Long Journey
By Liz Barry on Feb. 21, 2008
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Jake Kirk was there, 36 hours after the tsunami hit the coast of Southeast Asia Dec. 26, 2004.
Kirk, a 21-year-old Navy photographer stationed in Hong Kong, was sent to remote villages to distribute aid and chronicle the devastation. His photos ran all over the world, including the covers of the Boston Globe and Chicago Tribune.
But on his third mission, Kirk met disaster of his own. His helicopter had a mechanical failure and crashed.
“We spun down and landed in a rice patch,” Kirk says. “Everybody survived.”
Kirk broke his back. After a hospital stay in Singapore, Kirk returned to his parent’s home in Maryland to recover.
Sea Songs
Kirk, now 24 and living in Forest, plans to release a solo album, “The Little Vagabond,” next month. It’s an amalgamation of hip hop, folk, electronica and rock. The album is based on his experiences during a one-year stint in New York after the crash, but the seeds were planted while he was out to sea.
When Kirk joined the Navy at 18, his dream was to become a filmmaker. Ship-bound, his compass turned toward music. Listening to Bob Dylan helped him pass the time. Before long, Kirk’s own lyrics began to flow.
Kirk is drawn to people in the shadows or, as he puts it, “the dishwasher, the underdog, the guy who has rough hands from working really hard.” He found private time on the ship to put their stories to paper.
“I found a hidden spot on the boat, where I could sit on the mooring lines and write when the sun went down,” Kirk writes on his Web site, http://www.jakekirk.com.
New York, New York
When Kirk was recovering from a broken back, he had time to record the songs he wrote at sea. He recorded 30 songs in two months.
He used the Mac laptop he won for being named Navy photographer of the year in 2004. He constructed a makeshift studio in his parent’s home by hooking up a keyboard and mic to his Mac, and mixing sounds with the music software, Garage Band.
Kirk says he’s still learning. Some of his songs, especially his early works, are rough around the edges. But for him it’s not about making a perfectly polished song; it’s about making music.
“I’m someone who is not experienced with the technicality of music but I’m trying to get something across,” he says.
When his back was fully healed, Kirk packed up and moved to New York.
“Something was calling me there,” he says. “There was something there for me to learn.”
With little money to his name, Kirk lived in public housing, and worked in a fish market and as a waiter. He met all kinds of people: immigrants, fishmongers, a lonely grandmother. These people fueled more song writing.
Kirk landed some gigs playing his music. He played at Brooklyn’s Living Room Lounge and Manhattan’s Sidewalk Café.
Lynchburg Livin’
Born in Orlando, Fla., Kirk is a vagabond of sorts. His journeys post-high school took him across the U.S., and to Hong Kong and back. Growing up, he moved frequently for his parents’ jobs.
But Kirk has settled down. For now. After a year living paycheck to paycheck in New York, Kirk enrolled at Liberty University.
It’s about a month into his first semester, and Kirk already knows he wants to be an English major. Kirk’s guided by his Christian faith in pursuing music. He views it as a calling.
His dream: “to be like a poet on stage with nobody behind me.”
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