The Mason-Dixon Line

The Mason-Dixon Line was a completely fake, nonexistent musical solo act that Jared came up with in college.

Jared imagined the project to be bedroom lo-fi, like a slowcore, shoegaze band with a quiet, depressed, emo vibe.

While Jared wasn't and isn't a musician in any way, he figured he'd just mess around lazily on various instruments and go with whatever came out, calling it “experimental.” (While most musicians who “mess around” still produce musical themes or ideas, Jared just planned to play random, discordant notes.) The not-trying, like so many other things in his life, was supposed to be intentional.

Despite this planning, he never really did anything with the idea. The one vague attempt at songwriting he ever made was opening GarageBand and throwing a pre-installed loop on a track, adjusting the pitch and fuzziness, and then repeating it for 3 minutes. It was not a song; it was barely even an idea. It was nothing.

Jared also made an effort to come up with lyrics exactly one time. His style was to just state directly why he felt sad. There was no intention or poetry to the words.

Actually, the only part of the project he did look forward to doing was setting up the website. But as there was no purpose to the site, it ended up being nothing but a landing page with a “coming soon” message.

The Mason-Dixon Line name, while seemingly edgy, patriotic, or insightful, meant absolutely nothing. It was not any kind of nod to history, or politics, or even a sense of wonder or place. It truly, literally meant NOTHING.  ❒

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