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.
Melted Rope
Wand Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
From your eyes
Try, try to live it better
Bide your time
Desire, I am barely thinking
In the dark
And life, life is what you wanted
It's what you are
From outside
Close, watching people watching
You go down
Devour, melting every building
You have been in
So talk, talk about the lonely
In each journey
The lyrics to Wand's song "Melted Rope" convey a sentiment of time slipping away, and the struggle to make the most of it. The imagery of time pulling "like a feather from your eyes" implies a sense of delicacy and fragility, highlighting the fleeting nature of life. The repeated exhortation to "try, try to live it better" suggests an urgency to make the most of the time that is given, and to strive for something more meaningful.
The second half of the song introduces a sense of isolation and detachment, as the singer describes feeling barely present ("barely thinking") in the darkness of their own mind. The repetition of the phrase "life is what you wanted, it's what you are" reinforces the idea that we are ultimately the sum of the choices we make and the things we pursue.
As the song reaches its climax, the lyrics become more surreal and dreamlike. The idea of being "devoured" by time is transmuted into a powerful image of melting buildings, while the final lines urge the listener to "talk about the lonely in each journey." This poignant ending suggests that life is ultimately a series of individual journeys, each with its own unique sense of loneliness and longing.
Line by Line Meaning
Time, pulling like a feather
From your eyes
Time feels light and gentle as it passes, but it is actually a powerful force that overtakes us all.
Try, try to live it better
Bide your time
Make the most of the time you have by consistently striving to improve yourself while also being patient enough to wait for opportunities to come.
Desire, I am barely thinking
In the dark
Amidst our deepest desires, we often have a hard time logically thinking through things, especially when it's difficult to see the way forward.
And life, life is what you wanted
It's what you are
Our lives reflect the things we want and prioritize in our actions and decisions - they define who we are.
Shy, is anybody thinking
From outside
We may feel self-conscious and unsure about what others are thinking of us from an external perspective, rather than focusing on our own thoughts and feelings.
Close, watching people watching
You go down
As we attract attention and are observed by others, it can feel overwhelming and even make us feel like we are falling or failing.
Devour, melting every building
You have been in
Overwhelming emotions can be like a destructive force that destroys everything in our lives that we have built for ourselves.
So talk, talk about the lonely
In each journey
To combat feelings of loneliness and isolation, it is important to communicate and connect with others at every step of our journey.
Contributed by Audrey I. Suggest a correction in the comments below.