“Jake Ziegler and the Locals” bring their joyful music to Liberty University

• After learning piano and guitar as a child, Jake Ziegler played in “joke bands” before forming a serious band between high school and college.
• Ziegler’s joyful music and crazy on-stage persona come from love and his influences like Rolling Stone and Aerosmith.

 

When Jake Ziegler takes the stage, everything about him seems to channel the spirit of a time-traveling 80s rock star. His leather jacket. The verve in his singing that’s beyond his age. The signature red bandana around his head which inevitably flies off when he tosses his long hair to the beat of his guitar riffs, as he did for adoring fans and fellow Liberty University students at a Student Activities-hosted concert Oct. 10.

 

And Ziegler doesn’t even read music.

 

“Guitarists can get away with playing things by tabs,” Ziegler said. “But technical music… I used to know it in elementary school. My piano teacher used to live up the street from me. She was great. But she went on vacation one year, passed away and never came back. So I picked up the guitar after that. Piano just wasn’t for me.”

 

Ziegler got his first guitar in eighth grade and began his real musical education by watching old YouTube videos of the Rolling Stones and Aerosmith—his primary and obvious inspirations behind the music he is known and loved for now.

 

“When I saw the energy that Joe Perry (guitarist for Aerosmith) and Steven Tyler had on stage, and how they were doing everything to another level,” Ziegler said, “I thought, ‘Wow, you can be yourself and be crazy up on stage and people will love it.’”

 

Ziegler started his band path in high school. He wasn’t too serious about it at first, as his bands then were all “joke bands,” as he called them, writing music about made-up stories and mythical creatures. Ziegler only started getting serious about music between graduating high school and entering college.

 

“Back in my hometown, I would try and play as many shows as possible, but I could never get a solid backing band,” Ziegler said. “I’d just grab whoever was local at that moment. I never knew what to call the band, so it literally always ended up being called ‘Jake Ziegler, and whoever-was-local.’”

 

That inevitably led to Ziegler sticking with the catch-all name, “Jake Ziegler and the Locals.” Ziegler preferred to describe the band dynamic as his moving backdrop of musicians until he could figure it all out and cement steady members in place.

 

“Right now, we have the most steady line-up that we’ve ever had. Honestly, I think we’re sounding the best we ever have right now.”

 

The band currently consists of bass player Charlie Eivens, drummer Ashton Wall, guitarist Jamie Jackson, keyboardist Troy Bittner and backing vocalist Rachel Ziegler, Jake’s younger sister. Rachel came in as “the missing piece” to meld the group together for the band’s last Coffeehouse performance.

 

“We’ve been singing together since we were little,” Ziegler said, “So we play off each other really well.”

 

To some extent, the band is still a moving backdrop for new members and new musical directions. Where songwriting is concerned, however, Ziegler wants to keep the tone as consistently joyful as possible.

 

“You’ll hear it a lot from many Christian bands that don’t write worship music now,” Ziegler said. “They’ll say ‘We want to make music that makes people happy, and gives them an outlet for joy when there’s so much negativity in the world.’ I don’t mean to jump on the bandwagon, but that’s what we’re trying to do.”

 

Ziegler makes a point of not writing anything dark or depressing.

 

“I don’t think there’s a need for it,” Ziegler said. “There are people who can do it and do it well, and bring hope in dark songs, but that’s not what I feel called to do.”

 

There are only three songs on the band’s original EP “All Year Long,” but they pin the basic elements of Ziegler’s personal journey through his work heading the band. The title song is about new love. “Movin’ On” is about leaving the past behind. “I Don’t Have to Have the Blues” is about hope.

 

“It’s pretty much just about what’s going on in my life at the moment,” Ziegler said about songwriting. He played two new love songs at the Oct. 10 show. “I’m getting married, I’ve got it on the brain.”

 

The Oct. 10 show was opened by another Liberty-based band, the Bergerons. When Jake Ziegler & the Locals took the stage, their repertoire consisted of the songs from their existing EP, a cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” and an acoustic medley of Ziegler’s “Maybe I’ve Got Tomorrow” and “Free Falling,” in tribute to the late singer. New songs from the band’s upcoming project were prominently showcased.

 

Ziegler said he much prefers a live setting to the recording studio. The energy with which he plays his guitar and dances sweat-drenched across the stage—channeling glimpses of a young Eddie Van Halen—evidence that fact.

 

“I like to be able to lead the band and feel the audience,” Ziegler said. “Performing live, you can accommodate them so much better.”

 

The moving backdrop of the band’s setting and members will likely keep moving as life and school progress for each of the current “Locals.” Between getting married to his fiancée Kristin Dekleine in November, to releasing a new single, to tentatively recording a new full album sometime in January 2018, Ziegler will keep moving, too.

 

“We’ve been touring Lynchburg for two years now,” Ziegler said with a teasing grin. “Once this album comes out, we’re going to submit it to festivals, and try and make a dent in Spotify. If that takes years, that’s fine. Honestly, I have the passion and drive behind it. It’s what I feel called to do. If I get a different call from the Lord later, then that is totally fine too. It’s full-steam ahead from here.”