Banding together
Jared & the Mill have lots to celebrate this winter
Jared & the Mill’s third annual Holiday Extravaganza celebrates not just the season but also the end of an eventful year for the local purveyors of a sound they call experimental Western.
They made a new album and toured the U.K., after which their front man, Jared Kolesar, stayed on and did some busking while exploring other European countries.
“We toured through the U.K. and Ireland,” Kolesar says a few days after flying home for Europe. “And when we finished up with that, I figured I might as well tour around Europe and check it out because I’d never been there. So going through France and Spain and Belgium and Germany was just my own little adventure. I did a lot of busking, though, in all those countries. Upped my busking chops a little bit.”
Then, with a laugh, he adds, “So you could say I was on tour.”
The full-band tour went “really well,” he says. “It was our first tour over there and we didn’t really know what to expect. It was more of like a trial because we just found our first international agent so he kind of sent us over just to see how we would do in those markets. It wasn’t really expansive or anything but it went over really well. We got positive feedback from all the promoters that we played for.”
The big plan
The plan is to go back and do more touring once their second full-length effort is officially released. They spent pretty much all of August and September recording the album, which Kolesar is happy to report “We’re really stoked about,” with producer Ethan Allen in Joshua Tree and Silverlake, Calif.
“It’s a step further in the direction that we were going on ‘Orme Dugas,’ “he says. “It’s really diverse. We really took advantage of the fact that it’s a full-length, not an EP. The past couple years, all we’ve been able to put out are five-song to six-song EPs. So we really took some liberties as far as, you know, long-playtype songs – kind of expressive, more experimentaltype tunes. I think it’s gonna be something that our fans will really appreciate.”
Asked if there’s a title, Kolesar laughs and says, “Oh, I can’t tell you that. Everything so far is top secret. All I can tell you is that it’s a full length. It has deeper Western elements but also more vibey synth tunes. There’s some really wild effects on guitars. It’s just a lot more, I guess, experimental Western, which is kind of the direction that our last record was going.”
‘Best release yet’
And working with a guy like Allen helped them get there.
As Kolesar says, “He’s done some pretty cool and respectable bands. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Sleepy Sun. So it was a treat to work with him. And he is deeply involved with the whole Joshua Tree scene. He knows the guys from, like, Queens of the Stones and Eagles of Death Metal, that whole scene, so we got to kick it with those guys. It was a pretty cool experience to be at Joshua Tree for that.”
They recorded all the “big-room stuff” in Joshua Tree then moved to Allen’s home recording studio in Silverlake for overdubs and vocals.
At this point, the album is off being mastered with no release date set.
“We’re trying to make this our best release yet,” the singer says. “And that takes lots of planning. We’re hoping to have it out by next summer but there are so many factors that we can’t really predict. We’re more just waiting for the best opportunity to release it, rather than setting a goal for ourselves.
“Everything we’ve done so far, you know, you put pressure on yourself to have a certain release date or you try to get stuff out as quickly as possible just to try to stay relevant to your fans or whatever. And this time around, we’re just doing our best to have the best roll-out and release as possible rather than just trying to put more music out there.”
But first, Holiday Extravaganza
In the meantime, there’s the Holiday Extravaganza.
And Kolesar says, “I can tell you it’s going to be the most badass one yet. It’s only year three but we’ve got some really killer surprises in the works that are kind of secret right now. There’s lots of secrecy and I apologize for that. But it’s gonna be a lot of fun and it’s for a good cause. We’re helping out with Toys for Tots.”
They’re thrilled to be sharing the bill with Jerusafunk, decker., Tow’rs, Harrison Fjord and Tony Martinez, all of whom have been requested to learn something in the spirit of the holidays.
“And we’ve got some really great Christmas carolers and a Christmas jazz band,” Kolesar says. “It’s gonna be a very festive occasion with some really cool surprises.”
He has big goals for the Holiday Extravaganza. “I want it to be an epic annual event,” he says. “It’s gonna be a really strong community even and I think that’s important because, you know, lately, there’s a lot of stuff dividing people, putting walls between us, and I think it’s important every once in a while that we come together as a community and celebrate the fact that we’re all living in the same city together. I think people overlook that sometimes because of what they see on the news or what they see on Facebook. To have a bunch of people singing in a room together kind of helps us forget the fact that our nation and our world is kind of in an unsettling place right now.”
Details: 6:15 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 23. The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren St., Phoenix. $17. thevanbu renphx.com.