The Enigmatic Foe has slated July 30 to be the release date for The Original Plan.  Helmed by Knoxville-based musician Jared Colinger, the album centers around the all-too-common solitary feelings of self-doubt and inauthenticity.  Lyrics address the idea that we may or may not end up where we originally set out to get to. The Original Plan is wrapped in elements of pop and rock, the tracks also underscore a variety of less expected.  Today The Enigmatic Foe has dropped two non-album bonus singles “Let’s Be Sad” and “Crisis (Home Demo).”

Here’s Colinger on “Let’s Be Sad”: “Fear of happiness or fear of change? I’m not entirely sure. I was genuinely panicking that I wouldn’t be able to write any more songs. My wife is the yin to my yang; the light to my dark. For the longest time, I only knew that darkness and used those brutal emotions to process what I was feeling through song. I wasn’t comfortable being happy and all the heartache I sang about lost its meaning.”

Here’s Colinger on “Crisis (Home Demo)”: “This was one of the four songs I wrote in 2018 for Map, (my guitarist) Josh Dooley’s band. He gave me an instrumental with no immediate chord structure which I had to navigate and put words to. Josh ultimately changed some of my phrasings and his recorded version sounded edgier. My original version was more fragile and fearful. You can almost hear reality sinking in as my voice cracks at the end of the song. Lyrically, I was at the end of my rope with my job. I was having panic attacks and was inundated with extremely dark thoughts. I was expected to be a leader and solve everyone else’s problems yet I could barely help myself. How can you put on a brave face when your world is crumbling from within?”

Back to operating The Enigmatic Foe as a solo project, Colinger enlisted the talents of Frank Lenz (Headphones, Richard Swift) on drums and Josh Dooley (Map, Fine China) on electric guitar. The Original Plan was mixed and mastered at Swift’s studio National Freedom by Chris Colbert.

Photo: Stacy Littleton