Jared & The Mill – This Story Is No Longer Available

By starrymag | December 14, 2018

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

 

Q) How would you describe your sound?

 

A) We kinda have a hard time fitting into genres because we have a diverse sound which can make it tricky, but we like to say that we’re a “Western Indie Rock” band. But you can call us whatever you want, we’re just stoked if you give it a listen.

 

Q) Who are some of your musical influences?

 

A) Oof, that really is an across the board kinda question. We really listen to just about everything as a band and I would say my influences are pretty damn diverse. I listened to a lot of Bob Dylan as a kid and I think that may be what initially got me into song writing, but that grew into Simon & Garfunkel, The Beatles and so many others. I got a little older and found inspiration in the old country outlaws my grandpa always made me listen to, and the punk rock my friends were jamming out to. Now’a’days I listen to a lot of trap and hip-hop. I think Kendrick is incredible. He’s the Bob Dylan of our era and I try my best to take as many lessons listening to him as possible.

 

Q) Talk about the story behind your new song “Hope.”

 

A) I think the idea of hope is more of an idea than something I can put into words, but I’ll try. I think there’s a vibe in the air. It’s not always something in your face, or obvious, but it’s there. It’s a feeling that something really isn’t right, not in an angry old man bitter at the world sorta way, but more in an inherent mysterious way that we’re feeling. There’s a helplessness I think a lot of young people feel, as we watch the climate start to fight back against us and as we see the nations pull further and further away from one another and it’s terrifying. To not have complete agency in our lives is really a difficult thing and part of growing up I think is to say to yourself that even though you can’t always control the world around you, you can at least control how you react to your circumstances. There’s so much positivity in this world and so much smiling through the madness. That’s why the song sounds so happy and the words are so concerned. All this given though, the bridge is a self-acknowledgement that there’s no use giving up, we might as well love like we’ll never be hurt and find a reason to get up and live to the fullest every day. I know it’s word soup, but that’s kinda what “Hope” is about.

 

Q) What do you think it is about the song that fans connect to?

 

A) I think people will initially fall in love with the fun clapping sections and the wild instrumentation, but what will really bring them in for good is the message that we’ve gotta get over the fact that we don’t always have control over our lives yet we can control the way we perceive things.

 

Q) How does the video for the track play into the message behind it?

 

A) Mike [Carter] and I really just had a bunch of fun playing with the idea of having two items, one saying “Losing” and one says “Hope,” and we somehow destroy one or the other depending on the video. We had two balloons for one and popped the one that said “Losing” so that there was only “Hope” left, which is kinda a simple beautiful message. There’s also darker takes were we wrote the words in the dirt and then stamped out the “Hope” so that there was only “Losing” left. They’re two really extreme words to experiment with, and the videos were really just us fuckin around with those ideas.

 

Q) What is your song writing process? Do you need music before you can create lyrics? 

 

A) Sometimes lyrics come first, sometimes chords, sometimes melody. There’s no reason to the madness, you just have to pull creative moments out of the ether when you spot em.

 

Q) How much of hand do you have in the production of your music? 

 

A) Every member of this band is deeply involved in the creation of our music, it’s super collaborative and uses our friendship as the engine our machine runs off. We have a blast when we create our parts together, it’s really special.

 

Q) What can fans expect from a live Jared & The Mill performance?

 

A) I think you can expect a really genuine live music experience. We really love each other and playing music with one another and we try our best to project that love out to the people looking. We have really big guitar solos, really soft acoustic in the crowd moments and everything in between. It’s all just a really special environment that really makes people feel like they belong.

 

Q) You have a full-length album coming soon. What are some themes the album will explore?

 

A) I think the overall idea for This Story Is No Longer Available is that everybody is at least a little broken, we all have regrets and anxieties and all anybody really wants in this world is to find the parts of themselves that they like and care about and then expand on those things. That’s what this record is to me and I hope it is as moving and exciting to listen to as it was to make.

 

Q) Where are some of your favorite places to perform and what makes those locations so significant to you? 

 

A) Oof, another hard one… we’ve played in arenas, amphitheaters, dives, back yards, and anywhere else you can imagine. Around this time last year, we played for the Navy on the USS Nimitz while it was active in the Persian Gulf. That was a really special time. Met all sorts of people with different backgrounds and lives back home. It was wild.

 

Q) Who would you most like to collaborate with on a song in the future?

 

A) Post Malone. I wrote “Feels Like” with the intention of getting him to hop on the track and sing a verse. [laughs] Gotta dream big.

 

Q) What album/band are you currently listening to and why do you dig them? 

 

A) Quavo from Migos recently put a record out. It’s damn good and I’m perpetually obsessed with The Weeknd, I think I love listening to all of that because it’s so different from the type of music I write and play.

 

Q) You are a part of social media. Why is that such an important way for you to connect with your fans?

 

A) We live in a world where everybody is from the internet, which is really cool. I can have instantaneous communication with anybody around the world! And when you’re in the business of connecting with people, it’s a beautiful tool. We keep our channels open for people to tweet at us, send FB messages, Insta Messages and we do our best to always answer any questions our fans may have or listen to them talk about something they’re going through, or whatever else. It’s really incredible.

 

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?

 

A) I wanna say that we love you, we really do, and we hope your living the best life you can. We’re honored you’ve decided to make our music a part of your story! Keep Howlin p/\q.

 

 

All Questions Answered By Jared Kolesar