Jake Allain Reflects on Growing Up and Moving On With EP “New Junction”

For Jake Allain, “New Junction” captures a moment of change. The EP brings together songs written in the months before he left home for college, when excitement about what lay ahead sat alongside the sadness of moving on from childhood.

The 18-year-old musician, based in New England, has spent much of his life around music. He has played guitar for 15 years and drums for 10, and began making music in different ways during the pandemic. That experience has helped shape a collection that feels personal to the period in which it was written.

Allain’s influences include The Beach Boys, Tame Impala and Led Zeppelin. Rather than pointing to one particular sound, those artists reflect the range of music he admires and the ideas he brings into his own work. While making “New Junction”, he used every instrument available to him, giving the EP a hands-on approach from its earliest stages through to the recordings.

The songs follow the mixed feelings that come with leaving a familiar life behind. There is anticipation in stepping into adulthood, but also a sense of loss in knowing that a chapter is ending. That tension gives “New Junction” its central thread: it looks ahead while remaining connected to the place Allain is moving away from.

Allain describes the EP as his best work so far. Written during a significant transition, “New Junction” offers a snapshot of a young artist taking stock of where he has been and preparing for what comes next.