That's the Rabbit: A Conversation with Jared Collinger

“That’s the rabbit,” Jared Colinger said during a phone interview. Referring to his song, “Enigmatic Foe,” from the Favourite Hallucination EP, where the song speaks about “the part of us that we don’t really want anyone to know about that causes us to do things we don’t want to do.” Colinger sees that represented by the rabbit on the front cover artwork by Chad at Charkole Studios. Down the rabbit hole we go with Colinger, discovering the lostness of the wonderland within our souls—struggling against that clever foe we’ve named ourselves.

The cover art came about because Colinger’s manager knew Charkole Studios who had a backlogged piece that was available for use. Colinger says, “At first, I didn’t like it at all; I didn’t see how it related to the 6 songs at all. It’s a mismash of images, and the EP itself is a mishmash of sounds I like.”

It seems a natural fit, however, because the other-worldly collage hints at the spiritual layers in Colinger’s music. “There’s a cross with a fish engraved in it, and there’s some Christian imagery in the music.”

Like Todd Fancey, Colinger’s EP comes with heavy tones of the 70’s—bubblegum pop summers, soft warbling melodies, airbrushed photographic musical interpretations. The 2006 project seems to have unearthed this side of Colinger who says, “I have a lot of pop sensibility to my music that I wasn’t aware of, and having Frank (Lenz) involved gave it a 70’s feel.”

Former Starflyer 59 drummer/SF59 producer/Headphones member Lenz has been a hero of Colinger, so he was thrilled with the chance to have Lenz at the helm as producer. While the title track of Favourite Hallucination definitely has the 70’s wash, it’s followed by “Cinnamon & Cigarettes” with full jazz club swing.

Since the release of Favourite Hallucination, Starflyer 59 members Jason Martin and Steven Dail have been recording with Colinger for a 2007 EP. One song, “Awkward Social Graces,” is available at Colinger’s MySpace page showing what Colinger describes as the music as coming from “much more warm creative environment.” “The songs are a little more pop-oriented, little more focused.”

Spiritually, Colinger explores faith in a way reminiscent of that current Headphones member—David Bazan. It’s not the perfectly manicured faith which Colinger experienced in his Southern U.S. environs growing up. Colinger’s faith is like the cross in the corner of the cover: it’s there but within the mismash of voices, thoughts, and sounds which surround us in life.

“My whole goal as a musician and songwriter is to reach out to people who are like me, to vocalize my weaknesses in the hopes that it will create some kind of welcoming community. I grew up in Tennessee, the Bible belt, and certain things are beat into you. Some denominations use scare tactics to bring people in, judgment houses [for Halloween], and I don’t really like that people’s first image of God is that they’re going to hell.

“My whole goal is not to preach, but to share my own experiences in the hopes that someone might want to know a little more. Depict my own weaknesses.”

So “Favourite Hallucination” is about “not having much luck in the love department” (Colinger’s own description of his life). “I fall for these really great girls who are getting out of a bad relationship and don’t trust guys.” So the song is “about a girl who is not there, A song about disillusionment.” Yet, the whole idea of starting to believe in a hallucination has parallels with faith in God—which some would say is a delusion and some faithful might admit to being scared that He’s a delusion. “Cinnamon & Cigarettes” has “got a pretty sexy lyric” with it’s dreams of “pillow talk.” But as Colinger says, “The whole point is in the last lyric”—“My heart smells like cinnamon/But my thoughts reek of cigarette smoke.” “If you get so consumed with the desire for sex, it will take you over.”

It’s that kind of mismash of faith and challenge, Christianity and rabbits, that you will find on Favourite Hallucination.

Thanks to Jared Colinger and Allalom for the review CD.