disabilities in the Caritas village of St. Anton: "Surprisingly, I really enjoyed that. I worked in a residential home where there was a very informal atmosphere. For some residents, you even take on the role of an important caregiver. I found that a bit challenging, but very nice at the same time. It was a great balance to making music, always brought me back down to earth and cleared my head so that I could concentrate fully on my music again. I still sometimes have contact with a few of the residents."

Jacob continued to work at the Caritas village for 20 hours a week for some time after his community service, spending the rest of his time in Vienna at Drewe's recording studio. Until December 2022, when David Bronner wanted to meet Jacob.
Bronner, who was involved in Conchita Wurst's ESC winning song "Rise Like A Phoenix", among others, had employed Drewes as an assistant and heard Jacob's songs through him. He signed the exceptional talent, teamed him up with co-songwriters Julia Kautz and Lukas Hillebrand, who were also responsible for "Situationship", and arranged a contract with Sony Music.

David Bronner, who died unexpectedly in November 2023, was no longer able to witness the success of his protégé. This saddens Jacob: "Working with David was so wonderful and inspiring. I got so much out of that short but intense time and I'm so glad I got to know him. David will definitely always be a part of my journey.

But Jacob Elias is looking forward to Zukun􏰀 despite the loss. Mi􏰁lerweile he has lived in Vienna for almost two years and is concentrating 100% on music. For the Salzburg native, who says he always sets himself "very high goals", one thing is clear: "I want to become an indispensable act, a Ins􏰂tu􏰂on - in Austria, but also throughout the German-speaking world."

May 2024