IN THE DARK with Jake Girton

It's now 2021, and concert venues have been silent for months. The echoes of cheering fans and loud amplifiers are all that remain in our memories of these once-packed halls. We're doing what we can to change that. Back in December, we took over a historic Chicago hall, and invited several area musicians to rip it up on stage. No rules- just an empty venue, a camera crew, and the spotlight.

FRET12 proudly presents, the final episode of IN THE DARK, filmed live at Pilsen's legendary Thalia Hall. This closing episode features pop-punk guitarist and songwriter Jake Girton of the band Farhampton. 

Originally from Greencastle, IN, Jake grew up with a love of classic punk-rock. After getting hooked on Guitar Hero in 7th grade, he was instilled with the rush of having a guitar in his hands and thanks to the game, "I had to get the real thing!"

Jake's love of punk music led him to join his friends in the band "Farhampton" in 2018, and with them he writes some truly catchy pop-punk bangers! Besides writing, playing, and singing with his band, he also is the Director of Evolution Rock Academy. This is an educational program set up by Illinois-based Evolution Music to teach all of the young 'rockstars in-the-making.' Jake teaches guitar, bass, drum, piano and voice lessons as well as coordinating all of the lessons at all 5 Evolution Music locations. 

With his band being such a big part of his life, he looks back fondly at a specific gig he played just before the COVID-19 lockdowns put live music on hold: "My favorite gig I've ever played was a house show. We were just about finished writing our new EP and were excited to play the new songs! The place was packed and people genuinely seemed interested and pumped about the music. It was a really special moment."

Jake tells us that he couldn't live without his Fender Parallel Universe Telecaster Deluxe Troublemaker II. "The possibilities of tones are endless with that thing. I love my guitar so much."

In his #InTheDark performance, you'll see him using this exact guitar, and on it, he is playing a tune called "Resilient" by Farhampton. "It was one of the first songs that was written for our upcoming EP and quickly became a favorite of ours. My favorite part of the song is the second verse, where the guitar goes clean with some sparkly reverb. It perfectly breathes into such a driving song."

Listen to "Resilient" 💥HERE💥

Jake is also using the small but mighty Orange Rocker 15 head paired with an open back 2x12 cab. His pedalboard makes use of the super-awesome Ernie Ball VPJR Tuner/Volume pedal, an Orange channel switcher, a JHS 3 Series Compressor, a Matthews Effects Astronomer v2, and an Electro Harmonix Silencer to keep things sounding clean.

When asked what he loves most about playing guitar, he responded:

"Even though every musician plays differently, I love how they always convey their emotions within their preferred style. You really hear the feeling of the song based on the energy put into the guitars." -Jake Girton

JAKE GIRTON // INSTAGRAM
FARHAMPTON // WEB // INSTAGRAM // FACEBOOK // TWITTER