Before I was born and my parents were trying to figure out what to name me my dad suggested the name Jacob Vladimir Smith. My mom didn't like the name and they eventually settled on Sam Smith. My dad told me about what I was almost called and I liked the name so I kept it in the back of my mind so that if I ever needed it I would have it. Turns out I was right to do that because releasing music under the name Sam Smith was starting to be more of a hassle than an enjoyable experience. Because of this I started trying to come up with a different name to go by. It didn't take long for me to remember the name I was almost given at birth and I thought that would be a cool one to use. But I wanted to "make it my own." I replaced the C in Jacob with a K for reasons I will explain in further detail in a future blog post, and dropped the Smith to make it shorter. With the different spelling it was also a bit of extra insurance that no one would confuse me with someone else. To be sure of this I googled the name Jakob Vladimir to see if there would be a chance of me getting confused with someone else with the same name. I found that there were no musicians by that name and not many results for Jakob Vladimir, specifically. In short (TL;DR because those are the four letters you are probably looking for here) I used my almost-birth name to fix the situation my given name caused me.

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Official Statement posted to social media concerning the name change:

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"Before I get to the meat of this announcement about the changes going on with my music I want to say something to all of you. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart for all the support you all have given me over the last few years. It means so much to me knowing that I have been able to get my music out to so many people from so many different places all over the world. Whether you are a close friend, a family member, someone from my local music scene (which qualifies you to be under the category of friend at the very least), a fan who found my music then my social media, a fan who found my music after finding me on social media, or even if you just put a like on the page because you thought I was a fan page for the British Pop singer Sam Smith I want to thank you for any kind of support you have given me and I want you all to know that your continued support is the reason I have not quit music and still intend to keep doing this for the rest of my life.

There have been days when I seriously considered quitting music because I was so focused on my name and how to get people to realize it was me writing my music and not someone else. My name made the music making process into something that could more or less be defined as a dreadful and sad experience. I may not write music that sounds happy and cheery but it used to be so much fun writing, publishing, and performing it. But because I was so wrapped up in my name and how it confuses people I stopped having as much fun as I used to. If I wanted to keep doing this and have fun with it like I used to I knew I would have to change something. I decided to change my name.

As much as I wish I could keep releasing music under my birth name I have realized that I just can’t anymore. If I keep doing that, my music will become harder and harder to find and I would just become more and more bitter. I don’t want to be bitter. I want to be able to give credit where credit is due and I don’t want to drive people away because I was being, for lack of better words, an ass. I would pretend to not like a lot of Smith’s music because I felt it was the best way for people to realize I was not running a fan page devoted to him and/or his music. But it just made me look bad in the process and I recognized that. With this new name, I will no longer have to do that. I can be more myself with all of you than ever before and not have to worry about how I’ll end up being compared to him. I can be my own man when it comes to my music.

As for my music, I still write in the same genres as before and I plan to, occasionally, write something different from time to time like I’ve done in the past. Hard Rock/Heavy Metal and Classical still have my heart and mind when it comes to writing and I can’t wait for you all to hear what I am currently working on getting recorded. I will be releasing a single hopefully around, if not on, February 2nd called “At the Heel of the Ruler.” It will be a classical style song, but it is written and mixed the way that I know Classical could be. A subgenre of Heavy Classical I like to call Heavy Orchestral. I am trying to get better at recording, mixing, and mastering every time I open Pro Tools so I can continue to give you all better products. I am also trying to learn more about musical composition as well. I will continue to learn. I will continue to create. And I will continue to keep making music as much as I can and get more content out to you all. But, now I will be able to do this with the same amount of joy I had when I first started. Hell, I might enjoy it even more now that I have all of you supporting me. Once again, thank you for everything and I hope you will continue with me for many more years to come so I can give you, the deserving fans the music you deserve.

With sincerest appreciation,

Jakob Vladimir"