Jacob Hackworth will release his debut EP, What Took You So Long, on October 23 via MCA/Goat Island Sound. The seven-song project is structured as a chronological account of the breakup that preceded his move to Nashville. Hackworth has also released the new song “I Wanna Quit” alongside the announcement.
Hackworth wrote “I Wanna Quit” with Jaxson Free, Heath Warren and Tyler Dopps, with Dopps producing the track alongside Daniel Ross. The song centers on the push and pull of trying to leave a relationship while continuing to return to it. Its accompanying video follows Hackworth through desert roads and open landscapes, reflecting the song’s theme of attempting to get away without necessarily moving on.
Hackworth said the EP came together without an initial plan to make a breakup record, but the songs ultimately traced the experience that led him toward a recording career. “There is something poetic about getting to tell that story as my first project as an artist, considering it was the reason for me moving here to chase my dream of being a recording artist,” he said. He added that “I Wanna Quit” was written at a writers camp in May and recorded soon afterward.
Several songs from What Took You So Long have already been released. The title track, “What Took You So Long,” is currently in the Top 40 at Country radio and set a record in April for the most first-week adds for an artist debut. Other previously released tracks include “Bad As I Do,” “Help Yourself” and “Mess That Marlboro Made.”
The title of the EP carries a second meaning for Hackworth, who spent years writing songs for other performers before releasing music under his own name. He said “What took you so long to put out your own music?” was a question he had regularly heard during his songwriting career. The closing “Mess That Marlboro Made,” meanwhile, looks back on the relationship through a chance encounter involving a pack of cigarettes and considers the sequence of events that followed, including Hackworth’s eventual move to Nashville.
