Premiere: Cole Collins – ‘Jargon’
This morning, Charleston musician Cole Collins released his new Jargon EP. The three-track Jargon is the first album release from Cole Collins since the 2015 release of the full-length Living History. He did release two singles between Living History and Jargon: “For Ourselves”, and “The Story & The Dream”. Those singles are standalone entities that did not find a place on any of the projects that Cole has in the works.
According to Cole, the songs on Jargon had been written for a while, and have been played live many times with several different arrangements and instruments (this is the norm for a Cole Collins show). You may have seen a live video for the previously untitled track that is now called “For I Know That Good Itself Does Not Live In Me” floating around on this site at some point. If you haven’t, you can check it out here.
The studio setting in which Jargon was recorded wasn’t a traditional studio setting. In Cole’s words, it was more “organic”. The EP was recorded in his girlfriend/bandmate’s house in Mt. Pleasant not long after they had wrapped up recording the soundtrack for Levi Adkins‘ upcoming short film The Man and His Wife. The short film is slated for an October release. Cole decided to follow the soundtrack recording with the recording of Jargon to capture the warm, homey feeling that exists within the house.
“The EP hints at the idea of not trying so hard to be something you aren’t,” Cole explains. “And I love that instead of recording in a fancy studio, I got some of the best sounding recordings I’ve ever done in a simple house with no sound treatment or contrived sound design, which plays well into the content of the songs.”
Over the years, Cole has remained consistent in his belief that music (and most other art forms) is a “disgorge” of sorts, a way of releasing something that would have eventually found its way to the surface in one form or another. He believes that an artist serves as a crossover point for art to come into the world, and it is their responsibility to give that art the attention it deserves to be the best it can be. He says that lately he has strived to stop cutting corners, giving his music his full attention and not calling it “good enough” when he truly knows that it needs more work. This belief, coupled with his growth as a person and an artist, has led to the creation of Jargon.
Cole’s band for the recording of Jargon included Caroline Collins on background vocals, Rachel Davis on piano, and Matt Rash with some guitar work. The photo used in the album art was shot by Paul Chelmis, with whom Cole linked up with for a shoot that was included in issue 3 of 9 to 5 Magazine. Mixing was done by Neil B. Young of Young Mixing, and the project was finalized by Matthew Garber at For The Record Mastering.
You can catch Cole Collins live tonight for the Jargon release party at The Royal American with Rare Creatures and Dead Swells. Listen to Jargon below, and stay tuned for news on a full-length release from Cole Collins coming in 2019.