Once upon a time, Jacob Ware was a black metal musician. He was the founding bassist of Enslavement, and he has transcribed that penchant for noisy barrage to document heavy lyrical material over soft, verdant indie-folk as Rapt. Until The Light Takes Us, the Londoner’s fifth album under the alias, portrays devastating scenes set to the most gorgeous nylon guitars imaginable.
There’s his neighbor who dies on his birthday from throat cancer; there’s the rumination on World War I body counts; there are battles with chronic disease. It’s all set to atmospheric piano and finger-picked acoustic guitars, lending Ware’s words a significant weight. Above all, though, Rapt’s latest work is an exploration of death itself and its inevitability. We won’t go until the light takes us, so we may as well marvel at its luminosity.
Ahead of the album’s release in February, Ware sat down with Uproxx to talk about Roger Waters, nylon string guitar, vegan junk food, and more in our latest Q&A.
What are four words you would use to describe your music?
Slightly Unhinged Indie Folk
It’s 2050 and the world hasn’t ended and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?
If I’m on the Earth still, I’ll be making music; there will be no reason to remember it. My ultimate goal in life is to die with a large body of work to be buried with. Maybe a coffin made from records!
Who’s the person who has most inspired your work, and why?
Damien Jurado – for many reasons, primarily his lyricism, his voice, how prolific he is and how you can track his evolution as an artist. I feel he started to peak and produce his best work pretty deep into his discography – his 13th album The Horizon Just Laughed is an utterly sublime masterwork.
Where did you eat the best meal of your life and what was it?
I’m an unashamed fan of vegan junk food so What The Pitta’s Doner Kebab + loaded fries.
Tell us about the best concert you’ve ever attended.
Roger Waters’ The Wall – problematic dude, incredible live show and artist.
What song never fails to make you emotional?
Damien Jurado – “The Last Great Washington State”
What’s the last thing you Googled?
‘Cheap Vinyl Pressing Uk’ + ‘How to replace bathtub sealant’
Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever crashed while on tour?
Played a show where a local regular at the bar put us up – the room had NOTHING in it other than a mattress on the floor – totally empty other than an empty photo frame on the wall… The rest of the flat wasn’t much different, very kind guy though.
What’s your favorite city in the world to perform and what’s the city you hope to perform in for the first time?
Would love to perform in Belfast, I have family there and love the city. How I haven’t I’m not sure. Going to give a boring answer and say my home-city Brighton is my favourite place to play.
What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?
Don’t listen to your future self, if you do you risk not being where you are in 2025. Do it all again, how I did with no regrets and never look back.
What’s one of your hidden talents?
I grow tobacco pretty successfully and can have a good shot at identifying if cigars are Cuban, Nicaraguan, or from the Dominican Republic by taste.
If you had a million dollars to donate to charity, what cause would you support and why?
Epilepsy Action. Epilepsy undid my teens and early twenties. I’m forever blessed it is long behind me (for now… but you never know). People are ignorant about how devastating a condition it can be for people that don’t respond to treatment. It takes your soul. SUDEP is bleak.
What are your thoughts about AI and the future of music?
AI can never express human pain and love. I’m not worried. Also, I wish AI luck trying to replicate the nuance of a nylon string guitar.
You are throwing a music festival. Give us the dream lineup of 5 artists that will perform with you and the location it would be held.
Grouper, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Joni Mitchell, Damien Jurado, and Neil Halstead – Live at the Union Chapel (London).
Who’s your favorite person to follow on social media?
I resist the idea of Social Media actually bleeding into my lived experience.
What’s the story behind your first or favorite tattoo?
My only tattoo is not having a tattoo – it’s a minimalist design.
What is your pre-show ritual?
Becoming more and more nervous by the minute until I go on stage – drink a ton of water – pace the streets outside the venue – wear huge winter gloves even in summer to make sure my hands are hot – notice how heavy my legs are as I walk onto stage – ride out the nerves till song 2 then enjoy/astral project out of my body.
Who was your first celebrity crush?
Probably Sandy Cheeks in SpongeBob Squarepants.
You have a month off and the resources to take a dream vacation. Where are you going and who is coming with you?
I’d do my dream vacation I did in 2023 again, but with my fluffy black terrier Dilly – a jaunt across Scandinavia starting in Bergen, then Oslo, Gothenburg and ending in Stockholm.
What is your biggest fear?
Dying alone, actually, if that happens I won’t care for long.
Until The Light Takes Us is out 2/21 via Start-Track. Find more information here.