Born and raised in Windsor, Canada, and thus growing up near the American border, Autumn Kings has been releasing music as a band for about a decade now. Only recently, the band signed to well-known record label Hopeless Records and announced their first European co-headline tour. We were fortunate to be able to catch up with the band’s guitarist and vocalist Jake Diab, who took the time to talk to us on the band’s tour bus before their show in Baden, Switzerland.
Almost ten years ago, Jake and Joe Coccimiglio met each other while working at a Fresco in LaSalle. Jake was a cashier, while Joe was “stacking bananas on the shelf” and thus gained the nickname “banana boy”. A couple of weeks into working there, they were on break together and started talking about music. As both of them were interested in playing in a band, they made an often empty promise to “jam sometime” – which actually happened about a year later, when Jake found Joe on Facebook, transferred his phone number from an old Blackberry to his new iPhone, and sent Joe an invite and twenty-four (!) songs to learn in two days. Joe learned them all, and so, Autumn Kings was born. Drummer Troy Dawdry joined them in 2019, after Jake put out an ad on Facebook. They found Troy through mutual friend Josh Sobeck, a sound technician who worked for I Prevail. Jake stated how it was important for him and Joe to have everyone in the band share the same values: “excellence, fitness, respect, work ethic, [and] putting on the most high energy rock shows for the fans”.
Since it has now been about a decade since Joe and Jake first decided to start a band, we wondered whether they feel like they have changed a lot over the years, both as a band and as people. Jake states how the music industry is a tough one and that “everybody wants to be famous because the appearance externally is that of a sexy business”. A lot of artists are willing to do anything for fame, leading to them being taken advantage of. As a band, Autumn Kings has seen a lot over time that could have made them bitter and jaded, but all three of them are optimists who like to look at the bright side. In some ways, therefore, Jake feels “the exact same”. People often ask him if he ever thought he would get here, to which Jake would answer that, yes, he did! This is what the band has been working towards and what Jake has always wanted to do.
As said before, the members of Autumn Kings have their roots in Canada, but as they grew up so close to Detroit, their hometown might be the “most Americanized” place in the country. Jake says, however, that there are still many Canadian things he very much loves such as Tim Hortons and hockey. He finds the people in Canada to be wonderful, but growing up near Detroit definitely helped in terms of opportunities and being exposed to American music which has shaped his well-rounded upbringing. American bands such as Linkin Park and Fall Out Boy are “good launch pads to dive deep into the world of Autumn Kings”, but there are a lot more artists out there that have inspired the band. Joe likes, for example, Twenty One Pilots and folk music, while Jake loves heavy metal such as August Burns Red and Metallica. Jake, however, is also part Macedonian and Lebanese, and therefore grew up hearing a lot of “worldly music” which influenced songs such as ‘Snake Charmer’ – which opens with a funky flute – and ‘Hellbound’.
These newer songs mentioned by Jake were all released under Hopeless Records, an independent American record label known for bands such as Neck Deep and Yellowcard. Jake states how there is this “craze of independent music and being an independent artist as the best badge of honour that anybody could wear” – and at their core, Autumn Kings is an independent band with a “DIY, hustler spirit”. It obviously helps, however, to be associated with such a record label and have them as a partner in upcoming projects. The band is actually almost finished with their new record, which Jake expects will come out in the fall. All the singles they have released recently will be on there, as well as some ballads and at least one collaboration, an intense track with a famous heavy metal vocalist – who that is, we shall all have to wait to find out! Jake states that for this new album, his “personal life experiences are really encapsulated in the lyrics”. Both Joe and Jake had good childhoods, which led to them making music where the lyrics used to be almost an afterthought when they were younger. Now, they have more life experience to draw on, enabling the band to make music people can resonate with and that will “deeply strike a chord”. Jake feels like everything is “lining up perfectly” after “ten years of brutally persistent work” – the new music is getting the best reaction live by a landslide, and it really feels like a breakthrough.
Speaking of live reactions, the band has been touring Europe with Cyan Kicks since the beginning of March, and it has been the “most eye-opening experience of [their] lives”. Jake himself had only been to Europe once before, but did not really experience it as he was a teen too focused on his Nintendo. Now, he and his bandmates got the chance to see countries such as Germany, The Netherlands, and Poland. The band’s favourite city, however? Prague, as it is “more captivating than a movie” because of its history and amazing architecture. This is also the city that is their #1 on Spotify in terms of listeners, and the fans have really shown up – not only in Prague, but throughout all cities on the tour. The band did not know what to expect at all when they booked this tour – “maybe no one would show up!” – but Jake states how they have not had one bad experience. Jake mentions that in Warsaw, for example, people came to see them from countries such as Belarus and Ukraine, and also recounts a story of a fan he met in Vienna who had messaged them in 2018 asking for them to play a show there who finally got their wish in 2025. Autumn Kings has only toured in North America before, and while Jake has not noticed too many differences between touring there versus in Europe, he notes that the fans in Europe are “less selfie-driven, more conversation-driven” and less “loud and proud” as the Americans. While the European fans might be more reserved while the band is on stage, they all take their time afterwards to buy merch and have meaningful conversations with the band; Jake really felt an “outpouring of love” and states how the band wants to get back to Europe for another tour as soon as possible. While this tour is a co-headline one with Finnish band Cyan Kicks, arranged by their shared booking agent, maybe the next one could have Autumn Kings headline on their own with the upcoming album?
Finally, we asked Jake about the last song he had listened to: ‘Welcome to Detroit’ by Eminem. Autumn Kings’ ritual is to play gangster rap before they come on stage, both because they want to see the European fans’ reaction, but also because it gets the band in the perfect mood to smash it each and every night.
Written by: Mandy Huibregtsen
Edited by: Marieke Weeda
