About Jack
Jack Rubinacci, song writer, multi-instrumentalist and co-producer of his debut album. Nigel Gray, producer of the first three albums by The Police has described him as “The most exciting new singer songwriter I’ve heard in years”, and Matt Malley from The Counting Crows, after hearing Jack’s debut album said “Jack shows the same kind of promise the legends before him have shown”.
Musician Father.
Work on Jack’s debut album began in 2006, and was released in 2008, but Jack’s musical journey began many years before that. Born in Rome, Jack’s father was the lead singer and bass player of a well known Italian group called “I Romans”, whilst his mother was a young seventeen year old English girl whom his father had met whilst on tour with his band in Nairobi.
Though Jack’s parents were only together for two years, the musical influence his father would have over him would continue as Jack grew into his teens. Although living with his mother, and traveling around with her in England and Italy as she worked as an English school teacher, when Jack turned eleven he began to visit his father, who by now was playing piano bar shows in hotels in Rome. The eleven year old boy would go with his father to his work, and fall asleep in the corner of hotel lobby’s to the sound of Sinatra and Beatles songs.
The constant moving around as a child gave Jack the traveling bug, and as he entered his early 20’s he continued living life constantly moving. This would eventually lead him to Norway, where he currently lives.
Starting Out In Music.
Jacks early musical impressions came from the blues of Robert Johnson and Cream, along with Sam Cooke, Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder. Blues was Jack’s first musical love. Later came enlightenment via Kurt Cobain, Bruce Springsteens Nebraska, Paul Simon, Tim Buckley, The Police and most of all, Tracy Chapmans debut album.
Following in the footsteps of his father, Jack began his own musical journey as lead singer for the four piece band Honeyman. Heavily influenced by Funk and Reggae the young band gained near legendary status as one of the hottest live acts in the West Midlands, UK, and were widely considered one of the most explosive new bands to come out of the region in a long time. They clocked up over 300 live shows during there time together.
Just as they started attracting the attention of A&R scouts in London, Jack left the band. “I needed to develop as a songwriter. Honeyman were phenomenal live, but I still felt I wasn’t a good enough songwriter to put something out. To me a live performance is secondary to the song. You got to have a good song before you tear yourself apart on stage with it.” Isolating himself away for two years to concentrate on learning how to write songs, Jack disappeared from the live circuit of which he was once a huge part of. Living by the side of a farm, in a rural part of East Anglia, Jack spent day after day, listening and playing along to Lennon & McCartney, Neil Finn, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Cowboy Junkies, Ron Sexsmith, Chris Isaak And Springsteen’s Nebraska.
When he went back out on the road, he toured extensively as a solo artist, opening for many successful and respected international artists including, Scottish Folk legend John Martyn, Tom McRea, The Script, Dar Williams, Thea Gilmore, Babybird, American Music Club, Kathryn Williams, Ben Christophers, Carina Round, Simone Cristicchi and Rodrico Y Gabriel.
Jack’s Debut Album
In 2006 Jack was approached by an investor after a show, who helped Jack create his own record company called RAR Records, giving Jack complete artistic freedom to make the record he wanted. When it came to choose a producer for his debut album Jack approached his main choice, Tchad Blake. After hearing Jack’s 4 track demo, Blake called Jack saying he thought it was some of the best songwriting he’d heard in a long time. Blake is a two time Grammy winner and has worked with artists such as Pearl Jam, Paul McCartney, Tracy Chapman, Paul Simon and Tom Waits.
After recording the album with Tchad, Jack recorded two singles with producer Ian Grimble (Travis, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Manic Street Preachers).
The main goal with Jack’s debut album was to get his name out to as many people as they could, despite having absolutely zero budget to promote the album.. With this in mind, Jack and his investor tried something completely new. Released on the 18th of April 2008, Jack became one of the very first artists in the world to release their debut album as a free Mp3 download over the internet, placing Jack at the very forefront of the radical developments occurring in the music industry today.
5 Is The Magic Number
The album received mostly excellent reviews. In Norway, where Jack currently lives, 4 large newspapers gave the album a 5 on the dice, with quotes including “Rubinacci has an obvious talent for song writing” (Dagbladet Newspaper), “If you’ve not heard of Rubinacci, its about time” (Drammens Tidende Newspaper) “Rubinacci has a long career in front of him” (Tonsberg Blad Newspaper) “A good debut album from an artist we must hear more from” (Varden newspaper). Many internet reviewers also praised the album. Click here to see the album reviews
The two singles from Jack’s album received considerable radio play in Norway. “She Makes Me Feel” was play listed by 15 radio stations with 8 of those listings being “A list”, whilst the second single “How Long”, was on Norway’s largest radio station playlist NRK P1 for an impressive 8 weeks. They are still regularly played on NRK P1.
Something New
Trying gain to break the mold, in September 2008 Jack signed a deal with a clothes retailer in Norway who purchased 20 000 copies of Jack’s debut album and sent him on a 49 date tour of the whole of the country, which lasted 12 weeks. The collaboration between an artist and a clothes retailer was the first of its kind in Norway and created a large amount of media interest including 31 newspaper articles, with large features in Aftenposten and Dagens Næringsliv, 12 radio interviews, including P4 radio, and many internet articles. The tour ended on 21 March 2009. To see the newspaper articles about the tour click here.
30,000 Albums
Jack’s debut album has now been download over 10,000 times from people from virtually every corner of the planet, including countries whose names we cant even spell; Mozambique, Martinique, Guam, Burkina Faso, Kazakhstan, Bahrain. Most of the downloads have come from the US. There are now well over 30 000 copies of Jack’s debut album in peoples homes and offices. He has been featured in over 50 newspaper articles, had 5 songs off his debut album played on various radio stations in Norway. He has also played close to 100 live shows in last 12 months alone.
Second Album
Jack has just finished recording his second album in Washington DC, working with Danish record producer, Thomas Johansen (Coolio All Saints). The new album continues to develop Jack’s love of traditional pop songwriting, whilst bringing in new influences from hip hop artists such as Kid Cudi and Kanye West and industrial music.
Just three months before work began on the album, Jack tragically lost his best friend. The lyrical themes on the album accordingly reflect a deep sense of lost and mourning, whilst at the same time celebrating the beauty of life.