Bellmore Singer/Songwriter Aims to Inspire

For singer/songwriter Jeff Jacobs, there's no escaping his Long Island roots. And no reason to escape them.

"My family's had the same house on the water my whole life. We are a few feet away from the Wantagh/Bellmore border, so I float between towns," Jacobs said in between his hectic performing, rehearsing and writing schedule. "We've also owned a boat since I was a kid and I had a very nautical upbringing. I spent a lot of time sitting in my backyard and listening to the sounds coming off the water from Jones Beach Amphitheater on windy days. Like any Long Islander, I can quote nearly every Billy Joel lyric. Some things you can't escape."

These romantic roots run deep with Jacob. And though his material can be heavy, his spirit is light. It's a formula that Jacobs is riding towards steady creative and professional success.

"To me, success is that feeling when I've written a song that can move somebody. It's expressing a common emotion in an uncommon way," Jacobs explained. "I try to work all my songs to the bone until they are ready for people's ears, and I believe that no song is ever finished. I think my ultimate goal as a songwriter is to make a crowd of strangers laugh, cry, think, and dance all with one song. I'm still working on this."

Jacobs  says he is simply following the footsteps of his musical heroes  – with a healthy mix of planning and pleasure.

"I grew up on the music of geniuses like Queen, Bruce Springsteen, Meat Loaf/Jim Steinman and Led Zeppelin. Anything with that big, un-ignorable, orchestral, and over-the-top sound was my personal soundtrack as a youngster," Jacobs said.

As his tastes advanced, so did his dreams.

"By college, I became infatuated with the sounds of Pink Floyd, Radiohead, and Bjork. Anything obscure was like ear candy to me. When everybody else was taking drugs and tripping out to psychedelic music, I was alone in my room, figuring out how they could make only 12 notes sound so beautiful," Jacobs said. "By the time I was writing songs, I knew exactly what my goal was — to inspire and move people deeply on an emotional level."