Michigander’s self-titled debut is an album ten years in the making. “For the longest time it was friend rock,” Jason Singer, who is Michigander, told me as we sat on the couch of his home in Nashville. “I think Ben Gibbard said that, ‘You are only playing to your friends.’ Then people started showing up who I didn’t know.”
Packed into the debut is a lifetime of knowledge and ambition. Singer creates songs that are seemingly simple, with huge hooks that will be playing in your subconscious for days, but the songs are also packed with musical Easter eggs that reward careful listening. Overall, it sounds like Singer is hanging fun. There is a moment in “Giving Up” where he laughs after a cymbal crash and the joy is infectious. It might still constitute as friend rock if he makes every listener feel like one after listening.
On being a front man
Michigander: I’ve always loved being an entertainer. I love making people have a good time.
I discovered four bands all around the same time: The Killers, Coldplay, Oasis and U2. They are stadium rock bands. I would go on YouTube at the library and I would watch videos of these bands playing to just the biggest crowds I have ever seen. More people in the stadium than lived in the town I lived in. And that is what I think it really was…I was like, “I could do that.”
I care about putting on a good show. It’s important to me to be a good entertainer.
On “Giving Up”
Michigander: I saw one of my managers in Denver. I showed him the record and was like, “This is what I got.” And he said, “I think you need more songs.” And I was like, “What the hell? How DARE you?” Why was I mad that the guy who manages me wants me to write more music, which is the thing that I love doing. Why would I be upset?
So, this sounds so dumb. I went away to this cabin. One of those getaway cabins that you get Instagram ads for. It’s like an hour from here. I went with all intentions to write a bunch of songs. I only wrote one song. It was this one. And then I just drove home.
Justin Barney: How long were you there?
Michigander: Three hours.
JB: Are you singing to someone there or is it to you?
Michigander: It is a bit to myself. I was telling myself that I am done trying to chase the song that is for radio or for the playlists and just try to make the thing that I want to make.
JB: It’s funny because that’s the biggest song. That’s the one we are playing on the radio.
Michigander: When you just let go and surrender to the process, that’s when the good stuff happens.
On producing for his TikTok brain
Michigander: I arranged this album with Jeremy Lutito. He used to play in the band Leagues. The first show I ever went to on my own was Mat Kearney at St. Andrews Hall in Detroit, Michigan. My parents let me drive the minivan from my small, mid-Michigan town. The opening band was the band called Leagues. They were sick. I was obsessed with them. I was actively active on their social media.
For their last EP they came here and I got in touch with Jeremy. We hit it off and when it came time to do the record I called him up. He’s my guy.
A lot of the little noises on the album, the little bells on “The Broadcast” and stuff, are like, we just wrote the song and we are listening to chords. And I would hear a little melody in my head. It’s like throwing paint. You have the base and then I’m like, “OK, I’m bored. Now what?” I’m just trying to keep things in there that are keeping my attention.