Jacob Nolen grew up poor in the remote high desert climate of Northeast California with little to no opportunities to cultivate his musical creativity. Like-minded artists were scarce and resources were limited, but that would only intensify his passion for the world of music artistry, live performance, songwriting, and production.

At just 1 year of age, Jake could whistle melodies. By age 11 (in 2001) he was already writing songs, poems, and had even created his own language and business selling duct tape wallets — all before ever truly knowing the internet even existed. Jake picked up a cheap guitar at 13, started a band (well, several bands actually) and the rest sort of unfolded from there.

Throughout most of his late teens and early twenties Jake Nolen toured with various local bands, with whom he independently released several albums, EP’s, and singles. Jake has toured much of the Western USA with The Gnarly Pints, whom he co-founded with his wife Emily Nolen, opening for nationally-acclaimed Celtic duo “Men of Worth”, 4-time Grammy award winning artist Kevin Max, as well as other accomplished music acts. The Gnarly Pints went on to headline festivals, release two albums and multiple singles — music that was all co-written and produced by Jake.

In 2013 Jake released his debut album The Project, which boasted an explosive album release concert in a sold-out rock club in Northern California. Throughout the 2010’s Jake wandered and experimented with genres in pursuit of artistic identity — and it drove him into a long season of musical homelessness as an artist with so many contrasting sounds. Aside from sporadic, rare live performances and a handful of singles, the vision that Jake had once held for his music career seemed to be dying. And die it did, for nearly a decade.

In 2018 Jake had started pre-production on another album – from which he had written a song about the devastating fires that ravaged Northern California that year. Weeks after the deadly Camp Fire, which burned into the city limits where he currently lives, Jake released an iPhone-filmed music video that went viral on Facebook and, more importantly, helped inspire healing in his hurting community. He scrapped the album, however, in pursuit of something more befitting of his original roots in rock & roll.

In 2019, Jake was hopeful of a career relaunch and even had the opportunity to work with professionals in the Los Angeles area on a handful of songs that would hopefully become the fuel necessary to lift things off the ground and put him back on track as an artist and performer. The 2020 Covid Pandemic, however, put a very swift end to that relaunch. The sudden death of a beloved best friend and former bandmate dealt the final blow that almost pushed him to retirement from music altogether.

However, in an effort to salvage years of hard work and return to his first-love of rock music, Jake founded the band No One, with whom he is still very much active! The very initiation of this project was itself like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, and rekindled a passion that Jake once thought dead and gone.

In 2022 Jake released his first single in almost 5 years, and reemerged as a mainstream artist, producer, and performer with a newfound zeal to create and share music that is unerringly inspired. In 2023, Jake Nolen released his second full-length album Too Late To Party, launched exactly 10 years after his debut album. TLTP was a deeply personal journal entry, made to purposely sound homemade, unrefined, and as raw as possible to reflect the emotional and pain-filled lyrical content.

“I’m not as cool as I think I am, but I’m cooler than you think I am”

Jake Nolen is not just a dynamic music artist from Northern California; he is also a multi-instrumentalist, producer, multi-genre songwriter, and most importantly, a husband and father. His spirited guitar playing, dynamic vocals, and extroverted stage presence have earned him praise from Nashville to LA - and he’s just getting started! Watch the HD music video for his newest single “Doubt” - now available on all major platforms!

Jake’s past and present music projects include, but are not limited to:

Jake Nolen, The Gnarly Pints, No One, Stem The Lynching, Matrem, and The Limbic System.

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