Panic Attack by The Glorious Sons

Album: A War on Everything (2019)

License This Song

Songfacts®:

Canadian rock band The Glorious Sons formed in Kingston, Ontario, in 2011. They achieved their first Canadian Rock Radio chart-topper with "The Contender" in 2015. Three years later, the group's sophomore long player, Young Beauties and Fools, won the 2018 Juno Award for Rock Album of the Year.

This song was released on June 5, 2019 as the lead single off their third album, A War on Everything.
Frontman Brett Emmons explained to ABC Radio that lyrically, the song is not about a specific panic attack, but about the feeling of forces bringing you down. "It was more a vague sense of what any of us could be going through at that moment in time," he said. "When you're feeling like you're losing your breath and about to faint, or your heart's beating 10,000 miles per hour and you're sweating, and you've convinced yourself you've had an aneurysm."
Musically, "Panic Attack" is a manic song edited together from several other tracks. When it started to come together, The Glorious Sons took some inspiration from The Beatles' "Helter Skelter."

"That one was kind of about capturing energy and screaming your head off," Brett Emmons said. "We knew that we wanted the first track on the album to be crazy, psychotic a little bit."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

More Songfacts:

Everything ZenBush

After Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale coupled up in 1996, Rossdale's Bush bandmates referred to their hit song "Everything Zen" as "Everything Gwen."

Watching The DetectivesElvis Costello

Lyrically, Elvis Costello's "Watching The Detectives" was inspired by American detective shows; musically, it was inspired by The Clash.

Enter SandmanMetallica

The original "Enter Sandman" lyric was about crib death, with the "sandman" killing a baby.

That Don't Impress Me MuchShania Twain

Brad Pitt and Elvis both get mentions in the 1997 Shania Twain hit "That Don't Impress Me Much."

White as SnowU2

Bono came up with the idea of focusing on a soldier's last thoughts as he dies from his wounds in the U2 song "White As Snow" after reading William Golding's 1956 novel Pincher Martin.

Lady MarmaladeLabelle

"Lady Marmalade" is the only song to hit #1 twice in both the UK and US.

Editor's Picks

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.

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.

Ian Anderson: "The delight in making music is that you don't have a formula"Songwriter Interviews

Ian talks about his 3 or 4 blatant attempts to write a pop song, and also the ones he most connected with, including "Locomotive Breath."

Songs Discussed in MoviesSong Writing

Bridesmaids, Reservoir Dogs, Willy Wonka - just a few of the flicks where characters discuss specific songs, sometimes as a prelude to murder.

Susanna Hoffs - "Eternal Flame"They're Playing My Song

The Prince-penned "Manic Monday" was the first song The Bangles heard coming from a car radio, but "Eternal Flame" is closest to Susanna's heart, perhaps because she sang it in "various states of undress."

P.F. SloanSongwriter Interviews

P.F. was a teenager writing hits and playing on tracks for Jan & Dean when he wrote a #1 hit that got him blackballed.