Wizz

Album: Crawler (2021)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • For 15 years, Idles frontman Joe Talbot struggled with substance abuse until he eventually sorted his life out. This track finds the singer detailing the contents of texts sent to him by his drug dealer in his addiction days. "I'm fascinated by the dichotomy of where I was then," he told Mojo magazine. "I was a piece of s--t. I was a really horrible person to myself and other people. I was just an addict and just did what addicts do, which is lie and let people down a lot."
  • Musically, this 30-second track is inspired by the extreme metal micro-genre powerviolence, an extremely dissonant and fast type of hardcore punk. Originating in the late 1980s/early 1990s, powerviolence is closely related to thrashcore and grindcore, with the addition of wildly fluctuating song tempos.

    Idles were introduced to the genre by their sound engineer Chris Fullard, who also works with powerviolence acts Boris and SunnO. "There's this one Japanese band and one of the songs is just them bulldozing a venue," Talbot told Mojo magazine admiringly.
  • Idles recorded "Wizz" for Crawler, which tells Talbot's story of his long fight with alcoholism and drug abuse and how he came through the other side. The album delves into the worst years of the singer's life, but also the best. "If you don't like hearing tales of struggle then you won't like it," he told Mojo. "But it makes me feel happy because I'm here. I'm alive."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Harry Shearer

Harry ShearerSongwriter Interviews

Harry is Derek Smalls in Spinal Tap, Mark Shubb in The Folksmen, and Mr. Burns on The Simpsons.

Glen Burtnik

Glen BurtnikSongwriter Interviews

On Glen's résumé: hit songwriter, Facebook dominator, and member of Styx.

Creedence Clearwater Revival

Creedence Clearwater RevivalFact or Fiction

Is "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" about Vietnam? Was John Fogerty really born on a Bayou? It's the CCR edition of Fact or Fiction.

We Will Rock You (To Sleep): Pop Stars Who Recorded Kids' Albums

We Will Rock You (To Sleep): Pop Stars Who Recorded Kids' AlbumsSong Writing

With the rise of Kindie rock, more musicians are embracing their inner child with tunes for tots - here, we look at pop stars who recorded kids' albums.

Phil Hurtt ("I'll Be Around")

Phil Hurtt ("I'll Be Around")Songwriter Interviews

Phil was a songwriter, producer and voice behind many Philadelphia soul classics. When disco hit, he got an interesting project: The Village People.

Graham Bonnet (Alcatrazz, Rainbow)

Graham Bonnet (Alcatrazz, Rainbow)Songwriter Interviews

Yngwie Malmsteen and Steve Vai were two of Graham's co-writers for some '80s rock classics.