THIS IS A METAPHOR

We both have truths. Are mine the same as yours? -lyrics from Jesus Christ Superstar (Tim Rice)

Do you like magic tricks? Sure you do. Everyone does, right? So, you watch a magician do a trick and then, like most people, you think, “How did they DO that?” Whenever I have that thought, I try and stop myself from finding out the answer. I DON’T WANT TO KNOW HOW THEY DID IT. Why? Because knowing how they did it cheapens the illusion for me. Finding out that what they did WASN’T impossible is such a let-down. I want the mystery. I don’t want to see the strings. I don’t want to know where the trap door is. Just do the trick already, and make it good.

Caption: After watching Penn and Teller explain how they do this trick, I STILL don’t get it.

A while ago I read a tweet or a blog post or something from Carl Newman, a vocalist from one of my favorite bands, “The New Pornographers.” (If you like indie-pop, you should check them out. If you are already into them... high fives for you. Conservative friends, don’t be scared by the name... it’s not what you think.) Carl admitted that the lyrics for one of the band’s songs, “Letters from an Occupant” were meaningless. The words just sounded good/cool, so they kept it.

That BUMMED ME OUT. I wish I’d never read that statement. The trick, as it were, was ruined for me. Before I read that, the song was mysterious... aloof... it fascinated me. But now... it’s just another song.

After hearing my songs, people often ask me about the lyrics.

“do you really mean that?”
“did that really happen?”
“I know ____ never really happened to you, so why did you write about that?”
(...sometimes that last one gets shorter and more judgmental...) “WHY did you write about THAT?”
“who (or what) is this REALLY about?”

I don’t understand this... not even a little. If I told you what was “true” and what wasn’t, would that change the song for you? Would it make it more enjoyable to find out that something was “true”, or would it make it less interesting? C’mon, do you REALLY want to know? Is “The Matrix” less entertaining because it’s fiction?  

I feel like I have to put quotes on “true.” I did not go to the moon. To be perfectly frank, I’ve never even been to space. But, in many ways, “Spaceman” is one of my most honest, straightforward, pulled-from-life songs. However, the words in that song may have a very different meaning for you or for someone else. GOOD. Keep it that way. “The Movie Song”, by contrast, is written in a confessional voice, but it’s entirely possible that not one bit of that song is true in any way, shape, or form.

Yes, I WRITE songs. I think about them, I structure them, I re-write, I throw away and start over. I create characters. I make stuff up. Sometimes I take a thought or idea and build a set of lyrics around it. Other times I spout nonsense, and work backwards; meaning takes shape later. But no, my lyrics are not all confessions. Sure, sometimes I want to make “Into the Wild.” But a lot of times, I want to make “The Matrix” and every now and again, I want to make “Mulholland Drive.”

As far as my songwriting goes, or really as far as any art goes, truth is not a black or white deal. Is it? Even if a song is “true”, elements may be re-arranged or changed or exaggerated to get to a point or to alter the ending. The names may be changed to protect the innocent.

All that being said, some of my songs are very much “true” FOR ME. There are literal circumstances on which the lyrics are based. Some of them are exaggerations. Some of them are total and complete fabrications. Most of them are a little bit of all of the above. Some of them are easy to figure out. Others are more obscure.

If all of my songs are nothing more than journal entries, then I should just write a blog and stop there. If, on the other hand, the lyrics I write are observations, memories, thoughts, metaphors, theories, lies, stories, characters, wishes, poems, judgments... then, in my mind, they work as lyrics, and setting them to music just makes sense for me.

Up till now, I’ve been posting explainers with all of the lyrics on the website, because I assumed people would want to know the deal for every song, that it might make the songs more meaningful for you. I think I’m going to stop that practice, beginning with the upcoming album. I don’t want you to see the strings anymore. I want you to enjoy the mystery.

A few months ago, Darren and I were talking about the lyrics on My Best Guess, and he confirmed one of my worst fears... up to that point he believed that all my lyrics were confessional... 100% factual. I was, according to the lyrics on MBG, a drug-addicted, adulterous jerk who must have burned through dozens of relationships and translated all of my emotional baggage into my songs.

At first, this horrified me. After all, I had even gone to the trouble of saying “THIS IS A METAPHOR” at the beginning of “Blackout” (albeit in German) but after I thought about it for a while, I stopped freaking out and had a realization. I guess he’s right. It’s all true. No qualifications. I am all of those things.