Desperate Days by The Heavy Hours

Album: Wildfire (2020)

License This Song

lyrics

Songfacts®:

"Desperate Days" reflects how The Heavy Hours felt at the end of 2020. "It was our quarantine song," lead singer Mike Marcagi said on the Songfacts Podcast. "We wanted to write a song about that shared human experience that we were having with the globe, but we didn't want to be so on the nose."

"It came together pretty naturally," guitarist AJ Yorio added. "We didn't force that one at all. I saw these guys literally every single day for two years. We would hang out every day and play music or whatever, and we still do. But then the pandemic happened and the next thing you know, I'm only talking to them over FaceTime and Zoom and stuff, and it was weird.

We were all just bored and not doing anything, so we started writing songs, and that one we just kind of started writing together over FaceTime and Zoom."
The Heavy Hours recorded this song with producer Simone Felice, known for his work with The Felice Brothers. This being pandemic times, it was all virtual. When the band sent him the song, Felice FaceTimed them right back and started working on it. He thought the song needed a chorus, so he took a walk in the woods and came up with one.
The music video was shot in the band's stomping grounds of Cincinnati, Ohio. It's a representation of life at the time, with most businesses shut down due to the pandemic. "We were making a music video, which was fun," Mike Marcagi told Songfacts. "But during the filming of that video, it was still very much in the back of our head of like, 'Are we ever going to be able to play a live show again?' We had just no clue."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

More Songfacts:

My Name IsEminem

Eminem's first hit was "My Name Is," which introduced his alter ego, Slim Shady.

Passionate KissesLucinda Williams

Lucinda Williams wrote and recorded "Passionate Kisses" four years before it was a hit for Mary Chapin Carpenter.

Gives You HellThe All-American Rejects

The first US Top 10 hit with the word "hell" in the title was "Gives You Hell" by The All-American Rejects in 2008.

Papa Don't PreachMadonna

Madonna didn't write "Papa Don't Preach," which deals with abortion. What drew her to the song was the singer standing up to male authority.

Station to StationDavid Bowie

David Bowie's "Station to Station" is over 10 minutes long. Bowie was doing a lot of drugs at the time and later said, "I have only flashes of making it."

Hound DogElvis Presley

The songwriting team Leiber and Stoller wrote "Hound Dog" for a blues singer named Big Mama Thronton, who first recorded the song in 1953. Elvis covered it in 1956, and it became his biggest hit.