The hardest working man in music

Jared Mees is a skinny man, often times toting a beard, with hair down over his eyes and can be seen wearing wonderfully artful screen-printed hoodies.

Sound familiar? While he is very “Portland” in these respects, Mees can also be seen carrying a load on his back more than most Portlanders can even fathom. He is a songwriter, composer, arranger, screen printer and co-owner of the Tender Loving Empire (which he runs with his wife Brianne).

Add to this what the Tender Loving Empire (TLE) touts as its operation: “The Tender Loving Empire is a media and arts collective / record label / comics imprint / consignment store / gallery / custom screen printer / concert production house / general purveyor of things artistic based in beautiful Portland, Ore.” and you’ve got a lot on the back of a skinny man who’s only been in town for a few years.

Mees began writing music seriously in 2006 on a Panamanian island. Taking the songs written there, he traveled to Los Angeles to record what would become If You Wanna Swim w/ the Sharks, his first full-length release.

Upon moving to Portland and touring with his wife Brianne and members of Finn Riggins (also on the TLE record label) his band The Grown Children began to come together.

But there were never any real solid band members. It was, and still is, a rag-tag bunch. Jared Mees and the Grown Children referred to Jared, Brianne and a rotating cast of more than 11 different friends and cohorts that at any given time could be found playing the catchy pop-folk songs that Mees had written. The band asserts on its Web site, “While the constant lineup changes and improvised, infrequent rehearsals would cause many bands to suffer, they have become the vitality of the Grown Children.”

This may be why their music has Mees claiming a “child-like approach” to its creation.

“We practice with a lot of different people,” Mees says. “There is a lighthearted approach to it. And we do fun stuff when we play live. We’ll do birthday songs and if people aren’t into the show we’ll go out into the audience. I want to take the seriousness out of music making. Take the pretentiousness out and reassert the vigor and soul in music.”

This seems in stark contrast to his normal workday. Mees does screen printing for bands and people around town as well as running a record label and helping run the Tender Loving Empire.

“Why take [making music] super seriously when working and promoting and running a store?” Mees says. “We do take it seriously but want the exuberance there.” 

There is a balancing act here that Mees admits is tough.

“The balance comes in doing what we love,” he says. “We support what Portland does and Portland supports us. We showcase 200 different artists and musicians while being a media collective and trying for a profitable business and making good music and having a good time.”

Trying to be all things at once could cripple anyone, but Mees seems to have found a formula that works. It has allowed him to release his most recent full-length album with Grown Children back in October.

Caffeine, Alcohol, Sunshine, Money continues where the last album left off, with quirky pop-sensibilities and sharp lyrics.

Of the album and of his work in general Mees says, “We are trying to increase the quality of life. Working with artists and people that believe you, believe in and believe in you. Also we are trying to buck the trend of the cool kids club. To show that being in that club is not what music and art is about.”

But with all the work that Mees and company have done he may have inadvertently made his way right into that club, and is in fact at the forefront of creating its next generation.