Jake Hoskins takes the long way around on ‘Gypsy Man’
At first glance, Jake Hoskins looks like Keith Richards’ long-lost kid who somehow got access to Jimi Hendrix’s wardrobe.
It’s a very good look.
But ‘Gypsy Man’ works because Hoskins has the musical personality to back it up.
The Cowaramup singer-songwriter has a deft hand on the guitar, pulling indie rock, blues, roots and a little psychedelia into something loose, warm and genuinely groovy.
There’s reverb around the vocals, a lovely openness in the playing, and moments that recall the melodic swing of The Zombies.
Still, the strongest thing about it is that Hoskins doesn’t sound like he’s trying particularly hard to sound like anybody else.
There are plenty of familiar references in the mix, but ‘Gypsy Man’ feels entirely his own.
And once you get underneath the guitars, that sense of identity becomes the whole point.
Hoskins wrote the track years ago while studying music in Brisbane, at a time when he was living cheaply, making music constantly and throwing himself into whatever opportunities came his way.
He was, by his own account, trying to work out what being an artist actually meant.
What started as a university songwriting exercise about a wandering character eventually became something much more personal.
The Gypsy Man was him, and that is what gives the track its real centre.
It’s about a younger version of Hoskins who associated freedom with movement, creativity and saying yes to everything, even when the money was running thin and the lifestyle itself was becoming harder to sustain.
There’s something a little The Alchemist about the whole thing.
Not in an overly mystical sense, but in the idea that sometimes you need to wander a fair way from yourself before you understand what you were actually searching for.
Hoskins has spoken about growing up as a daydreamer and later finding himself chasing a version of success that didn’t necessarily line up with the person he wanted to be.
‘Gypsy Man’ catches him somewhere in the middle of that process.
Musically, the song suits the subject perfectly.
The verses push forward with a dusty, road-worn quality before the choruses open out into something wider and more cinematic.
Hoskins has mentioned Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Fleetwood Mac among his influences, and you can hear traces of that lineage, but there’s enough indie-rock looseness around the edges to keep it firmly in his own world.
It’s also a nice change of pace from the scrappier rock and psych that often comes roaring out of WA.
‘Gypsy Man’ is less interested in tearing the roof off than it is in looking out the window.
And with distance, Hoskins’ idea of freedom seems to have changed.
The younger version of him wanted to keep moving, keep creating and keep chasing whatever was around the next bend.
Now, freedom sounds a little more like balance. Knowing when to leave, knowing when to stay, and knowing which parts of yourself are worth holding onto.
That shift is what makes ‘Gypsy Man’ more than a nostalgic song about being young and broke and making music.
It becomes a song about growing into yourself.
Mostly, though, it makes you want to hit the open road with the windows down and find out what you’re made of.
Not because there’s necessarily some grand answer waiting at the end of it.
The wrong turns, the wandering and the occasional trial along the way are probably the answer.
In that sense, Hoskins isn’t really writing about escape at all.
He’s writing about finding your way back, and I reckon there’s something pretty great in that.
Listen to ‘Gypsy Man’ below.
