Hanson started the band with drummer Evan Burrows, guitarist Daniel Martens, and bassist Lee Landey and immediately dove headfirst into a sludgy, psychedelic garage rock. They quickly put together an abundance of material that straddled the line between melodic and noise-heavy, issuing split singles with artists like Mikal Cronin and Meatbodies before being signed by Ty Segall to his Drag City spinoff label God? for the release of their 2014 debut LP Ganglion Reef. Wand embarked on a tour supporting Segall for the release of the album. The band's next record was recorded over a 12-day span by Chris Woodhouse at The Dock in Sacramento, California, and saw the band expanding its sound with synthesizers and showing a deeper heavy metal influence. Golem was released in early 2015 by In the Red Records. Not a band to waste any time, Wand returned before the end of the year with their third album, 1000 Days. Released by Drag City proper this time, the album saw Wand incorporating more electronics into their sound, while integrating their metal and psych elements even further.
They also toured frequently, playing many shows with Segall, who was impressed enough to subsequently play a number of shows with Hanson as an acoustic duo. He also added Hanson and Burrows to his backing band the Muggers for his 2016 touring dates. Thanks to this, Wand was uncharacteristically quiet on the recording front during 2016, with Hanson spending time working on a solo album. The acid folk-inspired, lushly orchestrated The Unborn Capitalist from Limbo was released by Drag City in late 2016. Around that time, Wand expanded their lineup by adding guitarist Robbie Cody and keyboardist/vocalist Sofia Arreguin. This also led to a change in the way the band wrote songs. Where previously Hanson brought finished songs to the rest of the group, now they spent time in their rehearsal space working out songs together. This new style of writing and the new members led to some sonic differences on their 2017 record Plum, on which the creepy, claustrophobic psychedelia and bludgeoning metal of the past were downplayed in favor of classic rock influences and more expansive-sounding indie rock. The same lineup of the band soon went back to the recording studio and cranked out another EP in the democratic vein of Plum. The seven-song Perfume was issued by Drag City in May of 2018. The shift away from their early garage rock fervor to more atmospheric songwriting fully solidified on 2019's Laughing Matter. The lengthy album was sculpted from improvised jams and sketches, Hanson's vocals sounding more and more like Radiohead's Thom Yorke as Wand explored more introspective indie rock territory.
M.E.
Wand Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
We're all so run down
I'd call it my death
But I'll only fade away
And I hate to fade alone
Now there's only M.E.
We were so sure
We were so wrong
Now it's over
But there's no one left to see
And there's no one left to die
There's only M.E.
Why should I care
Why should I try
Oh no, oh no
I turned off the pain
Like I turned off you all
Now there's only M.E.
The lyrics to the song M.E. by Wand depict a sense of loneliness and despair as the singer speaks about how they feel alienated and isolated. The singer talks about how they "eat dust" which is symbolic of feeling defeated and helpless. They feel that everyone is "so run down," including themselves, and they are slowly fading away. The line "I hate to fade alone" exemplifies the singer's fear of being left alone while they fade away. The repetition of "now there's only M.E." reinforces the feeling of solitude and loneliness.
The second verse continues the theme of loneliness as the singer speaks about how they were wrong with their past choices, leading to the situation they are currently in. The line "there's no one left to see, and there's no one left to die" can be interpreted as the singer feeling as though they are an afterthought, alone and left behind. The line "why should I care, why should I try" represents the singer's apathy towards the world around them, especially since they have turned off the pain.
Overall, the song M.E. is a thought-provoking reflection on loneliness, isolation, and apathy, with a dash of despair. It is a sad yet unique perspective on the human experience of being alone.
Line by Line Meaning
And M.E. I eat dust
I am insignificant and forgotten, left to consume dirt and debris as I crumble away
We're all so run down
All of us are tired, broken, and defeated
I'd call it my death
I feel like I am already dead, as though my spirit has already departed from this world
But I'll only fade away
Instead of experiencing an abrupt end, I will simply disappear slowly into the void, like a ghostly apparition
And I hate to fade alone
I don't want to vanish into oblivion without anybody by my side
Now there's only M.E.
I am the only one left, completely on my own
We were so sure
We were confident and certain in our beliefs
We were so wrong
Despite our confidence, we were ultimately mistaken and misguided
Now it's over
Everything has come to an end, with no hope of revival or resuscitation
But there's no one left to see
There is nobody around to bear witness to the end of our dreams
And there's no one left to die
There is nobody who had to experience the final demise alongside us
There's only M.E.
I am alone and bereft of companionship, with nothing but my own thoughts
Why should I care
What is the point of caring and expending emotional energy when everything ultimately comes to an end?
Why should I try
What is the point of trying when there is no chance of success?
Oh no, oh no
The realization of the futility of my efforts hits me deeply
I turned off the pain
I have numbed my feelings and emotions, feeling nothing at all or else I can't bare them, which causes me to shut them out
Like I turned off you all
Just like I've disconnected myself from my own pain, I disconnected myself from the outside world, leaving everyone behind for me to face things all by myself
Now there's only M.E.
Alone and feeling misunderstood, with no one else to rely on or care for. Truly there's only Me
Contributed by Penelope V. Suggest a correction in the comments below.