This may be my favorite song that
I wrote with Social Fallout. Robb Rich, our rhythm guitarist came in with the
opening riff one day. He had been working on it for years with drummer Jeremy
Horkman, and was looking to finally complete the song. While Robb played the intro
lead guitarist Tim Frank almost automatically came up with the haunting guitar
part that comes in after a few bars. Jeremy and bassist Mike Köenig figured out
where they would join in on the mix and I had a concept in mind.
At the time I was still quite
religious (more on that in future posts) and the concept that came to mind was
something of a Second Coming/Apocalyptic scenario. The idea is that in the end
it’s too late to get rid of all the dark things in our society. There are those
songs that talk about how you should live like you were dying and how it’s too
late to change once you’re dead. “Wash It All Away” is in a similar vein to
those songs, but on a societal level rather than on a personal level.
I love my lyrics to this song,
but I think it’s one of my best melodies as well, along with “How Happy Am I?”
The melodies were always informed by the music, which means that I also think
these were some of the best riffs that Robb and Tim came up with during my time
in the band. (Yes, as far as I know, you can still check out Social Fallout in
Green Bay with Tim and Robb as the remaining original members. I moved on to
different things, mainly writing.)
You can check out the original
recording of “Wash It All Away” below.
