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Phonograph Duck Animation
Rabbitology Shrine social club boise
Everyone has their own world. Fragments of moments lived, translated and understood through metaphor and storytelling. Rabbitology is the world created by the odd-running mind of Michigan-based alternative-folk singer/songwriter Nat Timmerman. A little land of the harebrained and burrowing. Venture into these eclectic soundscapes, and there you will discover a collection of memoirs turned into fantastical sonic short stories. Following a rollout of singles between 2023 & 2024, Rabbitology is releasing her debut EP, Living Ghost (Jan 31, 2025) - a “midwestern gothic” collection of 6 self-produced songs themed around various forms of stagnancy – ways in which someone tries to make change to no avail. Created from the confines of her dorm room, each song is a short story, a metaphor, an interpretation into her world from the perspective of someone who feels like a ghost in their own life: “The midwest experience is very ghostlike, especially where I grew up in Ohio. Ingrained in almost every one of my classmates in high school was the fear that “this was it.” That we would be stuck in our small town forever. That nothing will ever change. It’s restless.”
  • Rabbitology (Nat Timmerman)
Themes of the feminine experience collide with notions of mental instability, flashing back to Timmerman’s experience as a self-described “wallflower” during her childhood - someone who didn’t speak vocally, physically or emotionally. This idea of being alive but not truly present is immediately conveyed through EP-opener “Intro (Living Ghost)” which tells the story of a murder in which the victim is still somehow alive, despite all odds. Swelling bass and vocals surround a constant heartbeat, and contrast lyrics like “How am I breathing?” which presents as both curious and a powerful statement that someone has survived, no matter the limitations or struggles placed on them during childhood. “Millie, Warm the Kettle” delves into Timmerman’s struggles with a panic disorder and the paranoia and ritual repetition caused by it. “Millie” is shortened from the word chamomile, the kind of tea that is commonly used as an alternative medicine, even for things such as anxiety. “A panic disorder is like a kettle rising,” Timmerman elaborates. “You can try to turn down the heat, but it doesn’t change the fact that the water is boiling.”  Electric guitar and Timmerman’s distinct soprano voice cry for help as bells chime, signaling the rise in temperature within the songwriter’s mind. Third track, “New Girl, Old Ghosts” dives further into the paranormal, etching out the story of a ghost who is haunting her murderer (who also happens to be her ex-partner) as he explores a new relationship. Based on a real life experience, the song follows a more typical folk pattern between matching croons and banjo plucks weaving in and out of hip-hop inspired beats, anchored by Timmerman’s ethereal, nearly ghostlike vocals. “Preybirds (Watcher Song),” a single released on December 6th, tells of a “watcher” tethered to someone to keep them out of trouble, but ultimately unable to prevent that individual from doing so. The “guardian angel” experiences their subjects' mistakes over and over again, leaving them to feel helpless - another moment of stagnancy, this time within the realm of femininity; of not being heard. Birds’ wings flutter around the listener’s ears, as chimes, folksy percussion and whistling create an ominous atmosphere, all building to Timmerman’s standout vocal moment, declaring “Forever tethered to your life, but cursed to only watch / Catastrophe / Repeat until you look at me.” Penultimate track “Butcheress” reveals more about Rabbitology’s world, revealing that soulmates are not only real in this world, but also physically bound together. This idea of tethered people seems romantic from the outside, but can lead to stagnancy within that love life, and the desire to “cut out” the other: “In the world of Rabbitology, you can live without your organs. So she cuts out her heart, vowing to never feel again. She asks “is it possible to go back” to something raw, to something real, before bounds were built around it? Is it possible to reattach a torn out heart, or is all lost?” Welcomed in by a church-like choir before a folk-tronic beat pushes the song forward, “Butcheress” also discloses Timmerman’s internal battle between her ‘self’ and the “sin” as proposed by the church she was a part of growing up. Feelings of inherent queerness battle with the values of traditional romanticism, urging the singer to cut out that part of herself. The EP closes with “Wildfire (Gone, Gone, Gone) / Death Song,” a song dedicated to breaking the stagnancy that persists within the previous 5 tracks. Acting as a ‘goodbye’ song of sorts, “Wildfire” is a hopeful ode to the death and rebirth of not just a relationship, but of a person. With fire sounds a pervasive element of this song’s sonic palette, “Wildfire” rises in volume and vocal pitch - nearly 6-octaves for Timmerman - eventually bursting into angry screams and leading into “Death Song” wherein Timmerman embraces the change, and the strangeness of change. ‘Living Ghost’ builds an immersive world for the souls who never quite fit in, who found themselves like ghosts, drifting between realms, never finding anywhere to settle. Timmerman asks the listener to follow the three-legged rabbit prints until they’re knee deep in this world’s tall grass. There, you’re invited to rest, to dance, to create, to ideate, even if the visit is only for a little while.
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