Just over a month ago, Phoenix Americana outfit Jared & The Mill releaseded their new EP Orme Dugas. The album is named after an exit near the band’s hometown and encompasses the beauty and peaceful setting a band yearns for with life away from home. With this release there has been lots of time away from home as the band nears the final stretch of a massive North American tour. Life on the road, and the trials and tribulations that come with it, forms the subject matter for most of the EP, which goes from Western barnstormers like “Lost, Scared & Tired” to heartfelt breakup tunes like “Song For A Girl”. The five songs on Orme Dugas are brimming with stories and emotions, and to give us a more in-depth look at the inspiration and meaning behind the music, the members of Jared & The Mill have provided track-by-track commentary.
“Lost, Scared, & Tired”
“Lost, Scared, & Tired” is an interesting opening because it kind of touches on the points made in the other tunes on the record, almost like a thesis statement. It covers what we give up in our personal lives while trying to make this touring thing work, as well as several things that go on in our minds while we’re out somewhere on the road and left with our thoughts. While we hate how often we’re gone from people we love, and while we try our best to associate with all our friends and family back home, it’s sometimes difficult because of how much we love the adventure we’ve chosen for ourselves. It’s sometimes difficult for people to truly relate to us because of our wanderlust and the things we’ve seen. We’ve accidentally founded a brotherhood between us and only we can understand it. While we’re home, the road calls us, and while we’re out, we spend a lot of time missing things and people we hold near and dear to us back home. But it’s too late to undo and unsee all that we’ve experienced, so all there’s left to do is go forward and play the music we love and hope to God the home we long for is still there for us when we get back. It’s said that a traveling musician is only happy leaving home and coming home, and while I think there’s more to it than that, it’s a fairly accurate blanket statement. – Jared Kolesar (Lead Vocals, Acoustic Guitar)
“Keep Me Going”
“Keep Me Going” is about the uncertainty one feels when they’re discovering a new relationship with somebody. Heartbreak is a difficult thing to deal with, and I think it’s especially difficult when one’s actions are the catalyst for the hurt they experience. I was seeing a girl for a couple of years, and was really legitimately happy, but I also love music and the adventure of touring with all of my soul. These two pillars in my life unfortunately couldn’t co-exist and I was left with a decision I think a lot of musicians are forced to make. The breakup is hard, and it left me wondering if any sort of romantic relationship was going to be possible for me while living in this world of mid-level bandship. When a new flame entered my life, it was difficult to not wonder if it would befall the same fate. This song is more of a question within myself of whether or not I could spiritually handle another experience like the one previous. The question is projected onto the relationship in question and begs the new girl to be certain of whether or not this lifestyle is one she can handle. And I hope it is. – Jared Kolesar (Lead Vocals, Acoustic Guitar)
“Still Alone”
I wrote “Still Alone” while we were on tour and the relationship I was in went on the rocks. Usually in a breakup there is always that back and forth period where both parties are trying to sort out our their feelings and there can be a lot of uncertainty there. That process became amplified by the crazy schedule of tour and the time in between calls and conversations. What I was trying to capture in the song was the anxious feelings I had from not knowing where I stood in the situation and the hope I had that my (then) girlfriend would be alone so we could possibly work it out. Michael’s banjo playing has this sort of clocklike tick-tock effect which captures the anxiety felt playing shows night after night and knowing I couldn’t just run home. – Larry Gast III (Electric/Lead Guitar)
“Ghosts”
Directly, “Ghosts” (especially the verses and bridge) is a vague narrative about a guy who believes he is being haunted by his dead wife, or lover, or perhaps just haunted by the memory of someone he is no longer with. I wrote the tune after hearing the word ‘Apophenia’ used on a podcast. Apophenia is the human tendency to perceive meaningful and associated patterns within random and unconnected data or events like a gambler who habitually sips his drink and taps the table twice before the dealer distributes the cards because he believes he’ll receive a better hand, or someone associating their keys going missing, a light flickering, or getting a flat tire with their belief that something is haunting them. Is this guy really haunted by his estranged or dead lover, or is it all in his head? The chorus of ‘Ghosts’ is drawn a bit more from my life. I was coming to terms with the loss, or less dramatically, the altering of some of the superstitions and beliefs of my youth. It’s something we all experience I suppose as you get older, go through things, see other perspectives, a lot of the stuff you thought you we’re sure of starts to become less clear. At first it was a little unsettling letting go of the things I used to buy into, these “Ghosts” of what I identified with for a time, but eventually I started to embrace those big questions about “Who we are?” and “Why we’re here” as the beautiful mysteries that they are and let go of the need to answer any of them. – Michael Carter (Banjo)
“Song For A Girl”
Everybody needs to feel attachment to other human beings, and touring musicians are no exception. We travel from place to place and scarcely see people we know or love and it makes it difficult to feel that human connection we crave. It shouldn’t come as a shock when I tell you that a bunch of boys in their early-mid 20s traveling around playing music come across physical passion from time to time, and for better or for worse, these momentary flings usually end up with us feeling either spiritually empty or just plain sorry for all parties involved. “Song For a Girl” is about a one night stand that ended with some really complex emotions. After engaging in…ahem…activities, I found myself more interested in somebody than I originally intended, and she came to a similar realization, we connected deeply and I found that she thought higher or me than I thought of myself. The romance of the open road is attractive, and I felt at the time that my lifestyle painted me to be more interesting than I actually am to this girl I had met, and I wanted to reassure her that I’m nothing like the man she thought I was, and I’m not worth the time she’d waste trying to make something work, as bad as I wanted that to happen. So I guess the song is about me running away from affection, despite the fact that affection is exactly what I was after at the time, my own lack of self worth just got in the way. It’s hard to figure out exactly what you want when it comes to love, and I think this instance burned in me for a while – that I regretted my decisions and wished I had given it a shot maybe? I don’t know, but I think these emotions led to my wanting to give love another shot, which led to “Keep Me Going” being written. – Jared Kolesar (Lead Vocals, Acoustic Guitar)
Jared & The Mill’s Orme Dugas is out now. For more info check out these links:
http://www.jaredandthemill.com/
https://www.facebook.com/jaredandthemill
https://www.instagram.com/jaredandthemill/
https://twitter.com/jaredandthemill
