On a warmish afternoon in June, I had the opportunity to sit down with Pat Grimes, the man behind the band Wires Don’t Talk. An affable and ebullient sort, Grimes comes off as an open book, full of hope, optimism, and self-confidence. This belies what may be going on behind his bespectacled brown eyes at any given moment. At times he suffers from self-doubt, other times social anxiety, then tops it all off with a dollop of personal and professional over-analysis. So, ya know, he’s human, just like all of us.
“For a year and a half, this interaction was supposed to kill me, you and the rest of the world,” Grimes said, referring to the interview and the pandemic. “Then suddenly it was, ‘Go have fun again!’ The brain doesn’t work like that. At least mine didn’t. I always felt like I was in this fight or flight mode, and at times I still get that way.”
What Grimes perhaps did differently from others was how he dealt with these pandemically-compounded feelings and regained his perspective. He didn’t go hide in his basement, he went and built a studio in his garage. “I’m taking what I’m dealing with right now and putting it into writing music”, he said. Then, with the help of collaborator Marc Stallknecht and others, began writing and recording. It was a match made in some sort of weird dystopian funhouse-heaven.
“Marc is into (bands like) Alter Bridge and Dream Theatre,” Grimes continued. “You know, heavy stuff. That’s where that guitar comes from on the songs. I was more influenced by Gorillaz, hip-hop and Kanye West. But when we put these things together, it turned into something musically that we really liked.”
Musically, Wires Don’t Talk are a bit difficult to categorize, if not outwardly defiant to any sort of conformity. Imagine, if you will, The Cure and Link’n Park had a baby, and that baby was eventually raised by Depeche Mode and Metalica.
Not a common vibe, but a vibe all unto itself.
But this is not music full of doom and gloom, just some bare- knuckle honesty. With earnest lyrics, grinding guitar and compelling (and at times, hilarious) sample drops, the songs give a hopeful twist on an otherwise maudlin subject matter.
Grimes then spoke of their latest release, “Step Away”.
“It was written about overanalyzing your music, overanalyzing your work and overanalyzing everything. It’s about how constantly doing this can have a negative effect on your mental state. I hope that by talking about it, and putting it out there in a song, people will say, ‘Hey, I feel like that too!’, and they won’t feel so alone.”
He continued, “I think people minimize your feelings, and it’s hard to handle. In a new song I’m writing, there’s a line, ‘Tell me I’m fine, tell me I’m wrong, but remember, you don’t care’. We have to remember, we all have difficult times, we all at times feel bad, and we all deal with it in different ways. We just have to have the patience and courage to know it’s ok.”
As we come back to whatever normal is going to be, no truer words have been spoken, and so desperately need to be heard and repeated. Patience, courage, and it’s going to be ok.
Wires Don’t Talk newest release, “Step Away” is out now. You can find it and more of their music and videos on the various platforms listed below.
Website: https://www.wiresdonttalktheband.com/listen-now
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wiresdonttalk/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz_QFZosFgcvWcTQ_eRZXWg
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WiresDontTalk
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