Premiere: Conor Donohue trudges through a ‘Wasteland’ of anxiety

2020 gave root to a unique kind of anxiety. Locked in his house and itching for real human connection, singer-songwriter Conor Donohue put pen to paper to write “Wasteland” as a way to cathartically capture the frantic, chest-pounding stress of 2020. With a tender rhythmic swing, the song swells with dirty electric guitars and haunting ooo’s and ahh’s that climb inside the ear canal. There’s tension wrapped around the song, its edges dotted like thorns on a rose stem. Through the seemingly impenetrable glom, Donohue offers up a bit of hope by the final line.

The song, featuring band members Rose Cangelosi and Trent Pruitt, sees Donohue using Joseph Campbell’s The Power of the Myth and T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land as lyrical wells from which he draws parallels to his own life. “I spent some time studying it in my mid-twenties while drinking black coffee and eating grapefruits on my porch in Charleston,” he says, referencing the latter creative source. “It was nice getting pulled back into that world while refreshing my memory on the material.”

“Wasteland” quickly blossomed from soured roots. Donohue then mines miles of earth to make sense of the world, ultimately culminating in “a place for the downtrodden, the beat-up, the listless, the misfits,” he says, describing what a wasteland means to him. “Where you feel like you don’t fit in yet can’t get out. When I wrote it the world was very polarized (and still is). The end is about finding hope. Searching for the grail.”

While writing “Wasteland,” everyone in the band — also comprised of engineer Tyler Ross (lap steel), Ron Wiltrout (drums), and George Barraeis bass) — existed in a strange space for the very first time. “Everyone was deep into their hobbies. George was cooking really incredible BBQ; Tyler bought 10 chickens, and they were running around his backyard while we recorded; Ron hasn’t ever had a job besides playing music, so he was chomping at the bit to get together with people and create,” Donohue remembers. “Once we all got in a room together, this song clicked immediately. Joel [producer] hopped behind the organ, yelling suggestions as we went along. George came up with the intro part. As always with his parts, it was tasteful and timeless.”

Anchoring his new album, Stray Dogs, “Wasteland” just scrapes the anxiety-riddled surface of what to expect. “It was a very unsettling time for all of us, and the anxiety definitely crept into the writing. There’s also a catharsis with it,” he admits. “Some songs I wrote to help settle myself down (‘Apocalypse Industry,’ ‘Sciatica’). If you’re feeling lonely or like a stray dog there’s something for you here. Songs you can belt out at the top of your lungs in your car or sing quietly to yourself on the other side of dawn.”

Stray Dogs arrives everywhere on October 11.

Listen to “Wasteland” below.