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THIS IS THE STORY OF ME hi. i'm jared cohen, and i decided to write my own bio. i was born in 1984 in southern california and have spent my entire life here. i like it, for now, but i have a feeling i'll be moving on soon. i was doing this before i could talk, literally. my dad says i was singing Springsteen before i knew what the words meant. sometimes i believe him. i got my first guitar at the age of 8, and haven't stopped playing since. at the age of 13 my uncle bought me a Beatles fake book, and i played those songs 24 hours a day. after a few months i started to understand the chords, and the theory of it all. junior high school hit hard, and introduced me to new types of music. my horizons expanded to include bands i'd never even heard of before. bands like the Clash and Nirvana, and a slew of 80's new-wave-ish stuff filled my head and led to the formation of a few short-lived bands. in high school "geek rock" took over, and bands like That Dog, the Rentals, Ozma, Weezer, and many others became my ultimate envy. again, a slew of bands, and again, a slew of discontent. it all failed to make me happy, and i think i realized why once i graduated high school. none of those musical projects felt right because i was just making pop. i wasn't making a significant contribution to life, i wasn't trying to make things better, i was just making plastic, and i couldn't do it. so i brought things back to basics. i started listening to a lot of Dylan, Drake, Stevens, Bragg... i surrounded myself with the words and thoughts of people who tried to make the world a better place, and i decided it was the only way for me to make music. i spent the next few years, guitar in hand, doing nothing but writing songs and playing shows around southern california. from 2001-2003 i wrote and recorded 5 albums and an EP, on my own. with a repertoire of over a 300 songs i worked on polishing and defining "my sound" into something people might actually want to hear. after 2003 i slowed down bit, but in march of 2005 i released what i feel is my best record to date, keep me awake. so here i am, giving my latest project to you. it's called concept: bravery because that's what's really important. we put so much emphasis on how much money you've got, or what you're job title is, and we forget the bravery, the effort, the fact that we try at all. i won't forget it, and i'll try to help you remember. some of these songs are still plastic pop, i don't know that i'll ever be able to change that, but some of them are trying to make the world a better place. whether you like it or don't, i'm just happy to share. |