Jason Collett is a Canadian singer-songwriter. A member of Broken Social Sc… Read Full Bio ↴Jason Collett is a Canadian singer-songwriter. A member of Broken Social Scene, he also tours and records on his own.

The best songs don’t just tell a story set to music – they capture a moment, encapsulate a feeling and draw in the listener, in a way that’s at once singularly personal and completely universal. When Toronto singer-songwriter Jason Collett was mulling over titles for his new album, the by-turns effervescent and elegiac Here’s To Being Here, he stumbled across a line in an anthology of poetry by his friend Emily Haines’ (Metric) late father Paul, a well-known avant-garde jazz poet.

“I really love the simple sentiment of the title. I think of it as a toast, a raising of the glass to the notion of being present to the moment. Recording this record was all about that for me. Capturing the bits of spontaneous magic in the studio that are just the happy accidents of the day. For me there's a kind of unadorned celebratory ring to the phrase ‘here’s to being here’. There's no irony in it, and lord knows we’ve all had enough of that for a while. I really like Haines’ playful writing. It’s like Dylan, almost Dada-esque; it doesn’t take itself too seriously. I really relate to that era of writing… Ginsberg, that pre-’60s movement.”

Fittingly, Collett’s own work draws upon such classic cultural touchstones while continuing to push the boundaries of the great singer-songwriter tradition. After over a decade of honing his sound and style, in the process becoming a key figure in Toronto’s burgeoning indie scene, Collett returns with the long-awaited follow-up to 2005’s critically acclaimed Idols of Exile.

But where Exile was one big house party featuring Collett’s Broken Social Scene brethren, the guestlist was scaled back a bit for Here’s To Being Here, which was built largely around Collett’s former touring band Paso Mino, with producer Howie Beck, New York guitar great Tony Scherr, The Stills’ Liam O’Neil, BSS’ Kevin Drew, and members of Apostle of Hustle and the 6ixty8ights all lending a hand in the studio.

When it came time to get off the road and begin to record some of the 40-plus tunes the prolific Collett had written over the past several years (the father of three children, the busy musician notes he’s able to find sanctuary and perspective to write while on tour), the recording process took place in two quick but productive sessions in winter 2007: four days in a barn an hour outside of Toronto with engineer Marty Kinack in February, and two days at Toronto’s Hallamusic studio in March.

“For me, the studio is a very different beast from playing live. What you’re trying to do is capture a bit of magic in an environment that doesn’t necessarily lend itself to that. Howie and I have a really dynamic thing going on,” Collett says of working with Beck, who also produced his last album. “He’s the Woody Allen of rock and roll: he’s neurotic, funny, he’s got crazy ears – he can hear things that other people can’t, which drives *ME* crazy. He works fast, and I like working fast.”

Here’s To Being Here is the sound of a seasoned songsmith fully coming into his own signature sound – from the ’70s AM-radio vibe of road-tested favourites like the rollicking relationship reflections “Not Over You” and “Out of Time” to sparse countrified ballads like Canadiana ode “No Redemption Song” and album closer "Waiting For the World" (partially inspired by Collett's friend James Loney, who was taken hostage in Iraq in 2005), the album redefines the contemporary guitar-based singer-songwriter framework for the current genre-blurring musical landscape. As tuneful as they are poetic, these masterful songs of hope in an age of disillusionment stick in your head as firmly as they capture your heart.

“I feel this is a rock-and-roll music record. Not rock, not rock and roll, but Rock ’n Roll music. I don’t care much for the roots-rock tag or the singer-songwriter one and all the banality those genres conjure up. Rock ’n Roll music encompasses all sorts of influences – country, blues, gospel... all those things, and I’m just part of that tradition,” Collett points out. “We decided midway through the record to avoid embellishing it with horns and strings – which I really love, but I think it sort of helps make the record more cohesive with the absence of that indulgence. There’s not a lot of trickery to it. It’s not like we really stripped things down, it’s just that we never gussied them up.”

Collett, who began writing to try to escape the boredom of the suburb of Bramalea where he grew up, and logged time in Toronto bands before going on to craft two full-length albums (1999’s Chrome Reflections and 2001’s Bitter Beauty) prior to joining the Arts & Crafts family in 2003, has always penned songs with a poet’s knack for reflection and a journalist’s eye for detail. That timeless quality permeates Here’s To Being Here, which not only allows listeners a peek into the songwriter’s thoughts, but also a glimpse into the everyday human emotions that bind us.

“I’m beginning to recognize that I have a body of work. I’ve always tried to make records with a classic sensibility, so that they’re records you can listen to 20 years from now,” Collett says. “I feel like I connect when I’m just being candid. I want to take the audience on a journey with me – by being as present in the moment as I can.”

With the release of Here’s to Being Here, Collett looks back at the ghosts of his past while keeping his eyes firmly fixed on the future. The title says it all: it’s a line of poetry, an affirmation, a toast to where we’ve come from, and where we’re going.

OUT OF TIME
Jason Collett Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Well, I got your invitation
But it never crossed my mind
Your casual obliteration
Would cross the line

On a rainy day highway
And the melancholy got on
I got the most nostalgic feeling

I'm gonna head right by on

We're out of time
On down the line
Just get behind
We're all out of time

The perennial fatigue of the times
When you're long in the tooth
Short in the sleeve
There's nowhere left to hide

And the raindrops fall safely
Along with the tears
Another cool heart of the lonely
In the cool [Incomprehensible] clear

We're out of time
On down the line

Just get behind
We're all out of time

Overall Meaning

In Jason Collett's song Out Of Time, he seems to be addressing someone who has invited him to something, but he has not responded positively. He states that it never crossed his mind to accept the invitation, and that the person's casual obliteration has crossed the line. It is unclear what the person has done to cause this reaction from Collett, but it seems like it might be related to some kind of betrayal or abandonment.

As Collett drives down a rainy highway, he feels a strong sense of nostalgia and melancholy. He seems to be reflecting on the passage of time and the way that life seems to slip away from us. He talks about being "long in the tooth" and "short in the sleeve," which are idioms that suggest aging and being past one's prime. He also mentions the raindrops falling along with tears, suggesting that he is feeling some kind of emotional pain.

The chorus of the song repeats the phrase "We're out of time," which seems to be a commentary on the way that life moves too quickly and we can never get back lost time. The line "Just get behind" could be interpreted in a few different ways - it could be a call to leave the past behind and move forward, or it could be saying that we need to accept that we can't change what has already happened, and just move on.

Overall, the song seems to be a meditation on the fleeting nature of life and the way that we can be hurt by the actions of others. It is a melancholy and introspective piece that leaves the listener with a sense of wistfulness and perhaps a longing for lost time.

Line by Line Meaning

Well, I got your invitation
I received an invitation from you

But it never crossed my mind
However, I never really thought about it

Your casual obliteration
Your careless destruction

Would cross the line
Has now gone too far

On a rainy day highway
Driving on a highway on a rainy day

And the melancholy got on
Feeling sad and gloomy

I got the most nostalgic feeling
Suddenly feeling very nostalgic

I'm gonna head right by on
I'm going to keep moving forward

We're out of time
We have run out of time

On down the line
As we move further in time

Just get behind
We need to accept the situation and move forward