Jam Alker

JAM ALKER

Soon after he found heroin, Jam Alker put down his guitar and did not pick it up again for ten-plus years. What followed would be what he calls “the most toxic relationship I’ve ever been in” — a decade of extreme highs and lows that brought him, literally, to his knees, begging for a long-needed reawakening. “What I found out was that drugs were not my problem; drugs were my solution to my problem.”

“I had a ton of struggles, but then also a ton of victories as a result of reaching a point in my life where the pain was so great, something had to change.”

For Jam, this problem manifested itself, not just in addiction, but egotism, materialism, and compulsiveness. He found his way back to his guitar and began to spin his experiences into stories told through music. These stories explore life’s dark, gritty underbelly and the despair that can compel bad decisions, without judgment or condemnation, but often with hope.

And he’s found that it’s not just addicts and their families who’ve found kinship through his music; his message of redemption hits home for just about anyone who’s discontent. “My story is not unique,” Jam often says. “Everyone has unhealthy behaviors they go to in times of desperation.”
It was music that helped him change his life — and it’s music that continues to keep him on his path. “Music is my therapy. Putting my experiences, both deadly and life saving, into song have helped me to heal. I owe a great deal of my new life to my music,” he says.

He chronicles this story of addiction and recovery with his first full-length solo album, "Sophrosyne". 

Share by: