Jon Ireson, Producer says: "This is my favourite track on the record and it’s the one with the most sparse production. Patrick brought it to me fairly late in the process and was a little unsure of how to frame it. I said: just get out of its way! Let the song speak for itself. He came up with these great contemplative lyrics from this unconventional perspective. I thought it was brilliant. So I left a lot of space for the words to hang. I added some countermelody in the guitar to give it a tag line and backed it with acoustic bass but I was committed to let the theme do the heavy lifting. I think it turned out really well."
GBM is really a drinking song. You can tell by the simplicity of the arrangement, the lamentful but thirsty tone of voice, and the fact that something is saying goodbye to a whole group of somebody elses. Picture a German beer garden as you swaying a large stein of beer, ya, ya, ya, what a great bunch of molecules we are. Within the lyrics there are references to “that hangover when we were 35” and “my dear, dear liver, you worked so hard”. And as you get a little happier from all the toasts, the twist in the story reveals that it is you who is departing from yourself— I mean how many opportunities do you get to write a song about you departing from yourself?
The topic is odd, I know, but I’ve always been fascinated with the fact that your body really does replace itself every seven years. Now I just made it into a song, that’s all, a song about whomever constitutes me is being replaced, and we’ll miss it/you/us. It really illustrates that twenty years ago I was really a different person. A totally different set of cells. And I certainly delight in adding biological terms into a musical piece.
1.
You replace yourself every seven years
Millions of molecules, toes to ears
Lipoproteins, long-chains of fats
What holds us all together, have you think about that?
What a great bunch of molecules we have been
We've stuck together all along, whether fat or thin
2.
We've been so sick we couldn't cry
We've felt so bad we wanted to die
We talked mitochondria out of suicide
Remember that hangover when we were 35? \
What a great group of molecules we have been
We've stuck together all along, shared the oxygen
3.
We've seen a lot together, my biochemical pathways
Following the plans of twining DNA
It's gonna be strange when we drift apart
And my dear dear liver, you worked so hard
What a great group of molecules we have been
It won't be the same, when we replace us again
credits
from The Virtualistics,
track released June 16, 2021
Patrick Ames: rhythm guitars, vocals
Jon Ireson: Producer, bass, lead guitars, keyboards, Mix and Master
Chana Matthews: vocals
Mikaela Matthews: vocals
German-British artist Cosma Joy weaves indie pop, UK jazz, and Neo soul into an ambitious, airy debut EP that’s perfect for springtime. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 30, 2022
Five jazz tracks composed by Mercury Prize-nominated composer ESKA for Hope 4 Justice, a UK youth initiative fighting climate change. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 17, 2024
Artists and friends across Virginia make up the collective 202; here, they work together to create folk-inflected R&B about love and loss. Bandcamp New & Notable Jun 28, 2022
