SECOND SPIRIT is a one-man hardcore band from East Nashville, TN. Thatβs right, just one person, making all that noise themselves. Second Spirit makes aggressive music meant to connect with the very core of anger and rage. It’s an eclectic sound that is as two-stepping youth crew as it is metal, and as thrashy as it is spacey. Their debut album, titled The Weight Of Just Living is written, performed, recorded, and mixed entirely by the band’s frontman Jared Colby. It explores many styles of the genre, while placing most of itβs focus on songwriting, and today we’re pleased to give you a good example of that, their new single “Pig Farm”, with a special commentary from Jared!
“Pig Farm” marks the second single from the forthcoming debut Second Spirit LP, βThe Weight Of Just Livingβ and tackles the subject of police brutality in America and how it goes hand-in-hand with the abuse of power from the top 1%.
βThe Weight Of Just Livingβ is out on December 17th via Trash Casual.
“I originally wrote this song in 2011 during the Occupy Wall Street movement.” – says Jared.
“This protest was the first time I had really followed a βtake it to the streetsβ style protest within my own generation in America. We all just could not believe the banks in this country were receiving bailout money from the government while we struggled just to afford basic healthcare or make ends meet.”
πΌ πππ’ππ ππ¦π πππ ππ πππ ππππππ π‘βππ‘ πππππππ’π ππππ‘ππ π‘πππ π€πππ πππππ ππππππ π ππππ¦ππ, π‘πππ πππ π ππ, πππ ππππ‘ππ ππ¦ π‘βπ ππππππ.
“I could not believe that banks were getting away with locking people in their lobbies while customers were cancelling their accounts. I was enraged, sad, and confused – so I immediately picked up the pen and this song just sort of flowed out of me. I wanted something very simple and blunt sounding. Something that conveyed all three of the aforementioned emotions in one. I wanted anyone who had a distaste for police and distrust of the government to be able to connect with it, and know that they werenβt alone in their feelings. At the same time, I was thinking a lot about what I did or did not want to include on my record and I realized that I loved hardcore bands that placed samples into their songs. I knew that the long, crescendoing instrumental at the end would be perfect for that and I ended up sampling an episode of Hardball with Chris Matthews on CNN reporting on a particularly violent weekend on Wall Street in New York.”
Fast-forward to the summer of 2020. The entire country was breaking out in Black Lives Matter protests.
“Police violence was at an all-time high, but also at a breaking point.” – continues Jared. “The people had had enough. Here in Nashville, Tennessee though, amid the BLM uproar and the murder of North Nashville resident Daniel Hambrick (by Metro Police), there was a secondary protest going on.”
“Since the middle of last century, there has been a bronze statue of the founder of the KKK, Nathan Bedford Forrest, in the state capitol building. We demanded that this statue be removed. The people gathered and occupied the plaza across the street from the capitol building, for 60 straight days and nights. Rather than considering the publicβs stance – governor Bill Lee employed the Tennessee Highway Patrol to guard the grounds.
In all that time, the Lee never met with organizers or engaged in any discourse. Instead, the people were met with extreme violence. On one particular day after a march to the capitol, police arrested 60 protestors. They were thrown down flights of stairs, pepper sprayed, and the small army of the governorβs protectors just seemed to grow, and grow. Bill Lee even used up the stateβs federal covid-relief funds to hire more cops and to pay them overtime. Eventually, the brass held a special council and passed a law in Tennessee that made assembly and protest a felony. Once you are labeled as a felon in America, you will be stripped of your right to vote. The protestors knew this, and of course, the politicians inside of the capitol knew this too. The strong group of men and women at βThe Peopleβs Plazaβ were forced to disband.”
πΏππ π‘ π π’ππππ π€ππ πππ‘π‘πππ π€πππ‘ π‘π π ππ¦ π‘βπ ππππ π‘.
“On one hand, we the people did force a vote on this hateful statue before being removed from a public plaza. We were successful and it was removed! But on the other hand, I could not help but feel disheartened that a song I wrote back in 2011 could have just as easily been written in 2020. Even the Chris Matthews sample at the end was still just as relevant, maybe even MORE relevant considering how widespread the violence from the police force is across the country, and how many people in the top 1% just allow it to happen over and over again.” – concludes Jared.
GO HERE to listen to the first single “Brotherless” and learn more about SECOND SPIRIT.
