Second Wave was released in October 2020 and it was truly the second wave in the pandemic. It’s a dark time in our history as politicians were using the disease to spread lies and misinformation. That angered and frustrated me. So I sat down one afternoon and wrote the song in one sitting, something that seldom happens, believe me. It must have been a weekend because the very next day I sat in the studio and worked on the rhythm guitar riffs. Then I remember mic’ing to the studio Marshall amp and playing the entire rhythm track in one take. It’s still there in its entirety. That’s how pent up I was.
The version that’s on The Virtualistics is different from the released single. For one, it has Chana and Mikaela whom we added just a few months ago, while recording Help People Up. Also Jon tweaked the levels and for its LP appearance. I liked the changes a lot, especially Mikaela’s vocals at the end of two of the three bridges. It’s Version 1.1. Scroll to Track 2:
For the entire project I had first-take-itus: the first take was always the best, always the one with the most feeling, always just plain better sounding than I could perform afterwards, either singing or playing. Many times Jon asked for additional takes on something, a line of lyric here, a re-record there, and I’d do it diligently, record it, and ship off the snippet as a .wav file. Most of the time I didn’t do it better. The beauty of computer recording is you can do these thing fast, miles away from each other and then upload them and you’re done. But it didn’t seem to matter that I was able to do hundreds of attempts, the first take was always supreme.
I write in Apple Logic now and have the past several years. I’m not a producer so I don’t need all the bells and whistles and plug-ins, and frankly, I don’t have the time nor ears to master Logic or any of the more advanced programs. Once I have a chord progression I quickly record it in Logic, often with just the laptop microphone, and then put some kind of percussion down so I can play and sing with timing. Sometimes I need the groove. I’ll stay there for awhile and work out the arrangement: the bridges, outros, chorus, which often means writing verses at the same time, testing them out, do they fit, do they do something. Often I write the lyrics to two or three completely different songs with the same progression as I work out a melody and transitions and the general song’s direction. Once the arrangement has a skeleton, I go back in and re-record all the main tracks: voice, guitars, percussion. The result is a song, kinda sketched out, kinda final, needing musicians, a band, and a producer. And that’s where Jon comes in. What’s been fun is that I threw many challenges out to him and he accepted them with aplomb. On Second Wave I only sent him three tracks: my vocal, my rhythm guitar, and temporary percussion. It was kind of a throw down: can you do this, Jon? He did.here
There were some bad fires in Napa going on and they kept turning off the electricity. I’d go for days without power but having a laptop meant I could put on the headphones and escape the heat and smoke and be occupied for hours. The USB microphone worked fine on the laptop and didn’t drain the battery but I had to drive into town every day and sit near an outlet in a park-like setting. It looked like I was at the airport charging all my devices.
Second Wave is a serious song and we worked to release it as a single because it was timely and we wanted the song to release as soon as possible. I wrote it fast and recorded it fast and sent those three tracks to Jon. He was done in a week and we scheduled distro for two weeks. Chana and Mikaela were not available so I made a decision to release it as a single without them. So the single has no extra voices. I managed to get together for a quick session with with them while recording Help People Up. We had gone over our time limit but I begged them for a single pass of Second Wave on the mics. They add another dimension to the entire Virtualistics playlist and they have for years as the three of us form chords (a chord is a minimum of three notes). In Second Wave Chana and Mikaela’s voices are subdued on purpose to match the song’s serious intent.
Jon Ireson, Producer says: “Second Wave is pretty tight and straight forward. The goal was to keep the focus on the insidious nature of this creeping disease following us and sneaking up to attack when we have our guard down. Ames put together some great lyrics about misinformation and the COVID virus spreading simultaneously. I gave it a slinky bassline, kind of moving in the shadows, as well as some 12-string to open it up in the chorus. I liked the idea of those tight, muted '70s drums for this one. Came out a tight little groovy number.”
Second Wave
© Copyright 2020 by Patrick Ames. All rights reserved.
Finished Oct 03, 2020... 209,000 have died in US.
1.
There’s a rumor out there
That the virus don't kill
There’s a rumor out there
That Masks make you ill
There's a rumor out there
Fake flus disappear
All these rumors out there
By Angry people don't care
Lies and rumors
Spread the virus
Lies and rumors
Second Wave
2.
There's a virus out there
So many empty chairs
There's a virus out there
Hear it move in the cocktail air
There's a virus out there
Streets are empty and home now a jail
There's a virus out there
There's a touch of madness everywhere
Lies and rumors
Spread the virus
lies and rumors
Second Wave
3.
Angry people out there
Rumors all they share
Angry people out there
Mad the virus interferred
So much anger out there
Lives don't matter nobody cares
So much anger out there
The virus will never disappear
Lies and rumors
Spread the virus
Lies and rumors
Second Wave
There's a rumor out there.
About the virus out there.