Get Lyrical: Mason Proper's "Fog"
posted in: Artist Features • Features
Mason Proper is trying to trick you.
The group’s catalog is full of songs that sound like they could be about romance. Tracks like Fog, Lock and Key, and Downpour seem to be bursting with themes of love and loss. But before you mark the OurStage artists down as another forlorn, lovesick indie band, frontman Jonathan Visger has a few things to say that might change your mind. I am really into lyrics that on the surface sound like they are about one thing, but in fact are about something completely different, he says, adding that he’s especially fond of songs where the surface interpretation has romantic overtones. Fog, from their 2008 release Olly Oxen Free, is no exception. In this case, the song sounds like it’s about lost love, but it’s actually about a person losing their mind and searching for it.
If you feel like you’re in a fog when you listen to the song, well, that’s exactly how Visger wants you to feel. I try to have my songs be in the moment, and have the moment itself be a confusing one, when the narrator hasn’t had time to parse out what is going on or how they feel about it, Visger says. It gets bonus points if it’s presented from an unstable or untrustworthy perspective. I like to try to envision a sprawling, panoramic situation, but then write about it through a telescope. And as if the song’s meaning wasn’t hazy enough, Visger further creates a feeling of confusion by using mystical imagery. Listen to the lyrics, and it’s impossible not to notice an abundance of prophetic items: tea leaves, horoscopes, crystal balls and seers. I like it when songs take on a pseudo-mystical or eerily foreboding feeling, Visger says. The lyrics sound even more eerie when paired with the song’s haunting, ethereal melody”a perfect compliment to lines like Only seer I could find told me lies, told me you were just fine. Visger says he only had the first line when he started writing “Fog”: “My horoscope said pack your bags,” and that set up the prophetic imagery in the rest of the song.
And as for that line about how he burned down the seer’s place? I can look you straight in the eye and tell you that I have never burned a seer’s place to the ground, Visger says. I’ll leave it up to you to decide if that means that I’m an unblinking liar, or that it wasn’t a seer’s place, or that it didn’t quite fully burn to the ground.