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(Photo by RAYCHEL JOHNSON) Jake Skeen live at Bent Note.

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(Photo by RAYCHEL JOHNSON) Jake Skeen live at Bent Note.

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(Photo by RAYCHEL JOHNSON) Jake Skeen live at Bent Note.

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Jake Skeen likes to tinker with his instruments before he makes his tunes.

The Clearfield-born-and-raised musician says he has a collection of all sorts of electric guitars at his home, but most of them aren’t playable. Skeen disassembles them and, much like an evil music scientist, mixes and matches scrap and parts to build his rig and create a unique fusion of modern electric and blues.

“I end up taking them apart and trying new things with them, so I only have a few guitars that are actually playable — even though there’s tons of them at my house,” Skeen said, calling from his home in Davis County. “When I found out that you could actually build your own guitars, I was interested and fascinated in that.”

Skeen built more than just a music-making rig, he also customized a microphone using an antique rotary-dial telephone that he bought on Historic 25th Street. At his next live show — at The Century Club in Ogden on Saturday, Dec. 20 — Skeen said he plans on bringing his telephone mic and his collection of musical doodads.

Homemade touch

Skeen built his first cigar box guitar while still in high school. He fashioned the neck out of a piece of wood found in the dumpster from back when he was a custodian at an elementary school. Apparently, the art department didn’t want its easels anymore and threw away the lot. An opportunistic Skeen saw a jackpot, especially when it came to fashioning both his instruments and his experimental blues music.

”A fun thing too I think about blues music, that you don’t have an opportunity with with many other forms of music, is to be creative like that and build your own instrument,” he explained. “Any instrument can play blues if you make it, so going around I always get ideas for different guitars that would look cool.”

Right now, Skeen is sculpting a 12-string guitar and working on other guitar projects at the same time.

“I decided I wanted a 12-string guitar because I’ve never had one, and those are expensive, so I had some parts lying around and I’m trying to turn a regular six-string electric guitar into a 12-string electric guitar,” he said, adding that building guitars is not as easy as it sounds — especially without any background in instrument building or electronics.

“It drives me crazy, and that’s probably why there are so many parts lying around,” he said. “I pretty much have the idea and work on it until I get stuck and can’t move any farther. Then I usually start on something else until I figure out how to fix that problem and then start on it again. I really don’t know what I’m doing, I know I like it. It’s pretty much just experimenting.”

Finding his identity

Another facet of Skeen’s musical-hobby-turned-passion is tinkering with is his lyrical prowess. He said lyrics have always eluded him, especially when it’s just as meaningful to communicate feeling through music instead of words. That’s one reason Skeen loves the blues.

“It definitely has a feeling about it and just the fact that you’re able to improvise and be creative — same with that feeling,” he said. “You can say how you feel in the lyrics, but more on your instrument, you know. When you play, you’re able to play and just help others feel how you’re feeling in a way.”

Skeen also doesn’t want to become predictable and pigeonholed into a certain genre and style, which is another reason why he is approaching his lyrical journey in a different way. He’s on a mission to create new blues.

“I need to think about it differently, because I don’t want to be stuck and say I’m a blues musician. And I think that’s what I’ve done,” Skeen said. “So when you go to write a song, that’s exactly what comes out, is what you expect blues music to be. And that’s boring, so I’ve got to think of a new creative way, some new blues.”

Skeen relates most to an unlikely blues musician, Bob Dylan, who is known best for his American folk and popular counterculture repertoire.

“My biggest influence right now in trying to get into lyric writing is Bob Dylan for sure, because his lyrics are endless, crazy, I don’t know how he does it,” Skeen said. “He has a few songs that you would say are blues, but they don’t follow a blues lyrical pattern at all. He kind of just does his own thing, so that’s what I want to go for. I’m still trying to figure it out, but I want to take what I have now and take it in another direction.”

Farewell show

The new year is all about fresh beginnings, and the same is true for Skeen. Shortly after dawn breaks on 2015, the soon-to-be troubadour will be skipping town to pursue an audio engineering education at the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences in Gilbert, Ariz.

While studying music at the conservatory, Skeen plans on doing more of what he’s been doing here at home — playing blues music at local eateries. Most recently, Skeen has been keeping weekly gigs at the new Bent Note Gastropub in Clearfield, and he’s entertained at Ogden’s Slackwater and the Century Club, as well.

“I’m going to do the same thing down there — play and try to make money to get through school — so I’ve got my first gig down there at an Indian reservation casino,” Skeen said. “Yeah, they’re going to book me there Wednesday nights through February, but I’ve still got a long way to go.”

One of the last opportunities to see Skeen live is at his upcoming show at the Century Club. Skeen said the crowd can expect to hear and see something different than they normally would at a dinner show.

“Typically, it’s you see a person sitting on stage with a big binder or an iPad or something in front of them and they the have songs, the chords and lyrics and they just play the songs and follow along,” he said. “I’ve never really wanted to be that kind of musician, so when I do play all my songs, I have them memorized. I don’t have lyrics or anything in front of me.”

Skeen went on to say that almost every show is different because his style of blues music allows for improvisation, and his telephone mic adds a generous amount of distortion and effect.

“Most of the songs are different; most nights I don’t play them always the same. There’s still room for improvisation and jamming and making up stuff and plenty of homemade instruments,” he said.

Skeen plans to be in Arizona for about a year, then will probably return to his homeland and continue creating music and the instruments that play it.

“I’m sure I’ll be back. I really enjoy Utah, it’s still a great place,” he said. “Ogden is cool, I enjoy Clearfield, where I’m from, there’s enough strange and weird things here and that’s pretty cool.”

Contact reporter Raychel Johnson at 801-625-4279 or rajohnson@standard.net. Follow her on Twitter @raychelNEWS.

PREVIEW

• WHAT: Jake Skeen farewell show
• WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 20
• WHERE: The Century Club/Warren’s Craft Burger, 315 24th St., Ogden
• TICKETS: No cover; open to age 21-older