{"id":7280,"date":"2025-12-09T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/repelicans-jon-ehrens-ponders-the-cosmos\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T15:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T15:00:00","slug":"repelicans-jon-ehrens-ponders-the-cosmos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/repelicans-jon-ehrens-ponders-the-cosmos\/","title":{"rendered":"Repelican\u2019s Jon Ehrens Ponders the Cosmos"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/jonehrensronrost.jpg\" width=\"846\" height=\"645\" alt=\"Repelican\u2019s Jon Ehrens. (Credit: Ron Rost)\"><figcaption>Repelican\u2019s Jon Ehrens. (Credit: Ron Rost)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThere was a site you probably remember called MP3.com, it was like pre-social media,\u201d says Jon Ehrens, 41, thinking back to the music he made in high school. \u201cI needed a name fast because I recorded four songs and just wanted to upload them immediately, and I used the name Repelican.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>25 years later, Ehrens has written and released hundreds of songs under dozens of band names, but Repelican continues to be his primary outlet. On <a href=\"https:\/\/repelican.bandcamp.com\/album\/dim-halo\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Dim Halo<\/em><\/a>, released on his Mobile Lounge label in October, Ehrens recaptured some of the uninhibited creativity and lo-fi immediacy of those songs he made as a teenager. \u201cI think I had this confidence about it, like anything I ever commit to tape is good and going out in the world. And then I started to be like \u2018Oh, am I gonna be a real musician, is this gonna be my job? I better be professional about it.\u2019 And now I certainly don\u2019t give a crap, it\u2019s not my job, it\u2019s what I do for fun. So I\u2019m sort of returning to \u2018hit record and see what comes out.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More from Spin:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/12\/altin-gun-new-album\/\">Altin G\u00fcn Salutes Ne\u015fet Erta\u015f On New Album<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/12\/how-a-still-defiant-shepard-fairey-turned-punk-rock-attitude-into-30-years-of-activist-art\/\">How a Still-Defiant Shepard Fairey Turned Punk Rock Attitude Into 30 Years of Activist Art<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/12\/roland-gift-on-she-drives-me-crazy-which-is-not-a-song-he-would-save-in-a-shipwreck\/\">Roland Gift on \u2018She Drives Me Crazy,\u2019 Which is Not a Song He Would Save in a Shipwreck<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"718\" height=\"1170\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/jon-ehrens-cred-Mary-Kate-McDevitt.jpg\" alt=\"(Credit: Mary Kate McDevitt)\" class=\"wp-image-649849\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/jon-ehrens-cred-Mary-Kate-McDevitt.jpg 718w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/jon-ehrens-cred-Mary-Kate-McDevitt-340x554.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/jon-ehrens-cred-Mary-Kate-McDevitt-498x812.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 718px) 100vw, 718px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">(Credit: Mary Kate McDevitt)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>Dim Halo<\/em> was recorded at home in Vergennes, a Vermont town with a population of about 2,500, where Ehrens and his wife moved a few years ago. \u201cShe had a friend there and said \u2018Let\u2019s move there,\u2019 and we did and I love it, I\u2019m never leavin\u2019,\u201d said Ehrens, who wanted a change of pace after living in Baltimore and Philadelphia. He converted a barn on their Vergennes property into a venue, Dense Valley Barn, where he celebrated the release of the album with a performance by Repelican\u2019s new 5-piece live lineup.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<lite-youtube videoid=\"i0wcV-Tvv1c\" style=\"bottom: 0; height: 100%; left: 0; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; width: 100%; max-width:100%;\"><\/lite-youtube>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Ehrens grew up in the Washington, D.C. suburbs of Montgomery County, Maryland. His father, Art Ehrens, who passed away in 2022, was a prolific musician in his own right, penning memorable ad jingles for countless regional radio and TV spots (\u201cOurisman Dodge, great name, great cars\u201d is one of his best-remembered tunes). When Jon Ehrens was back in Maryland on Thanksgiving weekend to see family, we hung out at Glen Echo Park, a local cultural district that\u2019s been renovated and revived in recent years. When Ehrens lived here, though, it was just an empty, run-down place where he could hang out with other teenagers.<\/p>\n<p>Ehrens branched out from Repelican in his 20s, starting a long procession of short-lived bands and recording projects in Baltimore, sometimes playing as a sideman for other artists like Ed Schrader or Flock of Dimes. The Art Department, an oddball trio that played fast songs with intricate guitar lines and high-pitched vocals, toured and released two albums that attracted a cult following. Ehrens experimented with more polished synth pop sounds on the 2011 self-titled album by Whife, with his sister Emily Ehrens on vocals, and the 2013 self-titled album by Dungeonesse, with Wye Oak\u2019s Jenn Wasner on vocals.<\/p>\n<p>Eventually, though, Jon Ehrens felt like he\u2019d gone overboard with all the aliases and one-offs, and focused his songwriting efforts back towards Repelican. \u201cI started to do that just to stop annoying people, or at least have it on one Bandcamp page.\u201d Last year\u2019s compilation <em>Debris (B-Sides 2002-2008)<\/em> collected 30 of the best songs from that fertile period when Ehrens had a Robert Pollard-like output of catchy, strange lo-fi records that he\u2019d sometimes crank out in a few days in a fit of inspiration.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"861\" height=\"885\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/IMG_6721.jpg\" alt=\"(Credit: Jon Ehrens)\" class=\"wp-image-649850\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/IMG_6721.jpg 861w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/IMG_6721-340x349.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/IMG_6721-768x789.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/IMG_6721-498x512.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 861px) 100vw, 861px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">(Credit: Jon Ehrens)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>Dim Halo<\/em> has some of the same playful, spontaneous one-man-band experimentation of those earlier records, but there\u2019s a weighty underlying theme of what Ehrens calls, \u201cfor lack of a better term, spiritual crisis.\u201d Ehrens, whose family had never been particularly religious, went through a period of pondering big existential ideas over the last few years. \u201cI think I always had a cynical attitude towards things that people describe as spiritual, and then I just sort of investigated it pretty hard for a while and was like, \u2018I\u2019m gonna let myself believe the things that I read about mysticism, God, and things like that.\u2019 I was getting into meditation and prayer, just to see what would happen. And things happened, some weird experiences relating to the cosmos or whatever you wanna call it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One of <em>Dim Halo<\/em>\u2019s standouts, \u201cHappily Distracted,\u201d is about the point where Ehrens took a break from the cosmos to focus back on more concrete concerns. \u201cEssentially I got kinda freaked out and decided I didn\u2019t wanna continue. And that\u2019s what that song\u2019s about. I wanna make songs and go to work and distract myself from that stuff because it makes me much happier than sitting around and thinking about the unanswerable questions. I totally would disassociate, It was pretty weird.\u201d In that light, songs like \u201cUmpteenth\u201d and \u201cI Think I\u2019m Thanking God\u201d sound heavier and more meaningful than they had when I first listened to the album.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/JonEhrensAlShipley.jpg\" alt=\"(Credit: Al Shipley)\" class=\"wp-image-649851\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/JonEhrensAlShipley.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/JonEhrensAlShipley-340x255.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/JonEhrensAlShipley-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/11\/JonEhrensAlShipley-498x374.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">(Credit: Al Shipley)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Ehrens has stayed in touch with a lot of the people he knew during the years that he was active in Baltimore\u2019s thriving underground. Owen Gardner of Horse Lords played in an early Repelican live lineup, and Ehrens was roommates with Future Islands frontman Sam Herring when the band exploded in popularity after appearing on \u201cThe Late Show with David Letterman.\u201d Herring and Gardner both appeared on the 2021 album <em>I\u2019m Not One: Vol. 1<\/em>, credited to Repelican With Friends, along with some other Baltimore luminaries. Ehrens hopes to record more collaborations for a second volume in the series.<\/p>\n<p>Ehrens doesn\u2019t listen to indie rock as obsessively as he did in high school, but he recently stumbled across an old Archers of Loaf CD, and found that he still knew every word. \u201cIt all just came back to me, and I\u2019m like okay yeah, this is just what exists inside me. When you\u2019re a teenager you just receive music in this more intense way,\u201d he says. \u201cI guess when I hit record and do whatever I want, it comes out as indie rock. As my friend put it when I was telling her this, \u2018It\u2019s the water that comes out of your faucet.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2021\/07\/the-greatest-rock-stars-of-all-time\/?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=bottomlink&amp;utm_campaign=yahoolink\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Repelican\u2019s Jon Ehrens. (Credit: Ron Rost) \u201cThere was a site you probably remember called MP3.com, it was like pre-social media,\u201d says Jon Ehrens, 41, thinking back to the music he&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,24,4717],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-pushly","category-repelican"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7280\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}