Second Spirit is the solo project of Jared Colby, a musician who came of age in the Massachusetts hardcore scene. Now based out of his adopted hometown of East Nashville, Tennessee, Second Spirit finds Jared writing material from a wide range of heavy styles, some outside of the hardcore realm.
In addition to his work as a musician, Jared has also been behind the boards as a producer and engineer who has collaborated with such bands as Outbreak, Youth Attack, and The Sleeping.
This knowledge has come in more than handy on The Weight of Just Living, the debut offering from Second Spirit. As far an songwriting influences on the forthcoming album, Jared cites everything from The Hope Conspiracy to American Nightmare to Nirvana to Soundgarden.
In this No Echo exclusive, we're brining you the exclusive premiere of "Brotherless," the fast-paced opening cut on The Weight of Just Living:
“‘Brotherless’ is the very first song that I wrote when I started recording The Weight of Just Living," says Jared. "I had parted ways with a very close friend a few years prior—someone who I still felt a lot of anger towards after sharing feelings of resentment and hurt with them and getting absolutely nothing in return. At that time, I felt as though I had not only been betrayed and left all alone by one of the only people who really understood me as a person, but someone I really trusted and looked up to as well.
"Since my feelings were so raw, I really wanted the music and recording to reflect that. I purposefully recorded in an acoustically untreated room to bring out a harshness that can sometimes only be found by listening to a loud band in a practice space without earplugs. I knew that was very much what I wanted my record to sound like. Plus, I've always been more inspired by imperfect-sounding hardcore records anyways! I wrote and recorded this song between the fall of 2011 and the winter of 2012 at my studio in Worcester, MA (right before moving to Nashville), played every instrument and sang every lyric myself. I even recorded and mixed it by myself.
"Looking back on it now, I think that kind of solitude was very important for me in the recording process. To be able to access the kind of emotions that were necessary to finish a song like that was crucial, or else it wasn't going to have the depth that I thought it deserved. And since I was not only bad at communicating without swinging my fists back then and I also thought the topic was so unnecessary to write and sing about anyway (since things did not have to end the way they did), I certainly did not want to be around another recording engineer or a producer while I was recording. I wanted to sit in my feelings, not share them with anyone—the classic ‘Man-From-Massachusetts’ way.”
The Weight of Just Living will be out on December 17 via Trash Casual. You can pre-order the vinyl at this link.
Second Spirit on social media: Facebook | Instagram | Bandcamp
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