SONG: “We Ate Each Other’s Wings”. (OGG version here.)
ARTIST: grant.
SOURCE: Based on “These roaches form exclusive long-term relationships after eating each other’s wings”, NPR, 18 Mar 2026, as used in the post “Cockroaches bond by eating each other’s wings.”.
ABSTRACT: I guess I knew I’d be writing a song about this article, as soon as I saw the headline. They’re just like people, really. Of all insects, I think roaches are the most loathed because they’re the most human-like — soft bodies, fluid movement, heads that swivel on flexible necks, and, most of all, they want to live in our homes and eat our food. At night. Knowing, like humans do, when they should stay hidden. And then you see their legs and the pretense drops: They are arthropods. The uncanny valley scuttling by the baseboards.
The main issue with the process this time was I became distracted by another song from another project, and spent all my (very limited) production and recording time diddling with that thing. So this was left to percolate. Then, about what, two days ago? Three days ago? I thought, oh, right, need to really put something down. Spent a solid five minutes playing something quiet on an acoustic guitar that had the beginnings of the right mood, then pulled up some old John Bonham isolated drum tracks that fell off the back of a truck about 20 years ago, stretched and slowed and cut that up, added drum accents from the most artificial-sounding SoundFont I own (I think this was either from an NES collection or a Nokia phone) to lean into that uncanny valley, got a synthetic lead guitar and made it noisy… noisy because there should be anguish, this is a song about the losses one sustains in a romantic relationship, about things given up for reasons one cannot articulate… and then hmm. Words. Well.
This is mostly blank verse, or started that way, and sort of obvious I guess. We used to fly, then we ate each other’s wings. This is something humans do less literally than these cockroaches, but still. It’s behavior that’s recognizable.
Recorded quickly and quietly this afternoon. Did a bass track first. Shuffled some lyrics in the process. Removed about half the crunchy guitar, could maybe have cut more or added a verse-section for a solo, but no. Given more rehearsal and writing time, probably would have come up with lots of internal rhymes or call-and-response between boy-roach and girl-roach or something. But no. No, we are what we are.
We had such potential.
LYRICS:
On silent floors
We made our promises
Turned our backs to the sky
Slipped into the shadows, hand in handIn hand in hand in hand in hand
When we made promises
I don’t know why
I felt so hungry, you felt so hungry,We used to fly
Then we ate each other’s wings
Now my shoulders sting
We ate each other’s wingsOur mouth parts moving
In ancient choreography
We didn’t need a recipe, no second thoughts
We had each otherAnd we were satisfied
Once we finished feasting, somehow diminished,
Never seeing
The nature of shared sacrificeWhere we used to fly
When we ate each other’s wings
Now our bodies sting
We ate each other’s wings…Where we used to fly
When we ate each other’s wings
Now our bodies sting
We ate each other’s wings…We were angels of the trash
And you looked delicious
Hand in hand in hand on high
We burned the sky … down to ashAnd asked no questions
I have no answers here.We used to fly
Then we ate each other’s wings
I can’t say why
We ate each other’s wings
It will always sting
Where we ate each other’s wings…
Ate each other’s wings…