Jared Swilley
Atlanta's beloved sons the Black Lips (Jared, Ian, Cole, and Joe) entered last year through a screaming cloud of sweat, smoke, blood, and beer mist. After a spring and summer of exciting audiences across the world, the Lips embarked on a month-long fall tour of the Middle East. Recording for Underneath the Rainbow was split between New York with Thomas Brenneck, who was recommended by Arabia Mountain producer Mark Ronson, and Nashville with the Black Keys' Patrick Carney, who offered to help produce.
"It was one of those super-late-night/super-early-morning drunk-talk sort of situations, so we weren't sure if he meant it," explains Jared. "People do that all the time."
Early internet conjecture pegged Underneath the Rainbow's sound as a blend of southern rock with throwback C&W and blues, based on the lead single 'Boys in the Wood', which is a weird description for a record containing the first Black Lips' song with a prominent synth ("Funny"), and even less apt for an overall album that owes just as much to the kiwi pop of New Zealand's South Island and the Chicago South Side's Crucial Conflict as it does the standard American South. It never strays far from the traditional roots music that has always found a comfortable home with the Black Lips but invites enough curiosity with its approach to attract even the most unlikely listener.
Jared has played a Hofner Ignition Bass for several years and has now also started using a Violin Bass V62.